Legal & General Group Protection’s Wellbeing Advisory Board has launched a new approach to burnout prevention, centring on a wellbeing partnership between employers and employees.
This shared responsibility model positions the need to address workplace culture first and foremost, before considering the introduction or positioning of services, interventions or insurances.
It also resets the relationship across both sides (employers and employees), with the need for each party to take care of each other – to make commitments to add to a positive workplace culture.
The partnership means sharing the responsibility for wellbeing and going beyond traditional roles while allowing for both parties to benefit from healthier rights and holding each other accountable.
The Wellbeing Advisory Board, which is made up of cross-industry experts, said this new collaborative approach provides intermediaries with a roadmap for a process that aims to ensure maximum effectiveness in helping clients reduce and prevent burnout, while improving wellbeing.
The board said it has designed and launched a range of accessible, simple and practical information, and an example of a lived experience on the topic of burnout prevention through shared responsibility.
This includes:
- For employers – discover how to build an environment that shields against burnout, including how to design and build a measurable and sustainable health and wellbeing strategy.
- For employees – everything from self-assessing risk, to how to take personal responsibility for burnout prevention, plus signposting to support and examples of reasonable adjustments.
- For the self-employed – the warning signs of burnout and how to juggle being an employee and an employer.
“If workplace culture remains negative, then no burnout interventions or wellbeing strategy will be effective,” said Tarun Gupta, chief medical officer at Legal & General UK Protection.
“As a GP with specialisms in Occupational Health and mental health, I have first-hand experience of the fact that if workplace culture remains negative, then no burnout interventions or wellbeing strategy will be effective. So, addressing the negative culture first is paramount.”
The board’s announcement today (8 May) comes at a time when the UK is reportedly on the verge of becoming a “burnt-out nation”.
Nine in 10 adults (91%) say they experienced high or extreme levels of pressure and stress at some point in the past year.
Nearly half (49%) of UK working adults say their employer doesn’t have a plan in place to spot the signs of chronic stress and prevent burnout in employees, according to report by Mental Health UK.
Vanessa Sallows, group protection claims and governance director at Legal & General Retail, said: “Mental health issues in the UK are continuing to rise, impacting both sickness absence and economic inactivity – and, disproportionately, the younger generation.
“In other words, there’s never been a more urgent time for us, as an industry, to take a systematic approach to the support and advice we give to clients; an approach that considers the role of good work in health and wellbeing.
“That necessitates looking at all elements, including workplace culture, in the prevention of workplace stress – and, ultimately, burnout – and not just introducing new services or insurances.”
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