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Group Income Protection (GIP) pays an ongoing financial benefit during prolonged absence of an employee. However, we are also committed to providing our clients with services that help them address potential absence issues before they become a problem, by helping their employees deal with the stresses encountered in everyday living.
EmployeeCare is an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) designed to help maintain stability within the workplace. It offers information and support on a wide range of topics, with the goal of helping employees lead and maintain a healthy lifestyle. For Canada Life GIP policyholders, this is available at no cost to their employees. The services are confidential and easily accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
We have a range of material employers can use when encouraging their employees to take advantage of this service. If not all employees are insured under the policy, we thought it would be inconvenient not to promote the benefit to everyone. So we extended this service to all employees of our policyholders, not just those who are insured.
Maintaining group wellbeing is a fundamental aim of EmployeeCare. A telephone service for managers offers guidance on areas such as workplace conflict, work-related stress and managing a healthy work/life balance. For employees, the service provides immediate access to trained counsellors, a telephone advisory service and an online health and wellbeing portal.
EmployeeCare’s counsellors can help with any personal or work-related problems. Topics like stress, relationship difficulties, alcohol and drug abuse, workplace issues and budget control can be discussed in the knowledge that it will remain confidential. If an employee may benefit from structured counselling, up to four face-to-face or telephone sessions can be arranged at their convenience.
Further support can be found via an interactive health and wellbeing management facility. It encourages employees to focus on their health and lifestyle now, rather than wait until there is a problem. Employees can complete a simple questionnaire that assigns a health rating. This can encourage employees to think about the lifestyle choices they make, providing tailored information and support on how best to manage their health.
Our customers can rest assured that when a claim needs to be made, we are committed to a fair and efficient assessment and the full payment of all valid claims. However, we also believe that most employers want to protect the health and wellbeing of their employees all the time, not only when they are unable to work.
EmployeeCare supports people whenever they need it and provides a service that can be used to manage day-to-day and serious issues. In doing so, it provides employers with a powerful employee engagement tool. In 2014 our service supplier found that 56%[1] of employees who used the service would have missed work otherwise, so it is clear that this tool provides tangible benefit to both employers and employees.
To help employers understand the benefits of the service, quarterly management reports are available when more than 10 of their employees have used it in any quarter. Whilst the reports do not give specific employee information, they do provide insight into what is causing concern amongst their employees and where health and wellbeing initiatives should be targeted.
We see the link between absence management and workplace health and wellbeing initiatives as complementary. That is why, when choosing a GIP product, an actively promoted EAP backed by reliable resources, available to all employees, has to be worthy of serious consideration.
