Almost four in 10 businesses with 50 to 249 staff believe employee health and wellbeing is their top stressor at the moment.
The Legal & General Wellbeing at Work Barometer 2022 showed nine in 10 employers with 50-249 employees, and eight in 10 with 10-49 employees, said the Covid-19 pandemic had changed the way they thought about employee wellbeing in terms of priorities, budget and seeking out advice.
Two in five (40%) SME employers said employee wellbeing was now higher on their agenda and this was the top answer for organisations of 10-49 and 50-249 employees.
Around three in 10 SMEs of all sizes said more budget was spent on wellbeing initiatives now compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. This was highest among larger organisations of 250 or more employees (37%), followed by those with 50-249 employees (30%) and 10-49 employees (27%).
Encouragingly for intermediaries, just over a quarter of SMEs also said it was more important than ever for them to seek advice on how to do wellbeing well.
Related to this, 35% of leaders within 50-249 employee organisations said they were more comfortable getting support from advisers or consultants through online or digital channels than they were pre-pandemic. This was the top answer for 250+ employee organisations.
The insurer commissioned Opinium to carry out the research, involving 1,005 senior managers or above in businesses with more than 10 employees, and 1,040 middle managers or below in businesses with over 10 employees.
Vanessa Sallows, claims and governance director at Legal & General Group Protection, (pictured) said: “As indicated by these findings, there is an amazing opportunity right now for the insurance industry to help SMEs of all sizes realise their employee health and wellbeing ambitions.
“And to do so in a way that is cost effective, outcome driven, and foundation focused. In other words, that helps organisations look at the underlying causes of wellbeing, not just surface layer fixes.
“Research in the past has already shown that for SMEs, group income protection is about much more than the claim. The majority using it to look after their staff and families and to differentiate their programme to support recruitment and retention.”