The time has come for EAP 2.0

More effective support of psychological wellbeing requires a new approach to EAPs, says Paul Flanagan

Employee assistance programs are well accepted in Australia. Employees expect their organisations to have an EAP, and HR/WHS staff see it as a useful referral point when an employee is distressed or has significant personal issues. Nevertheless, I have found that many HR leaders express dissatisfaction with EAPs today.

While HR leaders are well aware of the increasing importance of addressing mental health and wellbeing issues, they do not see their EAPs as providing a coordinated, holistic program that addresses psychological wellbeing. Indeed, many report problems with their EAPs’ basic service response, do not see them as making an impact on the prevalence of problems, or find that they are too disconnected from HR/WHS and have simply become ‘a counselling service’.

As a result, some organisations have looked beyond EAP counselling to separately address psychological wellbeing through presentations, information pieces and training programs on resilience, depression, CBT, mindfulness, mental health, etc. While these may raise awareness, they are neither strategic nor systematic approaches to sustainably supporting psychological wellbeing or managing psychological risk effectively.

An integrated approach

There are a few reasons why EAP hasn’t taken an integrated approach to supporting psychological wellbeing. As EAP providers have become larger, to juggle volume they have tended to narrow their focus and lose the capacity to adapt to changing needs. At the same time, organisations in other service sectors have seen EAP as a ‘counselling service’ that they could also provide, without fully understanding how a quality EAP operates and what that requires. Thirdly, and more fundamentally, how EAP programs are structured and how EAPs operate has not changed in many years.

EAP 2.0 incorporates the core elements of a traditional EAP but also leverages advances in psychology, program design and technology

In short, while psychological wellbeing is more important than ever, EAPs have stood still, or regressed, to commonly become a reactive counselling service. Although we now have a greater understanding of psychological wellbeing than 30 years ago, along with significant advances in psychological tools, interventions and technology, traditional EAPs have not changed; they haven’t adapted to take these advances on board.

In my view, a contemporary and significantly better EAP – ‘EAP 2.0’ – incorporates core elements of a traditional EAP but also leverages advances in psychology, program design and technology to better engage the workforce, proactively support wellbeing, and identify and manage psychological/psychosocial risk.

These advances need to be fully integrated into the essence of what the program is and does, and how the program functions for employees, not other, disconnected, one-off initiatives.

What makes EAP 2.0 different?

• EAP 2.0 is preventive as well as remedial. It doesn’t simply focus on psychological problems and mental ill-health; it addresses the ‘causes of wellbeing’, the factors that promote wellbeing and those that damage it, sometimes to the point of distress or dysfunction. It focuses on causes, not just symptoms.

• EAP 2.0 is proactive as well as responsive; it doesn’t assume that those who need professional help will use their initiative and seek help. (Research we’ve conducted showed that that is not a safe assumption to make.) And for employees who are inclined to seek help, by the time they do their psychological condition has often worsened to the point where they need significant help, with a less certain outcome. EAP 2.0 has a strong proactive component working along with a responsive component.

• EAP 2.0 is engaging, relevant and useful for all employees, not only those who see themselves as having a ‘problem’. To effectively support wellbeing, EAP 2.0 addresses the different types of wellbeing needs. The factors impacting on psychological wellbeing vary across employees, so an inclusive program that resonates with all (or at least most) employees would address this. EAP 2.0 is engaging because it’s relevant.

The traditional EAP, when done well, can be a useful service that deals with employee issues as they occur. However, more effective support of psychological wellbeing in a proactive and preventive way that better manages risk needs a new approach to EAPs.

Paul Flanagan, founder of Life Street, has over 30 years’ experience as a clinical and organisational psychologist working with employers and their employees. He was previously a founder of Davidson Trahaire Corpsych and EAPAA