To aid members facing considerable work-related stress, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is providing wellbeing support services.
According to a social media poll held by the CII for its members, 65% of insurance professionals identified heavy workloads as the greatest cause of work-related pressure. The second highest cause was limited development opportunities in recent times.
“The pressures of the pandemic, competition from contemporaries, job targets and the need to meet various demands at work has amplified stress among insurance professionals in recent years,” commented CII membership director Mark Hutchinson.
“Insurance is essential to everyone who wants to live their lives with protection against whatever the world throws at them. As a result, working in insurance is incredibly rewarding but can also be stressful.”
Hutchinson added that the first step to addressing the stress is to identify the cause, and that the CII is committed to helping members with finding out how their stress began, and to showing them ways to improve their wellbeing.
“Balancing everyday life together with the requirements of work and home can create pressures for all of us, which is why the Chartered Insurance Institute partnered with Health Assured, the UK and Ireland’s largest award-winning employee assistance programme (EAP) provider, to bring our members a comprehensive and trusted wellbeing service.”
CII’s partnership with Health Assured enables CII members to access the latter’s My Healthy Advantage smartphone app at no additional cost. The app is a resource for videos, guides, and webinars on topics addressing mental, physical and financial wellbeing. All CII members will also have free 24/7 access to Health Assured’s confidential helpline, which connects them to qualified counsellors and advisers.
In addition to the wellbeing support, the CII is also promoting its career development platform FutureMe for those insurance professionals who feel trapped in their current roles due to limited development opportunities. The platform was launched earlier this month.
The CII is also updating its competency framework, dubbed the “Professional Map,” to help guide insurance professionals to identify the standards of competency they need at every stage of their career.
