Why Employees Hate EAPs.

A lot of EAPS fall into a common - and dangerous - category -  Management thinks the program is excellent, but workers think it’s a waste. But it doesn’t have to be that way when you have an employee assistance program or are considering one.

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

o  just 50 percent of 6,400 employees surveyed said they’d use the EAP if they felt overwhelmed by personal issues, and

o  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.

Objectives -  Ask employees when 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 worksite performance and/or safety. In the final section, find out how employees would handle a serious personal issue.

In other words, figure out where your people  would likely turn for help. Would staff seek out the EAP? Would they prefer to discuss the issue with their family doctor? A psychological health professional?

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

2. Promote employee assistance program (EAP) through education

Your survey data should help you pinpoint areas where workforce need more education about your EAP. Some awareness-improveing techniques that have gotten results -

o  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 psychological health issues.

o  Staff Member newsletter. When you have a benefits newsletter, spotlight the employee assistance program (EAP) from time to time. Many corporations without newsletters have done e-mail campaigns or targeted mailings instead.

o  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 finding educational material? There’s lots of free EAP-related flyers and FAQs here. Don’t forget -  When doing EAP education, constantly remind staff members that the program is strictly confidential.

3. Make sure to work with supervisors

For legal reasons, supervisors need to tread carefully when they suspect an worker has a psychological 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 employee assistance program (EAP) education.

HIPAA compliance -  Beware non-discrimination issues

HIPAA’s non-discrimination rules impact both mental health benefits and general health plans. Under current interpretations, health care 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 staff member gets hurt in a worksite accident he or she caused. After the fact, the staff member is diagnosed with a mood disorder that previously escaped detection by the employee’s physician.

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

That’s why, in most companies, having a strong employee assistance program (EAP) is one of your best compliance tools.