FTA: Would you say there is an education deficit among the industry and consumers?
RM: Big time. This is where we need the insurance companies to provide much more in terms of courses, supporting material, live cases [and] case studies.
There is some but there’s not enough out there. Unless you work for somebody like St. James's Place who’ve got the training facilities, we are very reliant on our insurance company cousins.
FTA: What has coronavirus taught us about business protection? AELTC famously benefitted from business interruption cover. Has uptake changed post-pandemic?
RM: What Covid – one of the saddest things you’ll ever experience – has done is it’s changed the mindset and made most people realise they are not as indestructible as they thought they were before. That is as relevant to a company as it is to an individual.
One of the things that undoubtedly has come out of Covid is a search for a solution to a problem that people can now relate to, such as people being off ill long-term, people dying, in a way they could not before.
The other thing that came out of Covid is our attitude to mental health – that was a taboo subject, I’d like to think it isn’t anymore.
And therefore people are looking for a solution to mental health in the workplace, and we have the solution because there are products that can provide the help and assistance in the event of your staff having mental health issues. People are now open to conversations they probably weren’t open to before.
carmen.reichman@ft.com
