026: Mental Health within the Insurance Broker market with Adrian Saunders, Commercial Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance

Good mental health is essential to our general wellbeing. Depending on how we manage it, it can be highly conducive, or deeply destructive to our productive output. As we gradually approach the aftermath of a world-changing pandemic, incorporating such awareness into the workplace, and indeed, all areas of our lives, has never been more urgent.

In this special hybrid episode, the worlds of the Insurance Brokers Podcast and Coffee, Calm & Connection merge. We are delighted to be speaking with Adrian Saunders, Commercial Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance, which recently conducted its annual survey regarding mental health within the insurance broker market. In conversation with Boston Tullis’ Sarah Myerscough, he discusses the often-surprising results of the survey, which suggest that while considerable strides have been made towards boosting mental health awareness and support at work, there remains progress to be made.

 

Quote of the Episode

“If, as most people have been doing, they've been working remotely, perhaps there's that sense of detachment where they don't feel able [to talk about mental health] … There's no observation going on. So, you know, there's probably less of managers actually seeing their teams, and seeing individuals, or being able to pick up any upon any signs, or just asking that question: ‘Are you okay?’”

The experience of the pandemic completely shattered the way in which we work, our general sense of separation between our public and private lives, and the way we engage with others. In forcing us apart for so long, it could be argued that the pandemic eroded much of the progress being made towards greater mental health awareness and support within the workplace. The artificiality of a digital environment with which many of us were forced to acclimatise in order to continue working, while highly productive for some, left others feeling dejected and struggling to cope. Therefore, it is crucial that we understand the profound importance of providing mental health support in the workplace as we emerge from the chaos of multiple lockdowns, and enter 2022.

 

Key Takeaways

‘Less than half of people [now] feel comfortable talking about mental health in the workplace, whereas, back in 2019, it was actually really pretty high… three quarters of people felt comfortable.”

Since 2019, Ecclesiastical Insurance has annually conducted a survey in order to identify general sentiments towards mental health within the insurance broker market, namely:

• How are people feeling?
• What are the causes of any mental health issues?
• How supported do brokers feel?
• How comfortable are they in talking about mental health at work?

Several intriguing comparisons can be made between this year’s results and of those from 2019, pre-pandemic. A particularly concerning trend noted by Adrian in the episode was a significant drop in colleagues feeling comfortable with discussing mental health in the workplace, despite awareness of it and the provision of support for it reportedly increasing profoundly. Adrian suggests that this could be a result of remote working, due to which it isn’t necessarily as easy to share one’s private thoughts and feelings with a trusted colleague. Perhaps, also, this could be attributed to the pandemic, and our unanimous recognition that someone, somewhere, must have it worse than us, and therefore we may find our own problems folly or insignificant. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone has problems, and they are all important and worth discussing with people you can trust. Therefore, we should endeavour to double down in our efforts to make the workplace a safe environment for employees to share their mental health woes, and from which they can receive valuable and meaningful support and advice.

An additional problem highlighted by the survey was stress being at an all-time high among brokers. This could arguably be caused by our increased inability to separate work from our personal lives.  They have become deeply intertwined, perhaps irreversibly, particularly given the extent to which working from home has continued to prosper even as COVID regulations have relaxed in recent months.

Adrian and Ecclesiastical’s UK intermediary leadership team have just completed their Mental Health First Aid training. If you would be interested in undergoing similar training, Adrian encourages brokers to speak with their account manager about it, or indeed to reach out to him directly.

 

Best Moments/Key Quotes

“A really worrying trend that came through this time is quite a significant drop in individuals feeling able to talk about mental health issues in the workplace, especially being able to talk about it with their line manager. So, you've got this really interesting thing going on. The businesses are providing more support, there is more awareness. But at an individual level, people are feeling less able to actually talk about it. And when I say a drop, I don't mean just a few percentage points… it's almost a third of a drop since we started the survey in 2019.”

“Myself and the intermediary leadership team in the UK, have all just completed our Mental Health First Aid training. And I think that's really important… If it means that we have one more conversation, or one better conversation, or somebody feels more able to come to any one of us to start that conversation, [then] that has been worth it.”

 

Resources

Ecclesiastical Insurance – Adrian Saunders’ ‘About’ page: https://www.ecclesiastical.com/bios/adrian-saunders/

Ecclesiastical Insurance – Mental Health and Wellbeing Insights: https://www.ecclesiastical.com/insights/mental-health/

Ecclesiastical Insurance – ‘Work-related mental health issues for brokers are at their highest-ever recorded levels’: https://www.ecclesiastical.com/insights/broker-mental-health/

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships by John Gray

 

About the Guest

Adrian Saunders is the Commercial Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance. He’s worked in both the company and broker markets, and specialises in developing new enterprises within organisations, and re-engineering existing processes to develop strategy and increase ROL.

Connect with the Guest:

Adrian Saunders | LinkedIn

Specialist Insurance & Financial Services | Ecclesiastical

Ecclesiastical Insurance Group: Overview | LinkedIn

 

About the Host

Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group and the M.D and creator of Coffee, Calm and Connection. 

 

Connect with Sarah 

https://www.instagram.com/coffeecalmconnection/ 

https://www.facebook.com/coffeecalmconnection 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/70927508/admin/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmyerscough/ 

 

Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/