Employee assistance programmes are under significant pressure. What was once a simple telephone helpline is now increasingly dealing with complex mental health concerns. Karl Bennett discusses what can be done to secure the sustainable future of the EAP, and what providers need from employers.
Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) were never designed to be a one-stop solution to dealing with mental ill-health. As organisations and employees pay more attention to mental wellbeing, there is much greater demand for services and more serious, complex cases needing longer-term support are coming through to EAP providers.
There has to be more collaboration with OH professionals and HR departments to ensure the EAP continues to function effectively and complement employers’ wellbeing strategies. This will be essential in building a new environment of workplace support, based around preventative care and strategies that identify and address mental health risks.
Employee assistance programmes
EAPs are dealing with unprecedented levels of demand, especially requests for counselling and ongoing support. A major factor is the lack of services being made available via the NHS – GPs are typically referring patients to their EAP as a way to access more immediate support and avoid long waiting times for services like counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Average usage figures for EAPs have risen above 12%, compared with a typical average of around 4%-10% seen in years previously.
Complex cases putting strain on EAPs
However, the level of usage is not the problem – it is the type of usage that matters. There can be higher costs for employers because of the increased complexity and severity of issues being dealt with.
EAPs provided more than 1.3 million counselling sessions in 2022, and it was estimated that 68% of employees who used their EAP needed to be offered counselling. Worryingly, around 1.7% of these involved ‘red flags’, meaning an immediate threat of self-harm or suicide.
If employees accessed the EAP earlier, when they first became worried about stress or other aspects of their mental health, then EAPs and their client organisations would have been able to deal with fewer serious and complex cases that require longer-term interventions. In other words, making use of an EAP as more of a primary service rather than a tertiary one can lessen the pressure on providers, and potentially nip problems in the bud.
This has led to an unsustainable situation where EAPs are faced with tiny margins and contracts that are loss-leaders. Demand for mental health support at low cost has led to customers preferring digital options, involving less human input.
As the figures demonstrate, EAPs have continued to provide remarkable levels of professional counselling support, both face-to-face and via video calls. But professional resources are being stretched to their limit. The UK has a limited supply of counsellors – and we’ve found that more experienced counsellors are looking to diversify and move into private practice.
EAPs offer insight into wellbeing
If employees accessed the EAP earlier, when they first became worried about stress or other aspects of their mental health, then EAPs and their client organisations would have been able to deal with fewer serious and complex cases that require longer-term interventions.”
I think a new approach is needed to secure the future of the EAP model and ensure it is meeting the needs of both employers and employees, but this will require collaboration with employers.
EAP providers are a rich source of insights for employers, in terms of service usage, reasons for contact, and demographic profiles of users, to give a few examples. On the other side, OH and HR professionals also hold invaluable data that can provide insight into employee wellbeing, such as absence rates and performance. Together, these data and expertise will help identify the underlying sources of workplace stress and can be used to inform plans to address internal issues such as poor management, job dissatisfaction or insecurity. A lot of these issues can be dealt with in-house, by employers.
With this model in mind, the future of EAP services is likely to be based around user-friendly, instant access: available for ‘in the moment’ support, as and when people need immediate advice or reassurance via a smartphone or other personal device.
They should evolve into a service offering ‘light touch’ support around self-management of issues and awareness of good mental health practices to prevent problems from developing. They might also be able to offer more regular ‘drip feeds’ of support to staff, to maintain levels of awareness around good responses to stress.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
In 2024, the EAP sector needs to be clear on what an EAP is. It needs to set clear markers around the standards and types of support it can provide, promote the importance of human contact over purely digital services, and highlight a commitment to supporting individual employees with their specific needs.
In our new world of employee mental wellbeing, OH and EAPs need to be working together in partnership to build a more secure and resilient future – a form of wellbeing ‘consultancy’ that offers the best outcomes for employees, and a sustainable foundation for organisational wellbeing.
