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UK companies need to invest more in training their HR teams and line managers to help them identify signs of stress in employees, according to the Aon – the UK’s leading insurance broker and employee risk management firm – speaking on National Stress Awareness Day 2009 on 4 November 2009. This will both promote wellness and productivity across the firm by helping staff return to work and cut healthcare costs through early intervention.

Charlotte Bray, consultant for Aon Consulting and occupational health specialist, commented:  “We’re beginning to see companies take a more proactive, self-help approach to managing stress by using employee assistance programmes for lifestyle advice and counselling. More training and workshops for managers means they can learn to identify stress at the early stages which can prevent conditions becoming chronic and are less likely to require drastic measures such as long term psychological or psychiatric help.

“In turn this helps to reduce claims for private medical insurance and group income protection plans, while most importantly helping the employee to return to work. This needs to form part of a company’s overall wellness strategy, taking into account the objectives of the organisation and their ability to measure ROI.”

Richard Brough, consultant for Aon Global Risk Consulting, added: “Stress management programmes are in their infancy. As a bare minimum, companies must have a policy to identify the symptoms with a clear stepped response to create a stress-aware culture. Stress can be caused by a variety of triggers and not necessarily stemming from work but showing you have stress management plans in place will help protect your employees and could help you defend a costly employers’ liability insurance claim.”

For more information contact:
Alexandra Lewis
020 7882 0541
Alexandra.lewis@aon.co.uk
http://aon.mediaroom.com

About Aon
Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital consulting. Through its more than 37,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon readily delivers distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Aon's industry-leading global resources and technical expertise are delivered locally through more than 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008 and 2009 Insurance Survey, Aon also ranked highest on Business Insurance's listing of the world's largest insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues in 2008. A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one insurance broker based on brokerage revenues in 2007 and 2008, and Aon was voted best insurance intermediary, best reinsurance intermediary and best employee benefits consulting firm in 2007 and 2008 by the readers of Business Insurance. For more information on Aon, log onto http://www.aon.com/.

About Aon Consulting
Aon Consulting Worldwide is among the top global human capital consulting firms, with 2008 revenues of $1.358 billion and more than 6,300 professionals in 229 offices worldwide.  Aon Consulting works with organizations to improve business performance and shape the workplace of the future through employee benefits, talent management and rewards strategies and solutions.  Aon Consulting was named the best employee benefit consulting firm by the readers of Business Insurance magazine in 2006, 2007 and 2008.  For more information on Aon, please visit www.aon.mediaroom.com.

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