Unum, the UK’s leading disability insurer based in Basingstoke, has announced the launch of its new improved AKAM (Active Key Account Management) service for Group Income Protection (GIP) clients. The enhanced service will be known as ‘Premier’.

The result of extensive client research, Premier is a specially tailored service that helps large employers manage their sickness absence costs and keep GIP premiums to a minimum. It forms the crux of the full range of Unum’s non-insurance based customer offering, such as its claims enhancing proposition and WorkMatters services, and allows business managers to focus on their business rather than sickness absence issues.

Core attributes of the Premier service will be a greater emphasis on flexibility and a reduction in the amount of paperwork involved. There will also be improved reporting and delivery as well as greater access to medical services e.g. discussions around clinical intervention and other medical issues, where appropriate.

One of Premier’s key components is the provision of vocational rehabilitation support at the earliest stage possible i.e. pre-claim. This is made possible through regular contact between the business and a dedicated Unum account manager and support team. The end goal is to reduce the number of absences resulting in a claim and reduce claim durations, which in turn lessens the impact on staff morale and productivity.

Unum pioneered the original AKAM service to its clients in 2000, in response to the growing number of large employers who were experiencing issues around managing their sickness absence and concern for the increasing costs associated with this.

Colin Fitzgerald, National Accounts Director at Unum, said: “Premier is a proven, modern and flexible support system for larger clients with limited time and/or resources to manage sickness absence. We hope this new launch will grasp the attention of IFAs and benefit consultants alike, who will be able to see that not only do we have a track record of success as the first provider in the market to offer a tailored early intervention resource, but that the product is now leaner and fitter, encompassing a more comprehensive range of services.

And the changes will not stop here as we will continue to listen to our clients’ needs to ensure that the Premier service retains a fresh and modern approach, marking us out as innovative leaders in the ever competitive GIP market.

Between 2003 and 2006 Unum’s in-house vocational rehabilitation experts worked with more than 2800 individuals who had been referred through AKAM for early rehabilitation support. Of these Unum helped more than 70% to successfully return to work.