Launched next week, Unum’s ‘Your Blueprint to a Caring Company’ solution is a manual designed to enable intermediaries and HR professionals to make the case at board level for a renewed focus on health and wellness.
Created in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and employers such as Ernst & Young, Mumsnet and Metail, the manual focuses on what it takes to be a caring employer in 2014, providing employers with best practice examples and practical solutions to apply in the workplace.
The manual discusses regular evaluation of employers’ benefits offerings, with two thirds of employers not having reviewed their benefits package in three years or more, yet demographic, economic and social changes mean that employee needs and priorities have changed significantly over that time.
It also examines striking the right balance between hard and soft benefits, and the importance of financial protection.
Recent research from Unum revealed that 30 per cent of employees would consider leaving their job if they didn’t feel cared for by their employer. The average cost of replacing key staff members, those earning over £25k per annum, equates to £30,614 per employee, according to research from Oxford Economics published in February.
Unum chief executive Peter O’Donnell says: “This blueprint offers practical tips for creating a strategy to enhance engagement and wellbeing in the workplace. Intermediaries can use this when they are advising employers on developing the idea of becoming a caring company and as a way of opening up the wellness discussion.
“As we move into the post-auto-enrolment world an increasing number of intermediaries are saying they need to move from broking to consultancy. This blueprint gives them the tools to offer this added value service, while at the same time promoting income protection.”
