Member Article

Involve an independent nurse in company employee benefits to earn staff trust

Involving a nurse in a company’s employee benefits programme could help earn or improve upon current employee trust within an organisation according to RedArc, ahead of Nurses’ Day on 12 May 2019.

Nurses are the most trusted profession, according to an Ipsos MORI poll showing that 96 per cent of people have faith in nurses to tell them the truth – that’s more than any other profession and has been the case since 2016 when nurses were first added to the survey. Nurses are ahead of doctors, teachers, judges, the police and the armed forces to name but a few.

Christine Husbands, managing director, RedArc Nurses said: “In times of a crisis or a challenging life situation, many companies rightly want to go beyond simply supporting staff financially, for example via a paycheque from group protection or health insurance. Having a nurse on board is an immediate and obvious sign to the employee that the company has their best interests at heart and as the Ipsos MORI survey shows, is a shrewd association for any employer wanting to improve trust within their organisation.”

Some larger organisations now opt for in-house medical staff to benefit staff by being onsite and available with little or no waiting time. Whilst the time-saving benefits for both parties is obvious, RedArc’s experience shows that this practical, in-house approach may not be as appealing to employees as it is to the employer.

Despite the fact that health professionals are not allowed to share personal medical information at an individual patient level with an employer, some staff may feel reluctant to reveal too much to an in-house medical team as they believe there may be a conflict of interest. Employees can also be worried to be seen going into an office to see a medic or counsellor by fellow colleagues

Husbands continued, “We know that many employees are very wary about revealing the full scope of an illness, particularly in terms of mental ill health, to an in-house team as they’re worried that details will be fed back to their manager which could in turn have implications for their role, promotions, pay rises, bonuses or similar.

“However if an employer can provide independent medical support, be that directly or via an insurance policy, the individual is much more likely to seek support earlier and therefore the outcome is often better.”

Trust has to be a core tenet within any organisation for it to be successful in the long term. For any employer that feels it could do more in this area, associating with nurses, the most trusted profession in the UK, has so much potential to show a real duty of care and establish relationships between the company and its people.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christine Husbands .