Financial wellbeing support
Steve Herbert, Head of Benefits Strategy at Howden says;
“The last 12 months has been a period of unprecedented health crisis and associated personal financial risks, and should act as a massive wake-up call to employers in all sectors to revisit their core employee benefits to ensure that they provide adequate protections and reassurance to all workers and their families when the need arises.”
Howden points out that employers and employees might have to live with the longer term impact of COVID-19, and possibly other epidemics too. Herbert continued;
“Whilst it is certainly true that the COVID-19 “R” rate is now largely in retreat – and that the vaccination programme is making significant inroads towards protecting the UK population – employers should be under no illusion that this threat is neutralised. The reality is that COVID-19 is now largely endemic in the UK population, so the likelihood of the nation and its employers achieving a true “Zero-COVID” strategy looks rather remote. It follows that employers will have to find a way to co-exist with COVID-19 with only minimal risks to their organisation, its workforce, and their dependents in the months and years ahead.