Time to Breathe sessions represent a “fantastic” opportunity for the industry to demonstrate they care about their employees’ wellbeing, according to Legal & General.
Speaking to Health & Protection, Lee Baldwin, customer services manager at the insurer, explained the business set up the sessions for staff who were dealing with distressed individuals pursuing life insurance claims at the outset of the pandemic.
According to Baldwin, the sessions give claims staff the opportunity to convene in small groups, talk about the challenges they were facing and discuss how these challenges could be dealt with.
Sessions are run by an independent coach who enables staff to talk openly and share with others how they were feeling, both in work and outside of work, and learn from shared experiences.
Employees are also offered further one to one coaching sessions following the open sessions.
Baldwin said the feedback to the sessions from attendees has been “really positive”.
“They talked about how useful they found some of the tools they were given, how engaging it was to have an open forum to share how they were feeling, and that it was great to be able to take a break from work and focus on themselves,” he said.
“Overall they enjoyed and appreciated the sessions and took a lot away from them.”
No support network for homeworkers
Baldwin added that he would recommend other insurers follow the approach as the sessions really came into their own for home workers during the pandemic.
“This was of particular importance as the majority of our claims people were working from home, which meant talking to customers who were either ill themselves or recently bereaved, while on their own at home and without their usual support network readily available,” he continued.
“I would definitely recommend this to other insurers, and in particular for people who work in roles such as health and death claims where our people are supporting customers at the worst times in their lives, while facing tough and challenging times themselves.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to give your people that important time to breathe and to demonstrate that your people’s wellbeing is as equally important as being there for your customers.”