COVID-19 – Your support from Unum

The simple fact that the pandemic causes ongoing uncertainty can take its toll on us all. It can become detrimental to our wellbeing in a way that’s unique to each person and our individual circumstances.

That’s why we introduced our Wellbeing Check to all our Group Income Protection customers at the start of the pandemic. It offers employees struggling with their wellbeing a personalised 1-to-1 coaching session with a member of our specialist team who’ll tailor the support exactly to their needs.

Our wellbeing specialists have expertise across multiple disciplines, including occupational therapy, occupational psychology, counselling, physiotherapy and nursing. We can support employees with the impact of COVID-19 both in and out of the workplace, including:

• Professional concerns

Such as workload, dealing with change, working from home or returning to the office, work/life balance or time management

• Personal concerns

Such as life stresses, maintaining self-care and overall wellbeing, resilience or motivation.

See more about our Wellbeing Check and make a referral

Protecting the mental health of employees is a top priority for employers. However, this has become more important due to the uncertainty and change brought on by COVID-19 that has seen an unfortunate spike in mental ill-health.

We have a range of services designed to intervene early for those who are beginning to feel a strain on their mental health to ensure problems are addressed quickly before they escalate and become longer-term problems.

For example, our Health and Wellbeing Review can help you:

• Implement a mental wellbeing strategy
• Develop mental health awareness within the workforce
• Encourage conversations about mental health
• Improve working conditions
• Review employee mental health and wellbeing.

Mental Health Pathway

The Unum Mental Health Pathway provides easy access to a set of services to support your workplace or an individual employee.

To find out more about the Mental Health Pathway or discuss a consultation to get started on producing a Mental Health at Work Plan, get in touch by emailing pathway@unum.co.uk.

With the NHS under renewed pressure, Help@hand² provides employees with fast, easy access to five key health and wellbeing services via one simple app. Employees can access:

• Video appointments with a GP 24/7

Book appointments with a UK-registered GP any time, day or night, to discuss a range of concerns not related to COVID-19 and even get a prescription delivery³ if required.

• Mental health support

Speak to qualified mental healthcare professionals for issues such as anxiety, depression or cognitive difficulties

• Physiotherapy

Direct access to a physiotherapist to address symptoms such as muscle fatigue or pain with a tailored course of treatment

• Medical second opinion

Consult some of the UK’s leading consultants who are experts in their fields for a second opinion once you’ve had a diagnosis

• Life, money and wellbeing support

LifeWorks, our employee assistance programme (EAP), offers support for any topic (COVID-related or not), including for people experiencing the impact of long COVID or needing extra help with their recovery. Find out more below.

Register now to give employees Help@hand access⁴

Our comprehensive EAP service LifeWorks² offers support such as:

• A 24/7 confidential helpline

Assistance caring for children or elderly relatives, bereavement, domestic legal issues, financial concerns etc.

• New norm toolkit

An evolving guide covering a variety of topics about how we cope with the ongoing pandemic, encompassing ways to maintain our mental and physical health and the return to school and work

• LIFT fitness

Custom-developed fitness programmes to assist with reconditioning and increasing physical activity

• CareNow

Interactive self-management programmes for a range of issues.

Find out more about LifeWorks

We provide tailored case management for any employee affected with a health condition, including the effects of long COVID or post-COVID syndrome. This includes:

• An initial assessment to identify what support is required
• Bespoke return to work (RTW) plans with ongoing case management where appropriate
• Access to a wide range of additional services such as remote psychological support and virtual workstation assessments from our specialist partners
• For anyone experiencing long COVID/post-COVID syndrome:
  • Work-readiness plans
  • Energy management and pacing plans 
  • Tools and resources to help with cognitive difficulties (e.g. difficulty focusing)
  • Advice on workplace adjustments
  • Personalised support with a dedicated case manager for as long as needed to support a return to work.

For more information on COVID-19 support or to talk to our specialist team about absence management, email pathway@unum.co.uk.

Graduated return to work

We offer employees of our Group Income Protection customers rehabilitation and RTW support from the moment they are unable to work. We work with both you and the employee to discuss mutually agreeable steps to take to ease passage back into work wherever possible.

Our graduated return to work (GRTW) plan is designed to help people overcome difficulties following illness or injury and support them back into the workplace.

We’ve created multiple return to work plan templates that you can edit to suit the needs of your employees and your business:

• 12-week GRTW (for a RTW over 9-12 weeks) 
• 8-week GRTW (for a RTW over 7-8 weeks)
• 6-week GRTW (for a RTW over 3-6 weeks).

If an employee can’t return to work, our dedicated claims team is on hand to help with every aspect of a claim.

We’ve made multiple changes during the pandemic to help speed up our processing of claims, including adopting the use of e-signatures, permitting scanned copies of documents rather than originals and reducing the level of medical evidence we require in some cases to reduce the burden on the NHS.

We designed our Wellness Action Plan and companion document to help with employees with ongoing health issues or fluctuating conditions. You can also use this to maintain an employee’s health at work and support the future management of their condition.

• Wellness action plan companion
• Wellness action plan
• Case study: An employee suffering with Crohn’s disease

Maintaining health wellbeing has never been more important at a time where both access to mental and physical health resources are stretched.

With this in mind, we offer access to a range of employer and employee education resources such as our:

• bWell series of podcasts

With episodes on topics ranging from coping with bereavement, mindfulness, lifestyle management, dealing with your finances, nutrition and sleep

• U-First workshops for staff

Available for sessions with at least 15 employees signed up, these workshops cover topics such as resilience, the importance of movement and thriving through change

• On Course workshops for line managers

Train your management team to maintain staff wellbeing with sessions covering topics such as preventing musculoskeletal disorders, dealing with cancer in the workplace, stress awareness and absence management. All courses aimed at line managers are CPD-accredited.