Employers must do more to encourage staff to take up the support offered by assistance programmes if they want health and wellbeing to improve, writes Professor Sir Cary Cooper
There’s evidence that employee assistance programmes (EAPs) work when it comes to threats from sickness absence and mental health breakdowns. But that’s also their problem. And it’s why the real potential for EAPs to improve organisational performance and workplaces as a whole is hidden within a cloud of misconceptions.
One of the findings from a report by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation into the use of EAPs by UK employers is how managers and their line reports only see the EAP as a last resort – it’s a counselling service for those in trouble, especially when it comes to mental health. But in reality, the EAP is there to prevent problems from escalating, to help more people feel on top of any kind of challenge that life throws at them, and to keep that sense of being in charge.
To become more effective, particularly in the turbulent and uncertain political and economic environment we live and work in today, EAP providers have a huge opportunity to become a more effective wellbeing partner by addressing the cultural and structural workplace issues that contribute to sickness absence and presenteeism. EAPs should look to change their approach and take a more in-depth look at an organisation’s culture and the factors that are affecting mental health and wellbeing, enabling employers to accurately identify the problems in their workplace and take steps to prevent them.
Although EAPs are already successfully helping individuals to cope, they need to proactively support the organisation, whether it’s tackling a culture of long hours, the glass ceiling or a hotspot of bullying and harassment, and give employers the data, resources and support to bring down these barriers to performance and productivity.
On the employer’s side, this means a repositioning of what the EAP is and what it can do. It requires more active promotion of the services, and getting managers at all levels involved. It might also mean some rebranding, as there’s evidence that some employees are put off by the idea of a ‘programme’, with its connotations of a counselling approach.
A key finding from the Work Foundation study was that just 9 per cent of HR managers involved in the research had attempted to evaluate their EAP in terms of a cost utility benefit or return on investment via the impact on sickness absence, productivity, performance or engagement. Nearly a third (31 per cent) admitted there had been no attempt to evaluate the quality or impact of the EAP, and a further 9 per cent didn’t know whether there was any evaluation of the programme. In the study, HR managers also pointed to an ongoing stigma associated with the EAP, as a counselling service primarily for staff with mental health issues.
There’s a potential mine of data and useful insights from EAPs that organisations should be using to develop and refine their employee wellbeing strategies, integrating the two together to make sure resources are focused on issues that are going to make the most difference to daily working lives.
Organisations are quick enough when it comes to using consultants in finance, accountancy and PR. As the stresses of workplaces become more complex, it’s getting increasingly important for HR to see and make use of the professional support out there.
The full report into the use of EAPs can be downloaded from eapa.org.uk.
Professor Sir Cary Cooper CBE is president of the CIPD, 50th anniversary professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester Business School, and honorary member of the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association