Integrate and Communicate
Consultants and providers alike agree that EAPs are usually not integrated into the work environment as much as they could be, or communicated thoroughly enough, which puts a damper on the impact they can have.
A study on workplace depression from the University of Michigan showed that only 14% of depressed workers use their EAPs. Additionally, Hochstetler says that the average EAP utilization rate for all workers is only 8% to 12%. These numbers suggest that there are distressed workers not accessing the services intended to help them. But what’s holding them back?
Merv Gilbert, registered psychologist and organizational health consultant, with Gilbert Acton Ltd., says there are a number of reasons, including worries about confidentiality, a lack of employee awareness and a concern that the EAP provider doesn’t understand the culture of the company. These issues can often be minimized or dispelled with diligent communication—which should consist of more than handing out pamphlets and magnets to employees on their first day. Ongoing seminars, lunch and learns, posters and updated information on company intranets are all ways to remind employees of the services available through the EAP.
What to Ask When Choosing an EAP Provider 1. Are you accredited? Companies that have gone through an accreditation
process have made a commitment to the industry to stay current and to
provide a certain level of service. 2. How do you measure utilization? “Utilization is connected with price,” says
Linda Hochstetler, president of the Employee Assistance Program Association
of Toronto and contact centre manager for Family Services EAP. “Sometimes,
utilization is looked at per issue or problem; sometimes it’s per person or per
family.” She stresses that knowing how this is measured will help to better understand
the costs and trends. 3. Do you have references? Find out what other people have to say about the
company. Naturally, the provider isn’t going to give itself a bad reference,
but speaking with other people will give you an idea of the level of service that
it provides. |
And to truly get the most from the program, Gilbert suggests integrating the EAP into the organization’s strategy for health and productivity management, organizational development, team development and benefits management, rather than keeping the EAP at arm’s length. Integration will also help the EAP provider better understand the company’s culture, industry and employee issues.
Seward agrees. “Employers that have linked their EAP to their group health, to their disability management, and have a continuum of care that intervenes when a person is first showing signs of disability or having an issue in the workplace, are the most effective at reducing costs.”
Measure the Effects
As with any investment, it’s important to know what your return is and to be able to benchmark it to ensure that you’re getting the best value for your money. Unfortunately, with EAPs, coming to a hard number isn’t easy. “It’s difficult to demonstrate an exact return on investment because the employers don’t think they bear the cost of employee mental health difficulties. They believe that these [costs] are adequately addressed by the public healthcare system or by the individual employee,” Gilbert explains. “In fact, it has been estimated that at least two thirds of the costs of employee mental health problems are indirectly born by employers.”
Organizations are generally supportive of EAPs and recognize that they can be helpful, but at the same time, the lack of hard numbers makes an EAP an easy line-item to attack in a tight budget. Providers recognize this and say that there are other ways to demonstrate a program’s effectiveness.
In the past, the number of sick days taken was used as a way to show EAP performance, the idea being that fewer sick days meant a more effective EAP. However, this measurement actually did EAPs a disservice. When an EAP is implemented, an employer will often see an increase in sick days. Hochstetler explains that before EAPs were common, people just went to work, no matter how they felt. “They would be at the office but not be productive. When people use EAPs, they may be more likely to call in sick, but get the help they need. It makes it seem [as though] they are less productive when actually it’s for a shorter period of time.”
