I like to begin any presentation on Health, Protection and Wellbeing employee benefits with a series of slides that highlight the significant challenges we are currently facing.
The first is the current NHS (physical) waiting list. The second is the NHS mental health waiting list. The third is on UK obesity levels (spoiler alert – really high). The fourth is on how much wealth the top 1% of UK society has in comparison to the number of people who do not have any funds to help them with a financial emergency. The fifth is on the sheer number of working-age people who are not in employment, training, or education, potentially due to ill health. These slides, whilst highly selective, paint a pretty damning portrait of aspects of wellbeing in the UK, especially for workers.
Then we have the Mayfield Review or, to give it the official name The Keep Britain Working Review: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-britain-working-review-final-report/keep-britain-working-final-report
This Review picks up on some of these themes from my own slides. What is clear from the review is that employers are going to be expected to pick up more of the burden of helping employees stay healthy and in-work.
Due to all of this, I think that Group Income Protection Insurance (GIP) has a chance to become one of the most important employer benefits for UK businesses. It is my view that GIP has evolved beyond a business protection tool to an almost fully rounded employee wellbeing tool, which can help UK employers deal with the increasing burden of the unhealthy society that the UK has, arguably, become.
To make this case, I am going to single out one insurer in the UK - UNUM. It is important to highlight that all the providers that I work with in the UK market have a great GIP offering. However, I am using the following material from Unum to show how GIP is becoming more than just an insurance proposition and is instead evolving into a fully rounded employee wellbeing offering with a level of organisational psychological components, in my opinion:
I know what you are thinking - that’s one impressive slide!
But what, Andrew, are you particularly interested in from this slide? What is the sprinkling of slide magic that makes this different to other provider GIP offerings and presentations?
In my ramblings in Organisational Psychology, ‘we’ are interested in interventions in a workplace across the following three dimensions – Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. A Primary intervention in the wellbeing arena is one that is preventative of a problem. A Secondary intervention is normally considered education or training around a problem. A Tertiary intervention is normally considered to be the treatment and support of a problem. Primary interventions are considered the most valuable, then Secondary and then Tertiary; but you normally need a mix of approaches to be successful.
Historically, GIP schemes have had good options in the Tertiary / Treatment spectrum for some time. They have been focused on offering a level of rehabilitation and financial support for long-term absence.
However, this slide shows that the focus in the market has moved from not just Tertiary / Treatment, but on to both Secondary and Primary interventions.
Unum’s Help@Hand offers a range of preventative, secondary, and tertiary services to employees. From a health risk assessment to understand your health risks, coaching to try and help you deal with them (lifestyle, nutrition, personal training), remote GP services, online physiotherapy through to a full employee assistance programme which can provide mental health and financial wellbeing support. https://www.unum.co.uk/employee/help-at-hand
There is also a range of training/workshops for employers, line managers and employees to help with wellbeing and absence issues, which provide strong secondary level intervention support to employers. https://www.unum.co.uk/workplace-wellbeing-hub/workshops
Then remember the classic GIP package of financial support, ‘early intervention’ in absence and potential rehabilitation services.
I would make the argument that GIP has evolved to potentially become a complete wellbeing offering for employers – maybe even a one-stop shop in one product!
Whilst I love all employee benefits equally, a colleague in the market, Scott Rayner (Strategic Account Manager, Canada Life) is moved to say, “Private Medical Insurance is a nice to have, but Group Income Protection Insurance is now a must have.”
So where does this leave us?
I am massively biased here as I work in the employee benefits industry, but I think we should seriously consider the following in the UK:
- The GIP industry should fund research to show the evidence that all employee GIP helps employers, employees and potentially the country with issues like wellbeing and absence. It should be relatively easy to get some great insight from checking the last five years’ provider data and to then run more detailed studies over a further 5-year period. Let us make the case for this product, if it does exist, as a market.
- Further tax incentives to get UK employers to take out ‘all employee’ GIP for their staff (there would need to be some base design level). This could potentially be undertaken through the pension auto-enrolment mechanics, but could be undertaken independently of it. I personally think there is a case for mandatory insurance for companies with more than 100 employees.
We love a football analogy at EBC LLP. So, it’s the 90th minute. Our star striker is making their run towards the goal. The defence is split. Now is the time to play that vital through ball, splitting the defence, leaving the striker free to put the ball in the back of the net! Can we make this 1-0 to the G.I.P. and win the game?
Andrew Supple, Partner
