Some of you may have heard a fascinating interview with Sir Michael Marmot on the radio last week.

For those that are not familiar with Sir Michael, he is perhaps best known for what became known as ‘The Whitehall Studies’. These studies challenged, and indeed changed, the myth that it’s tough at the top. Indeed, Sir Michael found that mortality rates were three times higher for those at the bottom of an organisation than those at the top.

And it’s not all about social status and cash either. Put simply, Sir Michael’s findings seem to suggest that the less control you have over your working life, the more stress was likely to result. This was christened ‘Status Syndrome’.

Now I will not claim to be an expert on this area, or know much more than what I heard on the radio, but it does strike me that these findings could ultimately find their way into the field of Employee Benefits, and Group Life Assurance in particular.

My rationale is that, as far as I’m aware, insurers do not yet underwrite schemes on the above basis. Yes, the insurer will ask for age, gender, salary and job title, but I have yet to see an insurer actually ask for a specification of each individual job role or requirements. Should insurers ever start asking for this more specific information, it could radically alter the level of life assurance premiums for employers.

The winners (or those that will pay less if you prefer) are likely to be those where the majority of job roles are in some way self-determining (for instance consultants), the losers are most likely to be where job specification and tasks are rigid (for instance a production line). One to watch out for, but nothing to worry about now.

However, it does follow that allowing all your employees access to an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) is that much more relevant. EAP’s really came of age as a response to tackling stress at work, so it follows that making this available to all grades of staff, rather than just a top tier, would be a very sensible move. Worth bearing in mind next time you undertake a benefits review perhaps?

Best regards

Steve