The mental health of workers within the insurance and financial services industry could be negatively affected by the Royal Commission, an expert says.
Whilst the Royal Commission has made headlines for the last several weeks, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, Margo Lydon, CEO of SuperFriend, told Insurance Business that she believes the current “scrutiny” could have a negative impact on workers within the industry.
“I think it is fair to say that for some organisations that might be feeling the scrutiny, a good word to describe it might be precarious,” Lydon said in relation to the current state of mental health and wellbeing within the industry. “But I do think there is quite a lot of optimism and hope in the industry, which is a really good sign of positive mental health because the industry is taking steps to improve in numerous ways.”
Whilst brokers have thus far remained removed from the glare of the Royal Commission, Lydon said that all organisations within financial services should look to implement practices to help boost mental health and employee wellbeing.
Lydon likened targeted mental health training based on professional development rather than awareness-building as similar to first-aid training, as it helps employees, managers or business owners spot early issues so they don’t become larger challenges.
Lydon said that the best place for anyone in the industry to start is through training and professional development for front-line managers. That training can benefit both staff and customers, who may also present with mental health issues, she said.
“The benefit of investing in your front-line team leaders and supervisors is that they are quite often the staff that will pick up the early warning signs that someone is not on their game and they are not coping ok – and they can have an early intervention conversation, asking about how they are going,” she said. “Those early conversations are often the most critical ones, because quite often what comes tumbling out in those conversations – particularly if they are handled well and in high trust – is that people do say they are not coping ok.”
