Why Staff Members Hate Eaps.

A lot of EAPS fall into a common - and perilous - category -  Management thinks the program is great, but staff members think it’s a waste. But it doesn’t have to be that way when you’ve an employee assistance program (EAP) or are considering one.

Seventy-three percent of all firms (59 percent of small companys) have an EAP. But how well does the typical employee assistance program (EAP) work? Not in addition to we’d hope. A Mid America Coalition on Healthcare study found -

• just 50 percent of 6,400 workers surveyed said they’d use the employee assistance program (EAP) when they felt overwhelmed by personal issues, and

• one-third said they didn’t even know how to access its resources.

The good news -  Firms like yours have seen dramatic improvements in three relatively simple steps

1. Worker attitude surveys

The best beginning place -  Take the pulse of your workers with a short, confidential attitude survey.

Goals -  Ask staff members if they know how to use the EAP’s resources. Then test workers’ knowledge and opinions of depression and other personal issues that might affect their workplace performance and/or safety. In the final section, find out how staff members would handle a serious personal issue.

In other words, find out where your people  would likely turn for help. Would employees seek out the EAP? Would they prefer to discuss the issue with their family doctor? A mental health expert?

The Mid America Coalition’s survey remains an great design model from which to craft a recent survey for your own workers.

2. Promote employee assistance program through education

Your survey data ought to help you pinpoint areas where employees need more education about your EAP. Some awareness-boosting techniques that have gotten results -

• Lunch-and-learn sessions. Possible topics include dealing with personal-finance stress, caring for elderly parents, understanding depression or dealing with a dependent who has potential mental health issues.

• Employee newsletter. If you have a benefits newsletter, spotlight the employee assistance program from time to time. Some corporations without newsletters have done e-mail campaigns or targeted mailings instead.

• Workplace posters spotlighting EAP. the ones that work best are often posters designed around a specific theme (e.g., anxiety about personal debt) rather than a general “need help?” message. In addition to posters, you could want to distribute wallet cards with employee assistance program (EAP) contact info.

Need help locating educational material? There’s lots of free EAP-related  flyers and FAQs here. Don’t forget -  When doing employee assistance program education, constantly remind employees that the program is strictly confidential.

3. Make certain to work with supervisors

For legal reasons, supervisors need to tread carefully when they suspect an worker has a mental health issue.

What you don’t want -  supervisors taking disciplinary actions without consulting HR or playing amateur psychologist and “diagnosing” the employee’s problems. Here’s a PDF of some proven tips and talking points for doing supervisor-specific EAP education.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance -  Beware non-discrimination issues

HIPAA’s non-discrimination rules impact both mental health benefits and general health plans. Under current interpretations, health plans can no longer have benefits exclusions that deny benefits for injuries resulting directly or indirectly from pre-existing mental health issues.

That’s true even if the psychological condition wasn’t diagnosed until after the injury and even if the injury was self-inflicted. Example -  Suppose an employee gets hurt in a workplace accident he or she caused. After the fact, the employee is diagnosed with a mood disorder that previously escaped detection by the employee’s doctor.

Under current regs, HIPAA-covered plans can’t deny benefits. This puts companys in a bind. Mental health issues like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder are among the health conditions that’re most likely to go undiagnosed or underdiagnosed.

That’s why, in most organizations, having a strong EAP is one of your best compliance tools.