Seven out of 10 employees with cancer (70%) feel they would have been able to return to work sooner if they had received better support from their employer, a survey has found.
The poll of more than 1,000 people from health insurer Unum also found nearly half (49%) of employees who currently have cancer say their employer is not providing any form of support to their family.
More than half (52%) said they would like to see support for family members included as standard within life insurance packages.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, having an unsupportive employer made employees feel less productive, grateful and loyal.
Almost all the employees polled (93%) said they wanted their life insurance proactively to offer more support for workers with cancer.
Cancer was the most common claim across Unum’s group income protection (30%), critical illness (65%) and life insurance (36%) products, the insurer added.
Support workers with cancer
Cost of living crisis putting cancer patients’ recovery at risk
Putting OH at the heart of the cancer return-to-work ‘journey’
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
The research has been published to coincide with the launch of a new employee cancer support service by Unum for its group life customers, called Cancer Assist.
Glenn Thompson, chief distribution officer at Unum UK, said: “With cancer dominating as the top reason people make a claim across all of Unum’s group risk products, we wanted to do more to address the needs of customers affected by the disease.”
