How Unum Group Income Protection overhauled a fintech firm’s approach to wellbeing

6 Oct 2022

DataFi¹ is a global fintech and payments company with more than 1,700 employees that’s partnered with financial institutions and merchants to facilitate payments since the early 1990s. Here’s how Unum provided Group Income Protection (GIP) to DataFi that’s made a real difference to employee wellbeing, absence management, manager training and more.

Wellbeing case study Group Income Protection

The background

In 2019, PrimeStat¹ became part of DataFi, with PrimeStat employees accounting for 85% of the new combined workforce, including functions such as HR, technology, marketing, legal, communications and finance, and operates a large customer contact centre.

DataFi already offered employees GIP with a different insurer, but the newly incorporated PrimeStat employees did not. DataFi wanted to remedy this as soon as possible. The aim was not only to harmonise benefits across the business and support all employees equally, but to build a robust absence management process and deliver targeted improvements in employee wellbeing.

Initial support for DataFi's concerns

The customer contact centre had higher absence rates and higher attrition compared to the rest of the business. DataFi saw opportunities to improve the holistic wellbeing offering as an employer, on top of offering financial protection for every employee.

Unum supported DataFi even before collecting the first premium. To start, we built a new absence management journey with an associated process chart. We also identified that line managers in the customer contact centre needed additional training in absence management, so co-hosted training in this area.

When the process began, HR had heavy involvement in daily absence management supporting line managers on a variety of cases. That’s why we helped upskill managers, letting DataFi staff focus on what they’re best at. Now, managers can focus on supporting their team and HR can proactively identify and deliver projects and interventions that benefit the whole business.

Ongoing work on workplace wellbeing

Once the policy went live, Unum’s Wellbeing and Customer Experience Manager Beth Husted worked with DataFi on Workplace Health and Wellbeing Review.

Beth explains, “These examine a company’s wellbeing strategy and suggest improvements to build a more structured approach to workplace wellbeing. We’ll then work with the company over 12 months to implement our suggestions, supporting them with beneficial changes for their employees.”

As part of this review, we ensured DataFi rolled out:

Vocational rehabilitation, supporting employees to remain at work or return to work if they’re unwell
Our health and wellbeing app Help@hand² (powered by Square Health), offering services including a 24/7 digital GP, mental health support and physiotherapy
Line manager and employee training covering topics such as absence management, resilience and stress management
Wellbeing Checks, a personalised 1-on-1 wellbeing session for employees from our rehabilitation experts.

"It was clear from the outset that DataFi would be an employer with high engagement with our offering. It’s fantastic to work with a company so dedicated to undertaking changes that make a real, tangible difference to employees wellbeing."

Beth Husted

Wellbeing and Customer Experience Operations Manager

The changes DataFi made

Before DataFi worked with Unum, they identified that not every manager had the same level of experience to support employees with absences.

Unum delivered ongoing training for line manager to ensure they could not only look after their employees but also maintain their own workplace wellbeing. We also helped DataFi deliver targeted enhancements in the workplace and the customer contact centre to universally promote well-being.

How this helped

As of April 2022, Unum has supported 211 DataFi employees with either a return to work, a current graduated return to work plan or agreed an outcome with them. We achieved this in less than 2 years.

Plus, the number of referrals to our Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants for absence management services fell by more than three-fifths between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.

Scott Jardine, DataFi’s Unum Premier Account Manager, comments, “We estimate that absence durations are 30% lower as a direct result of DataFi’s high engagement with our Group Income Protection compared with if the company had little engagement with our offering.

“While this is evidence of the benefits of Unum’s rehabilitation and wellbeing support, it wouldn’t have been possible without DataFi being so open and enthusiastic. In my 15 years at Unum, DataFi are one of the few clients who make use of absolutely all of our services to the full to make such huge positive changes for their employees.”

Unum now gives everyone at DataFi a safety net, plus access to resources such as absence management and early intervention.

DataFi's view

Adam Jones³, Director, Compensation & Benefits at DataFi says, "Partnering with Unum to provide our employees with GIP has made a big difference to the way we approach absence management and employee wellbeing. The advice and support of Unum’s experts — from Beth’s vocational rehabilitation team to Scott’s account management skills and everyone in between — has been great.

“We’ve really benefited from being one of Unum’s Premier accounts, which gives access to our Account Manager Scott. Alongside our dedicated Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant, Claims Assessor and Rehabilitation Wellbeing Consultant, he’s been instrumental in helping us use every added-value service Unum has.”

“Help@hand can be literally lifesaving”

Help@hand has proved particularly popular with employees, who’ve used it extensively since its introduction. Here’s just one success story to close on.

“In late 2020 my mental health took a massive dip. I sank into depression and knew that something wasn’t right, although I couldn’t figure out what was driving it. I was aware I had access to Unum’s Help@hand app on my phone but didn’t think it would do anything for me. So it was only as I slowly got worse over the coming days that I decided to give it a try.

“I could pick a time, date and counsellor of my choosing and was offered different time slots if my one wasn’t available. When my first appointment came up, I received a text message 15 minutes before and I would log into the app to receive a video call.

“I can’t speak more highly of my experience with my counsellor Simon. I was incredibly distressed on the first call but within 5 minutes he advised me that I had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and this was driving my depression. He stayed with me way longer than the agreed upon 30 minutes to calm me down and emailed over some materials about OCD to read.

“I ended up using all my free sessions with Simon before paying privately for a couple of longer sessions afterwards. I eventually moved to private healthcare where I was officially diagnosed with OCD during a psychological evaluation — just as Simon had advised — and received specialist therapy to support my illness.

“Help@hand can be literally lifesaving, or a valuable backup if you just need a chat or some advice. It’s an incredible perk and I wanted to say thank you to all those involved in making this part of the employment package as, being completely honest, I would not be writing this if I hadn’t used it.”

_{1 Company name changed

2 Access to the service is facilitated by Unum at no cost to the Unum customer. Unum is not the provider of the service but can withdraw or change the service at any time. The service is entirely separate from any insurance policy provided by Unum and is subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant third-party specialists. There is no additional cost or increase in premium as a result of Unum making this benefit available.

3 Name changed}

_{Unum offers access to Help@hand services provided by third parties. Remote GP, second opinion, mental health support and physiotherapy are provided by Square Health via their Help@hand app. Square Health Limited, registered in England and Wales Number 07054181. Crown House, William Street, Windsor SL4 1AT.}

_{Employee Assistance Programme provided by LifeWorks whose registered office is Suite 1, 3rd Floor 11-12 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LB. Registered in England company number 8223675.}