Jennie Doyle, head of product and marketing at Health Shield Friendly Society, comments: “Despite our research showing that mental health support products are highly valued across all business sectors and sizes it appears that companies are still struggling to engage with their employees with regards to mental health.
"Research we conducted with YouGov found a perception gap with 93 per cent of managers saying they care about their staff whereas little over half of employees think they do. Employers are looking for ways to communicate their healthcare benefits to their employees and measure their success.”
All of this must be coupled, of course, with a willingness by the employer to change. The latter can often be a problem, as pointed out by Ms Kleiner: “The other barrier is where the business is so focussed on KPIs that they are not brave enough to tackle the issue for fear that their workforce will suddenly all call in sick!”
Kevin Carr is managing director and Suzanne Clarkson is associate consultant at Carr Consulting & Communications
