case study
20 Jun 2007 - 16:40: ACE European
Sector: Insurance
Employee number: 974
Year EAP started: 1993
Key Objective: Absense Management
Background
ACE European is an international division of the ACE Group, one of the world's largest property and casualty insurance businesses. As an organisation ACE European take great pride in the quality of its employee, who are all specialists in their particular fields.
A valued, long-standing customer of PPC Worldwide, ACE, or Cigna as it was then, first implemented the EAP in 1992 as part of a comprehensive benefits package, in line with other companies in the sector.
Objectives
Since then ACE European has continued to successfully grow as an organisation, with the core focus of actively supporting employees remaining.
The EAP continues to feature as a positive staff benefit, and as ACE and PPC have worked together over the years, PPC’s understanding of ACE’s business needs has also grown. The HR profession is increasingly being recognised for its strategic role as business partners, and ACE European is no exception. Sickness absence was identified as a key area for attention. PPC and ACE therefore worked together to ensure that the EAP continued to develop in line with the company’s strategic objectives in this area.
Implementation
Following a period of consultancy with ACE’s HR team, and senior Compensation & Benefits managers in particular, PPC proposed a further integration of ACE’s approach to the management of sickness absence. This involved formally ‘pulling together’ all available resources to maximise positive outcomes and to minimise the costs associated with long-term absences.
Karen Cowan, Head of Compensations & Benefits, explains ‘the new model is a ‘process flow’ allowing for the different providers of employee support to work more effectively’.
This includes drawing expertise and resources from:
Internal resources:
Human Resources
External resources
Employee Assistance Programme
Income Protection Insurance Rehabilitation
Team
PMI providers
Occupational Health
PPC worked collaboratively with key representatives from these providers to maximise the efficiency of the services they all provide to ACE.
The model is ‘owned’ by ACE, and ACE keeps control of overall case management. This is a centrally managed resource, co-ordinated by Rachel Clifford, Compensation & Benefits Analyst. Rachel carefully refers employees to the various resources depending on specific need or recommendation of one of the providers. Where relevant, EAP counselling usually takes place within the first 4 weeks of absence, and is proving to be an effective part of the process. The importance of confidential support is understood by all parties as employees access the various services.
Evaluation
ACE has experienced a number of key benefits from the introduction of this more integrated approach, including cost saving: Having the EAP in place has reduced overall premiums for PMI and Income Protection Insurance. The introduction of this scheme has further supported these reductions. It also ensures, of course, that the EAP service provides a good return on investment. There has been a reduction in referrals to the Income Protection Insurance Rehabilitation scheme, and subsequent claims made and granted.
In terms of productivity - More employees are coming back to work before the 6-month cut off period for contractual sick pay. Less sickness days are recorded per annum. When an employee has had an absence, they are now much less likely to have further absences. Early identification and management of an issue can help ensure that the issue doesn’t escalate with all the associated costs and productivity gains that go with this. Fewer employees have absences overall.
Time is also saved by more efficient handling of cases, allowing for HR managers to concentrate on strategic projects. Karen is now focusing on a project to look at proactive stress awareness.
Since this new approach has been in place, employees have continued to give highly positive feedback on the EAP service. Although employees with long-term absences have been more closely monitored, the EAP intervention has been perceived as a positive form of support. The employee’s wider family has often also benefited from the sensitive management of a family member back in to the workplace.
Karen summarises the approach succinctly: ‘As well as focusing on key business objectives for ACE – reduced expenditure and improved productivity – I am confident that with this approach we have done everything we can for an employee, and maximised their chances of remaining productively in the workplace.’