Employers are placing increasing importance on the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) credentials of employee benefits providers when it comes to selecting a partner for their organisation, according to research conducted by GRiD, the industry body for the group risk sector1.
The majority (86%) said that it is either a ‘priority’ or ‘fairly important’ to work with employee benefits companies that have a strong ESG policy. That is an increase of 34% over the past 12 months, demonstrating that businesses are recognising the value of incorporating ESG policies into their day-to-day HR operations.
The research also found that employers think that partnering with companies that have a strong ESG policy is important to their staff too (88%). This figure is also a significant increase on last year when 62% of employers held this opinion.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, said:
ESG is going to be increasingly important to businesses of all sizes, but in many cases, the social responsibility element has played second fiddle to environmental and governance concerns. HR departments can rectify this, and increase their focus on social responsibility, by focussing on the wellbeing of their staff.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD
The role of group risk in social responsibility
Group risk benefits – employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness – can be hugely effective in helping companies comply with the social element of an ESG policy. That is because the way they are set up and their affordability allows an employer to offer them to all staff – unlike other benefits such as PMI, which may be ringfenced for certain management-level staff.
Similarly, there is rarely any underwriting with a group risk policy, and once accepted onto the scheme, staff have continuity of cover without having to go through underwriting each year, helping to ensure that the maximum number of staff have cover at all times.
Group risk policies can look after everyone –regardless of position or paygrade and the embedded support services provide help and support on a daily basis to employees, line managers, HRs and business owners alike.
Finally, with health and social care systems at breaking point, an organisation can be seen to be doing social good when it takes some of that burden away from the state and provides for its staff directly.
Katharine Moxham emphasises that negative practices towards staff can be harmful to the reputation of an organisation but the opposite is also true. She urges that looking after the wellbeing of staff is not just the right thing to do, or something that ticks a social responsibility box, but it has a fundamentally positive impact on the organisation. Moxham commented:
It’s also important to consider that if employers are judging their partners on ESG credentials, then the potential customers or clients of the employer will also be doing the same. The social aspect of ESG can be the more challenging of the three areas, but caring employers who support the health and wellbeing of all their staff will find they are helping their organisation meet their ESG intentions while also retaining healthy, happy and productive staff.
Joanne is the editor for Workplace Wellbeing Professional and has a keen interest in promoting the safety and wellbeing of the global workforce. After earning a bachelor's degree in English literature and media studies, she taught English in China and Vietnam for two years. Before joining Work Well Pro, Joanne worked as a marketing coordinator for luxury property, where her responsibilities included blog writing, photography, and video creation.
