Sponsor’s comment by Unum: Supporting both staff and employers in stressful times

This article is brought to you by Unum

In today’s complex and fast-changing global market it is common sense to ensure that, wherever possible, the people who make up organisations are in good health, and feel good about themselves and their working environment.

Demanding times, such as the ones we face at the moment, mean that a well workforce, which is fit in both body and mind, will be more sustainable, more productive, better motivated and have lower sickness absence levels.

Equally, well employees are more likely to stay with their employers longer which, in turn, should lead to reduced temporary and recruitment costs.

Personal and work-related issues can have a significant impact on an employee’s ability to perform their role at work, resulting in unnecessary levels of stress and often having a detrimental effect on health and wellbeing.

Recent research by Unum revealed that more than half (51%) of all workers in the UK believe that their work has been affected by stress and worries in the past two years. The most common stresses cited by workers are worrying about personal health issues or other personal issues, followed by stress due to the cost of living or not being able to pay off debts.

The research also highlighted that work issues and personal issues are likely to have the greatest impact on an employee’s work performance. These are followed by stress due to personal health issues and the cost of living.

That is why Unum has partnered with Ceridian to launch an employee assistance programme (EAP) as part of its group income protection policies. The new service will be offered under the name Unum LifeWorks and cover all employers and employees insured by Unum’s group income protection policies at no further cost.

Stress-related illness is becoming increasingly prevalent among workers and offering an EAP will allow employees to seek advice at an early stage, before issues start to affect their health and work performance.

The EAP will provide access to online and telephone legal and employment helplines for managers and supervisors. It will also help them with the creation of tailored legal documents so that their organisations remain compliant while making savings on legal advice costs.

The programme is based on an EAP design which has worked well for Unum and Ceridian in the US for the past seven years. It has been specifically designed to provide a range of services that will benefit both employees and employers by helping them with potentially stressful situations.

Further services available for employees include access to telephone and face-to-face counselling, matched referrals for child and eldercare, and tips and advice online and in print on a wide range of subjects.

The addition of an EAP to our current group income protection offering will not only help employees and employers to resolve potentially stressful and complicated personal and work-related situations at the earliest possible stage, it will also support organisational management in the areas of legal and employment information. We are committed at Unum to supporting UK businesses as much as possible through the introduction of this new service.

The views and opinions in this article are those of our sponsor Hewitt, and do not necessarily reflect those of www.employeebenefits.co.uk

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