11 minute read
Elna Van Wyk
Cost to company
Elna van Wyk, head of group disability and underwriting at Momentum Corporate, explores the impact Covid-19 will have on employees’ mental health and disability claims.
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Covid-19 has brought unprecedented disruption to our lives and economy. It is clear that the stresses are significant and an increase in mental health-related disability claims from employees at all levels, including management, seem inevitable. BY ELNA VAN WYK managers. Decision fatigue refers to the idea that willpower or ability to make good choices deteriorates in quality after an extended period of decision-making. Forced to make hard decisions with potentially severe consequences throughout the day, leaders might experience growing difficulty in accurately assessing the risks associated with
While some people have become overproductive while working from home, many are struggling A recent study by North-West University and with motivation. The possibility exists that a the South African Depression and Anxiety Group productivity slump could follow, threatening eco(SADAG), which looked at the specific impact of nomic growth if not managed by managers in Covid-19 and its related lockdown measures on organisations. people in the workplace,
On the other hand, the risk of employees not tak“Not every employer found that almost half the employees surveyed (46 pering leave and getting burnt out increases the risk of mental health-related disability claims. Already at Momentum Corporate, can afford an employee assistance cent) are at high risk of what researchers call pre-TSD (pre-traumatic stress disorder). As women tend to have additional domestic responnine percent of all disabil ity claims are related to programme, especially sibilities on top of their professional ones, the current mental health. This percent age increases for younger at this time.” work-from-home scenario could see women – especially employees, with 26 perthose in leadership roles – discent of all disability claims proportionately impacted by in 2020 for those under 35 years related to mental stressors related to Covid-19. health. While many people have lost their jobs, others
Managers have to support employees and be who have returned to work are experiencing a lot mindful of the challenges they face, such as isolaof anxiety in navigating a sea of health and safety tion, distractions at home, concerns about family measures and a different work environment. For and friends, anxiety over workload and working many people working from home, it has also meant remotely, or the death of a loved one. Managers a new level of multitasking and trying to do everyhave to do this while dealing with the same issues thing at once: working, looking after children and in their own lives. managing a household.
Impact on decision-making
Dealing with organisational challenges to keep businesses afloat can lead to decision fatigue for different courses of action. The uncertainty of the pandemic is having a dramatic effect not only on people with existing mental health issues but also on those with no psychiatric pre-existing conditions. We are seeing this
play out drastically in our claims area, and a likely increase in psychiatric disability claims means employers need to be equipped to deal with this and try to mitigate it where possible. There will be a need for support interventions that minimise the risk of disabilities related to mental health as workplaces adapt to the new normal. Not every employer can afford an employee assistance programme, especially at this time. Fortunately, some large insurers offer telephonic counselling as a value-added benefit. Certain leading umbrella retirement funds also offer basic financial literacy as part of their benefit counselling services. This support may be essential for employees dealing with financial pressures. Where a disability does occur, it is more essential than ever to make sure claimants have access to professional rehabilitation and wellness services through their insurer. These services minimise business disruption and facilitate a speedy, efficient return to productivity.
Addressing the nation’s mental health
Participating in a recent Momentum Covid-19 webinar, specialist psychiatrist Dr Mashadi Motlana said there is a larger issue to be addressed on a collective level.
“We are facing what I believe is an institutional stigma in terms of how healthcare spend is distributed. Only five percent of our national health budget is spent on mental health,” she said. “In addition, the healthcare system is biased towards spending on tertiary care such as psychiatric facilities, and the majority of cases that should be treated in primary healthcare facilities are missed or not adequately managed. We need to make proactive efforts to shift the focus to identifying and intervening earlier and promoting psychological well-being.”
Preventing lifestyle-related disabilities
The value of good health and healthy behaviour cannot be overstated as we emerge from the grip of the pandemic. Top group insurance service providers offer engagement programmes that incentivise employees to follow healthy lifestyles. Certain leading employee benefits service providers also reward the actual company for encouraging behaviours that drive employee engagement and productivity with rewards they can spend on employee wellness initiatives, or for employers trying to get back on their feet within the Covid-19 context, on safety measures for workplace reintegration or to support staff working remotely. On the plus side, Mashadi said she was seeing an increased willingness to open up about mental health in the face of this pandemic. “I can’t stress enough the importance of needing to carve out time for self. Covid-19 is helping us to learn tools that we should always apply in our lives,” she said. “I believe that time management is perhaps the most critical of these tools, especially as the lines are now so blurred between our work and private habitats.”
Also presenting at the webinar, organisational psychologist Ingra du Buisson-Narsai unpacked how neuroscience can help employers cope with disruption to normal routines and the difficult decisions they need to make during these times. “Covid-19 has shown us that when humanity is united in a common cause, we can change rapidly and phenomenally well when we act coherently and constructively,” said Ingra. This means we first need to face the facts to minimise fear, then find the focus to enable growth and change, and finally flourishing to build mental stamina. She said there are seven factors we can deploy “to build an upward spiral of flourishing” instead of a “downward spiral of languishing”. These factors include rebooting, renewing, reflecting, rebalancing, reframing, reconnecting, and refocusing. I believe South Africa does not have the core standards to address mental health. Working with an experienced employee benefits provider can help with earlier detection and interventions that can prevent long-term disability related to mental health.
At Momentum Corporate, we work with our employer clients to implement such much-needed core standards. This includes preparing a plan for mental health at work, promoting effective people management, routinely monitoring employee mental health and well-being, developing awareness about mental health among employees, and encouraging open conversations about mental health and the support available for struggling employees.
GEEKING OUT TECHNOLOGY MAKES LOCKDOWN MORE CONNECTED & MORE HUMAN
Workday country MD Zuko Mdwaba says that systems and solutions have made business – and human connection – possible in the time of Covid-19.
BY GEORGINA GUEDES
“Covid-19 has been an equaliser across the globe. It has been testing the level of readiness for catastrophe of companies all around the world. And, as we are experiencing in South Africa, we are all in the same storm, just in different boats,” says Zuko Mdwaba, the country MD of Workday. However, he points out that South Africa was already dealing with a struggling economy that has entered into a technical recession, so the longer-term challenges are harder felt by South African business. Balancing the conflicting demands of public health with the hardships that result from the economic downturn has been enormously difficult for the government. “One of the biggest challenges in South Africa is that we were facing these enormous socio-economic challenges, which are now amplified in the Covid-period. People are equally worried about contracting the virus and about not being active in the economy. As a country, we are taking a huge knock,” Zuko says.
Global insight
Around the world and in South Africa, Workday has more than 3,200 customers, which gives them great insight into assessing the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. “When you listen to people or finance leaders talking, one of the key things that they say is important is data. In weekly meetings with executives, they need to make informed decisions, and those decisions are informed by data, which gives them a sense of what’s happening in their organisation,” Zuko says. He explains that Workday makes a significant contribution in this space, because at the core of everything that the company does is to enable agility in an organisation through data. “In South Africa, in this period, we’ve been instrumental in helping our customers to navigate their businesses in these tricky times. It’s something that speaks to how these organisations have taken the approach of creating environments with a level of flexibility. We are living in a world where business can either disrupt or be disrupted, so businesses have to be very agile – and Workday is supporting that.”
While technology is certainly helpful in supporting agility, Zuko says that, perhaps surprisingly, it’s the way in which it supports the human touch that has made it so invaluable during the Covid-19 lockdown periods. “When overnight, you have people working from home, it becomes important to understand the profile of these people, so that you can provide the support that’s supposed to be provided. The data you have is going to be able to help you to understand them – for example, you might know that someone who lives in one area will need more support than another person. You’ll be able to know when it’s someone’s birthday, or if they are having a child and respond appropriately even when everyone’s working from different locations.This information is all now contained in the human capital records within our clients’ organisations.”
SA business taking a leap
From his vantage point, heading up an organisation that supports corporate agility, Zuko believes that South African businesses were not ready for the shift to working from home, and that it required a big mental adjustment from a lot of managers. “Working remotely requires a certain level of trust, and it’s easy for leaders to believe that if they can’t see people in the office, then they’re not as productive. Managers have had to get used to it.” And yet, he points out that it has emerged that many people were actually a lot more productive working from home than at the office. “Cases like this have been an eye-opener for many leaders. People were working from 7am to 7pm. The Workday can also help in instances like this because, while people might be working hard, employee engagement is still important.” He adds that it’s extremely important for managers to be aware of the impact that lockdown stress is having on people’s mental health. “We can’t take people’s home situations for granted and expect them to jump from one call to the next. We have to acknowledge the difference between introverts and extroverts and that they may have different levels of comfort with online engagement. We need to be aware of these challenges and talk about how to counter them, to ensure that people are constantly doing other things, being active.” Workday, for example, has held events where employees shared stories of holidays that they had taken or wanted to take. Zuko says some organisations are offering online fitness classes or times during which meetings aren’t allowed. “These things might seem small, but they are quite crucial for our sanity.”
A personal perspective
As a technologist, Zuko says one aspect of lockdown that’s been exciting for him has been the flood of emerging technology. “If it weren’t for technology, we wouldn’t be having this interview. Machine learning, AI, cloud, blockchain and others on the horizon are giving birth to new ways of doing business. These emerging technologies are defining the world of work, and how that will look post-Covid when we continue working remotely. Certainly, technology is a big part of that.” On the other hand, from a personal perspective, the lockdown has presented challenges in the way that he parents his children. “I’ve always believed that technology is good, but that you have to manage it with children. I’ve always limited device time, but overnight schools went remote, and now children have to be on these gadgets from 7am until one in the afternoon, and they still want to interact socially in that space.” He laughs: “We need a support group for parents. This part has come as a bit of a shock to me.” Zuko says that with the capabilities of technology and the support that people are able to give one another in these difficult times, he believes that South African business will pull through. “We’re going through a double-whammy as a country – with the struggling economy and the pandemic – and the biggest reality is that all of us are trying to sail through these waters and get to the other side. Something that’s encouraging is that historically, South Africa is a nation of very resilient people, so I am quite confident that we’ll get through this.”
