- Significant investment in support services following positive feedback from customers
- Recognises the changing nature of how people want to access support services
- Aims to significantly improve engagement and take-up
Canada Life has announced it is significantly enhancing its support services following the successful introduction of ‘WeCare’ to its SME customers (administered on CLASS) in May 2020. Canada Life will now extend WeCare to its Group Income Protection customers in direct response to both customer demand and positive feedback from employers.
WeCare will launch on 1st March and will be available to both employees and their family members, whether they are insured under a policy or not. Canada Life has also added legal and financial assistance to WeCare as part of the overall improvement to the service. The services provided by the EmployeeCare Employee Assistance Programme will be transferred to WeCare.
WeCare provides:
- Clarity of journey; by bringing all services under one roof, it provides a clear and concise single contact point for employees and family members to access all services
- Accessibility, through a variety of convenient access points (phone, email, web, app)
- Quality of contact; from the outset a WeCare service user can access a variety of healthcare professionals.
Dan Crook, protection sales director, Canada Life commented:
“Receiving great feedback and seeing such high utilisation from the initial WeCare customers, we decided it made sense to consolidate all our support services in one place. As the UK’s leading provider of group insurance products, we see this as an evolution of how we deliver support - not only to employees but to their families too - which is especially important in the current environment.
“For the first time we put the control into the hands of people who need help, by offering a wide range of services including GP access, mental health and burnout prevention, alongside holistic support including bespoke nutrition and health coaching.
“Whilst some people are struggling in the Covid crisis, others are taking the opportunity, especially of no-commuting time, to eat better and to get fit and so whatever an individual needs, we can be there for them. Furthermore, we have enhanced the WeCare service to replace many of the EAP components, including the addition of legal support and financial health.
“We have worked with Teladoc to evolve WeCare to meet the needs of our customers and ensure that our support services mirror the way people increasingly want to access health and other services. Employers and their employees will be able to access a modern, technology-based level of support we believe is simply not available elsewhere.”
What is WeCare?
WeCare is an extensive range of virtual services offering holistic help via medical, mental, legal and financial support. This includes health, mental health and wellbeing support, and includes virtual GP consultations, second medical opinion services, smoking cessation support, mental health support, life event counselling, burnout prevention, diet support and get fit programmes.
Canada Life has confirmed it will start communicating the changes with advisers and employers through January and February with the changes taking effect on 1st March. There is a seamless transition from the previous services to the service provided by Teladoc Health, with access point details (phone numbers, web URLs and emails) for employers and employees remaining the same.