One year on from lockdown: Unum reflects on what employers need to consider post-pandemic

After a full year of living and working amid periods of complete lockdown at home, it is critically important for businesses of all sizes to consider what health and wellbeing support their staff will need as the UK’s workforce embarks on a phased return to work – or home/office combination. This comes as Unum’s Value of Help research found that nearly four in ten (38%) of employers said the pandemic had prompted a review of their existing health and wellbeing strategies¹.

Covid-19 has tested our physical and mental wellbeing in a number of ways like nothing before. Over 4 million people in the UK have contracted Covid-19 last year², with many inevitably having to take time off work to recover. Indeed, new figures from the Association of British Insurers reports that over £2 million has so far been paid by the industry from individual and group income protection insurance claims, in a bid to help those who suffered a loss of income due to Covid-19.³

Given the extreme stresses that a large proportion of workforces have been put under since the 23rd of March 2020, many will naturally have concerns about returning to work as the government start to ease restrictions in the coming months.

Before looking ahead, it is key managers and HR departments use the anniversary – and today’s National Day of Reflection – to reassess their health and wellbeing strategies to ensure there are no gaps in their current employee healthcare support.

To assist with this, Unum is continuing to offer a tailored Covid support package to UK employers and workers via their Covid Hub which includes a variety of physical, mental, and practical services including:

1. Mental health services designed to provide early support so any short-term issues can be quickly addressed to prevent them from becoming longer-term problems. Its ‘mental health at work plan’ can help employers implement a mental wellbeing strategy, develop mental health awareness, encourage conversations about mental health, improve working conditions and review employee mental health and wellbeing during these uncertain times.

2. Help@hand – which provides employees and eligible family members* with fast, direct access to healthcare professionals via one easy-to-use app – whenever its needed. This includes:

• Unlimited access to remote GPs - available all day, every day
• Personalised mental health treatment and support with assigned therapists
• Physiotherapy with personalised treatment plans
• Medical second opinions with UK-based consultants
• Life, money, and wellbeing support via an integrated Employee Assistance Programme

Unum has seen unprecedented demand for Help@hand during lockdown specifically with over 1,000 businesses registering in the past 12 months, spanning over a quarter of a million employees and their families.

3. Return to work support/absence management with tailored case management support for any employee affected with a health condition, including the effects of long COVID or the associated impact on mental, emotional and physical wellbeing (more detail at COVID-19- returning to work).

Unum also adapted its claims process to include the use of e-signatures and scanned documents to make it as easy as possible for claimants who may not be in a position to return to work after lockdown.