P&C mental health: Are the kids alright?

Are the ‘kids’ who are new to the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry alright? Results from Canadian Underwriter‘s 2024 Mental Health Survey suggest someone had better check up on them, because they are showing signs of stress unique to their tough, consumer-facing roles in the midst of the industry’s record-breaking claims volumes.

Younger, less-experienced people working in the industry for fewer than 10 years are reporting some troubling scores in CU’s 2024 Mental Health Survey, compared to industry professionals with 11 or more years of experience along many different dimensions.

CU’s online mental health survey of 836 P&C insurance professionals, conducted in August, identified three work experience cohorts — i.e., P&C professionals with fewer than 10 years of experience in the industry, 11-20 years of experience, and 20+ years of experience.

The survey, made possible with the assistance of Allstate Canada, was conducted at a time when the Canadian P&C insurance industry was slammed with 228,000 insurance claims related to four natural catastrophes that occurred within a month of each other.

One detail in the survey results is how those new to the industry are coping. Those with fewer than 10 years of experience in the P&C industry scored highest in the following categories:

Highest ratings of mental health distress (i.e., they rated their current mental health an 8, 9, or 10 on a scale of 1-10, where 10 means ‘unable to function’)
Most likely to report suicidal thinking (20%) and/or problems with alcohol or drug use (17%)
Most likely to be distracted at work because of mental health issues, either their own or someone else’s (83% of people who have less than a decade of experience in the business report being distracted at least once or twice a week)
Most likely to take days off from work to deal with mental health issues (51%)

That’s a sobering reality for an industry on a big drive to recruit and retain young workers to help overcome a labour shortage within the industry.

Overall, the industry’s least-experienced cohort reports feeling no more or less stress than any of their more-experienced colleagues. But the fact that a quarter of them say they are in consumer-facing positions — such as call centres, or client service representatives (CSRs) for insurance companies or brokerages — is significant.

That’s because 49% of customer-facing P&C professionals report feeling very high or acute levels of stress, which is far higher than the scores in other occupational roles — and even seven percentage points higher than claims adjusters, who are now facing the most claims the Canadian P&C industry has ever seen (42% of adjusters report feeling high or acute levels of stress, and adjusters scored themselves the highest on a scale of mental health concerns).

Those who have been in the industry fewer than 10 years report higher levels of fatigue, feelings of sadness, confused thinking, mood changes, and changes to eating habits, than their more-experienced industry colleagues. These are all potential signs of mental health illness, as noted by the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic.

More disturbingly, those with the least experience in the industry also score the highest on dealing with excessive anger, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol and drug abuse. Sixty-eight per cent of them report they are feeling these symptoms now.

What’s unique about the less-experienced cohort is the sources of stress they are reporting.

All experience cohorts say their greatest source of stress is a high workload. The least experienced cohort reports the highest score for this stressor (70%) than the industry survey average of 61%.

But those in the least-experienced cohort, many of whom work in consumer-facing roles, also have unique stressors. They scored highest of all three experience levels, for example, on the following stressors: ‘Dealing with customers’ (30%) and ‘Personality conflicts with colleagues’ (24%).

Fifty-one per cent of the least experienced P&C industry professionals in CU’s survey say they have taken at least one day off work this year, either paid or unpaid, to deal with a mental health concern (either their own, or someone else’s). That number drops to 42% for those with 11-20 years in the business, and to 38% for those with more than 20 years of experience.

Another interesting aspect of the least-experienced group is how they choose to address their mental health concerns.

For example, this group was the least comfortable talking to anyone in their organization about mental health (either to managers or peers). And yet, they were also more likely than the industry veterans (those with more than 20 years of experience) to seek resources for help.

People with fewer than 10 years of industry experience were far more likely than their more experienced colleagues to score mental health resources in their company as either “high quality” (29%) or “extremely high quality” (5%).

That said, the least experienced group was far below average when it came to reporting awareness of employment assistance programs offered by their employers. People with less than a decade in the industry report a 56% awareness of company EAP programs, as opposed to the survey average of 70% awareness of EAPs.

So, there are opportunities for P&C insurance organizations to tell their less experienced P&C insurance professionals about the mental health resources available to them.

***

The first four articles related to Canadian Underwriter‘s 2024 Mental Health Survey are:

Mental health report: What stresses out Canadian P&C professionals

Suffering in silence: Canada’s P&C professionals and mental health

Mental health report: Where P&C professionals turn for help

Mental health resources: What’s on P&C employees’ wish lists

Editor’s Note: This series of articles about the findings of the Canadian Underwriter 2024 Mental Health survey references serious symptoms associated with mental health illness. If you, members of your family or friends need help, several mental health resources are available. They include:

Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/PeopleImages