"While some make support for employee mental health an integral part of their people management strategy, others still have much to do.
"To build a healthy, engaged and productive working environment, it is imperative that UK businesses support mental wellbeing and not just physical wellbeing", adds The Health Insurance Group's Mr Hill.
Duty of advisers
Where advisers have corporate clients with workplace benefits plans, it behooves the adviser to make sure the employer client knows the full benefits associated with the insurance package, whether this is a group private medical insurance or income protection scheme.
Often these schemes come with apps, tools, helpline, independent nursing and other support, which can be made more available to employees - but only if the employer knows about them in the first place and can properly signpost these to their staff.
For example, Canada Life Group Insurance - and others - provide guides online and for download, which employees and employers can use, such as the Mental Health Matters guide to help people suffering mental ill health while still at work.
Axa PPP Healthcare's Ms Mohns adds: "It is important to create a positive, supportive workplace culture. One where all employees understand the importance of good mental health, and where managers are trained and supported to identify and help employees affected by mental health issues.
"Creating such an environment should help give employees confidence to seek support for their mental health as and when they need it."
Duty of government
In 2016, the Department of Health and the Department for Work & Pensions published an 88-page Green Paper on how to tackle ill health and improve the provision of income protection in the workplace.
It suggested, among other things, that insurers should do more to make policies cheap enough for employers - which the industry countered by showing the exceptionally low cost of existing policies as part of an overall payroll.
Insurers also suggested the government could do more by incentivising employers through tax breaks, such as offsetting employer National Insurance contributions to allow some form of quasi auto-enrolment into a workplace protection scheme.
The ABI's Ms Borolanu-Omura says: "Tax incentives to encourage greater take up would help extend the safety net for the most vulnerable".
Perhaps the government will take this on board instead of continuing to hike insurance premium tax on certain workplace policies.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
