Legal & General are enhancing their award winning Group Income Protection proposition to include free face-to-face counselling. Any employees covered by a Legal & General Group Income Protection policy can now benefit from up to five face-to-face counselling sessions if they need them. Legal & General are offering these face to face counselling sessions as part of their enhanced Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service – provided by global EAP provider, PPC Worldwide
- All insured employees will be offered face-to-face counselling, where appropriate, to support them in dealing with a wide range of work and personal life related issues.
- Employees will generally be able to see someone within a thirty mile radius of their home or place of work.
- The telephone based Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services are now also available to all employees whose companies have Legal & General’s Group Protection products, whether they are insured or not under the policy. Previously only employees insured under the policy could use these services.
Face-to-face counselling provides solution-focused therapy to employees that can help employers rapidly support the wellbeing of their staff. Key areas of assistance that are covered by these sessions include relationship issues, stress management, anxiety or low mood and substance related disorders.
These sessions will be provided by PPC Worldwide who have over 30 years of experience in providing face-to-face counselling. PPC Worldwide have over 1,000 counsellors across the UK and they will aim to provide appointments within 30 miles of the employee’s home or place of work.
EAP is a positive, preventative programme of information, advice, training and services that helps employees deal with events and issues in their everyday work and personal life. Legal & General’s telephone-based EAP services will now also be provided to all employees whose companies have Legal & General’s Group Protection products even if these employees are not insured by these products.
The EAP service offered by Legal & General includes:-
- telephone based EAP which is independent, confidential and unlimited 24/7
- immediate crisis intervention
- a legal information service
- free medical information
- specialist advice on a wide range of life issues and
- online support which provides hundreds of fact sheets, links and self-guided programmes
EAP can help reduce absence as employees have access to support and tools whilst they are at work. It can also be an integral and valuable part of the employee benefit package at no extra cost and is an effective and confidential way of helping resolve disputes and grievances in the workplace.
Management reporting can also be included as part of the service to help identify trends and provide objective, independent information that can be used to improve the health and wellbeing of staff.
Commenting on these new additions, Jim Islam, Managing Director of Legal & General Group Protection, said:
“We are delighted to be working with PPC Worldwide to offer these new services making this set of products our most complete ever. By adding up to five free face-to-face counselling sessions, our GIP customers will get an excellent service that will provide benefits to both employer and employee. Sometimes over the phone counselling is simply not enough and so we are very pleased to be able to offer these sessions to those that need them”.
Vanessa Sallows, Benefits and Medical Underwriting Director, Legal & General Group Protection, said:
“Face-to-face counselling complements our early intervention and rehabilitation support, available to all our Group Income Protection customers. These sessions can help prevent employee absence by providing support whilst they are still at work. It is a valuable addition to our proposition and will help our employers to offer a new benefit to their employees at no extra cost.”
Stephen Sherwood, Head of Operations at PPCW said:
“Life throws up a whole host of challenges for people on a daily basis. Our work with Legal & General now means that individuals will be able to access our network of specialist counsellors in person or over the phone to get the help they need before problems become critical”
The face-to-face counselling and enhanced EAP service is part of Legal & General’s Worklife Solutions, available to all its Group Income Protection customers. It includes a range of benefits to support the employees of its customers in maintaining a healthier work life balance and can help employers to reduce absence in the workplace.
Legal & General promote early intervention as a way of reducing long term sickness absence. On average 75% of employees suffering from stress, anxiety or depressions are able to return to work before the end of the deferred period. The deferred period is the period of time between the date the employee is first reported absent because of their illness or injury and the date we start paying benefit. Their statistics show absences are 50% shorter when notified early, so they reward customers who notify them of absence early. Early notification bonus is available to employers with 250 employees or more and subject to terms and conditions. Legal & General have so far paid over £1.7m in Early Notification Bonuses to customers as a reward since 2006.
