Asteron Life has launched a four-month pilot programme to support the emotional needs of its staff to handle distressing calls with customers.
The programme offers some of the firm’s case managers and customer support employees resilience workshops, mentoring, individual training, and monitoring to help them in their emotionally challenging roles.
Seema Bangera, Asteron Life’s Executive Manager Claims and Customer Solutions says the programme is also designed to give customer claims handlers the opportunity to reflect on their case management, continuously improve their approach to help manage work-related stress, and alert the insurer to risks that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Bangera says the work carried out by its teams can have challenging impacts on their physical and emotional health.
“Vicarious, or secondary trauma, can occur as a result of their work helping others cope with traumatic events, reviewing distressing information and learning of serious injuries or in some cases death,” says says.
“This kind of secondary trauma can impact very negatively on our people, and we hope the professional practices, skills and support delivered through this pilot programme will go some way towards mitigating these impacts.”
Following a review of the programme’s benefits and impact, Bangera says consideration will be given to extending the pilot to other areas of the business.