How insurance leaders can support positive workplace mental health 

Stress, fatigue, and burnout are common in an industry in which claims requests mount, sales quotas are constant, and office dynamics weigh heavily on people working in a relationships-based culture. And yet, mental health often remains a quiet, private struggle in insurance workplaces.

Good support from upper management, mentors, and leaders significantly improves industry professionals’ mental health in the workplace, sources tell Canadian Underwriter.

Stressors in the workplace

Lorrée Allen is an underwriting assistant who switched to insurance from a previous career in legal services. She tells CU she appreciates the advances in work hour consistency and employee benefits.

But underwriting doesn’t come without stressors. For example, Allen recalled in previous roles having made relatively minor mistakes — like emailing the wrong contact, or assigning a task to the wrong person — that might be expected from someone new to the industry. But the way those errors were received made her feel she had to overcompensate to avoid upsetting colleagues, especially in an environment where Black women’s concerns often go unheard.

That pressure weighed on her mental health over multiple days. “I’m coming into work the next day, overdoing things that are not my job and overdoing things to try and compensate for the mistake I made,” she said. “That is exhausting.” 

Throughout her insurance career, she’s noticed recurring issues such as unilateral decisions, lack of follow-up on employee feedback, and varied and unrealistic service-level agreement deadlines that have hampered the mental health of industry professionals. 

Across the board, one thing is certain: people struggling with their mental health in the industry are not alone. CU fielded a 2024 Mental Health Survey last summer and received responses from more than 800 Canadian P&C industry professionals. It just so happened to coincide with four major disasters happening in the span of a month, disasters that led to a record-breaking year of $9.1 billion in claims losses in Canada.

Not surprisingly, a majority of insurance professionals in the study reported feeling manageably stressed (46%) or acutely stressed (38%).

A full 61% of survey respondents reported a heavy workload was their top source of stress. This was the top reason cited by all industry sectors, including brokers (60%), insurers (64%), underwriters (65%), and claims professionals (73%).

Meeting management demands was the second-highest stressor (45%) among people in all the above industry roles.  

Supportive leaders 

Thirty-four percent of industry professionals in the survey said they felt uncomfortable speaking with management or peers about their mental health. 

When asked why, the three top reasons were:

• stigma and perception of weakness (36%)
• lack of trust and support at the company level (34%)
• an unwillingness to speak of personal problems at work (24%)  

Industry professionals spoke unanimously about the positive impact a supportive leader could have on an employee’s mental health experience in the workplace.  

Industry professional Desmond Marryshow shared a time when he made a minor mistake at work. He said management treated it with a disproportionate level of severity. Concerned about how his work was being perceived, he raised it with management. “But then the reaction from that, quite frankly, it was just met with aggression.” 

He compared this example to a time he spoke openly with his team about his mental health experience and was met with positivity. “A lot of people reached out and [said], ‘I’m here to support you.’ I thought that was really kind of them.” 

For Nathan Campbell, underwriting specialist at Aviva Canada, his mentors shaped his early career experience in the industry.  

“I come from a Caribbean background, and I grew up in a single home with just me, my mom, and my siblings. So when I started in the industry, I was actually surrounded by similar people,” he said. “It was like having a work mom. 

“They always encouraged me, believed in me, and were confident in my ability. They also gave me opportunities to work on specific things or projects, really instilled confidence in me, and always made me comfortable to come to them with questions.” 

Workplace resources 

Only 37% of industry professionals say they’ve sought workplace resources to support their mental health.  

Employee assistance programs (70%), digital mental health information (42%), and paid leave programs (30%) are the top three types of mental health resources available at insurance organizations. 

“Organizations that integrate practices, provide resources and safe spaces for their employees’ mental well-being, are going to help their employees perform better in the long term,” says Bram Bains, founder of Maverick Insurance Brokers.

“It’s people who run the businesses at the end of the day. And the people need to be well in order to [give] their best effort and take care of the customers.” 

Looking outside the industry 

In addition to using workplace benefits, such as mental health benefits and employee assistance programs, sources also spoke of the importance of personal accountability for one’s own mental health. For all the formalized workplace policies to support mental health, sometimes the best way to recharge from stress, burnout and the fast pace of work is to step away.

The tried-and-true methods of getting enough sleep, eating nutritious foods, and getting enough exercise, for example, can go a long way for individual mental health management, says Matthew Powell, cyber and technology underwriter at Axis Capital.

“I think it first starts with yourself — and if you’re lucky enough to have a good leader who knows you well enough to recognize the signs of, ‘Maybe this person needs a break, or maybe this person needs a quick chat or a touch point,’ that’s a huge benefit,’” he says.

“I have younger employees who I work with. Sometimes I’ll take them out on a walk and say, ‘Hey, we could chat about this outside. Let’s go for a walk and grab some fresh air. We’ll have it sorted out. We’ll be back in 15 minutes, and we’ll both feel better.’”

For Bains, he found solace in cultivating interests and passions outside of his professional life.

“I had this men’s [basketball] league that a bunch of insurance guys would go and participate in,” said Bains. “It was cool because we had like-minded people that were going through the same experience, roughly in the same age bracket…going off into different directions within the industry.”

“It’s a very demanding industry. But for me, it’s been positive because I was able to take that type of energy and just focus on a bigger picture,” said Bains. “Having that peer group over time is definitely valuable, and it grounds you as well.”