Almost one in seven SMEs say employee stress is an increasing issue according to new research from Legal & General coinciding with National Stress Awareness Day.
The research shows that 62% of small and medium sized employers monitor stress among their employees indicating how big a concern it is.
However over a third of SMEs (36%) don’t monitor it at all so the problem may be even greater than the research suggests.
Over 30% of the employee absence notifications received by Legal & General from group income protection clients are due to stress and other mental health issues, making it the single biggest reason for long term illness.
However the latest figures show that almost 80% of the mental health cases notified to Legal & General were able to return to work before the end of the deferred period and before they became a claim - showing that effective help is at hand if employers act quickly.
Commenting, Vanessa Sallows, Benefits and Governance Director, Corporate Business, of Legal & General Assurance Society, said:
“In recent years we’ve developed a personalised and effective programme of support for people with stress and other mental illnesses.
Our key focus is early intervention and arranging appropriate rehabilitation as this helps employers manage sickness absence and helps more employees return to work sooner. For example, in 2013 we paid for over 6,700 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy sessions and spent £3.8m on rehabilitation treatment as a whole.”
“We encourage businesses of all sizes to support their staff with group income protection cover because it provides a valuable financial safety net in the event of long term illness or injury and all policies offer a free employee assistance programme with counselling on a variety of topics.
“With the theme of National Stress Awareness Day being ‘the balancing act’ of work, play and lifestyle, such support can be vital in keeping employees healthy and actively at work.
”It also helps employers boost their staff recruitment and retention activity and is a point of differentiation in this post-auto enrolment world.”
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