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Making employee assistance programmes more relevant to workers

Too many well-meaning initiatives take a one-size-fits-all approach, and take-up rates are often low

'We’re seeing a wide range of reasons why people are seeking help.' Photograph: iStock

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Olive Keogh
Thu May 9 2024 - 09:59

People need humans to help them solve their problems, not chatbots. That’s the view of Emily Murphy, a Cork-based mental health practitioner who is all in favour of employee assistance programmes but has reservations about how some aspects of them are implemented. Specifically, Murphy believes that in many cases the mental health initiatives have become “too digitised” and people are being offered advice by online interventions rather than by humans.

“I think digital platforms have their limitations when it comes to helping people with their mental health,” she says. “The employer may feel they’re doing their bit if they can point someone towards an app, but the reality is that the recommended way of helping people to deal with the big issues that keep cropping up – mainly stress, anxiety and burnout – is through personal intervention. This allows the problem to be talked about in a way that simply isn’t possible with a digital exchange.

“In-person sessions are the best way of establishing a direct connection,” says Murphy. “However, if that’s not possible then the next best thing is a video call with a human so at least someone can see who they’re talking to and build a relationship with them.”

Murphy works with individuals and corporate clients and says that while the shift to hybrid and remote working has had huge benefits for employees, it also has its drawbacks as these new working patterns tend to curtail the opportunities for interpersonal contact.

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“Being completely removed from other people has taken a toll on people’s mental health,” she says. “So, there is a case for getting employees back to the office even occasionally to connect with each other.

“This also helps their employer to get a much better sense of whether or not someone is doing okay,” says Murphy who set up the Mind Mechanic two years ago to help people gain faster access to help for their mental health problems. “Chatbots and AI bots can try to answer people’s questions but at the end of the day, people need people to talk to.”

[ Mental health issues should be a greater priority in workplaces, Irish-led study finds ]

Murphy says demand for corporate workshops to educate managers and employees about being proactive when it comes to identifying and managing potential mental health issues has grown significantly over the past year.

One company that has recently put its senior leadership team and line managers through mental health awareness training is IT support services provider, Auxilion, which employs 350 full-time staff and 150 contractors between Ireland and Britain.

“Sometimes people don’t realise they need help or they need a little prod to go and get it, and we felt it was important for managers to be able to recognise the signs of distress and to know how to intervene if needed,” says the company’s chief people officer, Niamh Cray.

“We’re seeing a wide range of reasons why people are seeking help. There’s stress and burnout, of course, but also upset around divorce and bereavement. And a really major one for people at the moment is the cost of living, with big worries about financial wellbeing. The average age of our employees is 39, so they are right in the thick of it with the pressure of mortgages and childcare costs and so on.

“When I started out in HR, an EAP [employee assistance programme] was a phone line. These programmes have moved on significantly and have been transformed, especially in the last few years. The organisations providing them now have also become much more innovative in what they’re offering.”

That said, Cray’s experience of EAPs both in a large multinational environment and, more recently, with Auxilion is that participation rates remain stubbornly low. This appears to be a universal problem despite the fact that employees consistently say that having the benefits of an EAP is an influencing factor when they’re changing jobs.

A case in point is counselling or therapy where there are a set number of sessions an employee can have. Few people get “cured” within a specific time frame

Industry sources put the uptake figure for EAPs as low as 2-3 per cent. The rate at Auxilion is better, at 5 per cent, which Cray attributes in part to it being somewhat easier to promote EAP and wellbeing programmes in a smaller organisation and to the fact that the company’s programmes were co-created with employee input.

Reasons put forward as to why EAPs fail to catch on include difficulties with access, poor communication about what’s on offer, irrelevance and a one-size-fits-all approach that ends up fitting no one.

A case in point is counselling or therapy where there are a set number of sessions an employee can have. Few people get “cured” within a specific time frame so unsurprisingly this can put people off asking for help in the first place. It’s a sensitive area and one where flexibility and additional follow-on supports may be needed.

Asked what she thinks stops employees accessing programmes, especially those in place to help with mental health, Cray puts it down to a fear that asking for help might affect someone’s promotional prospects, their performance review or influence their manager’s opinion of their ability to do their job.

“These are very real worries which is why it’s so important to emphasise the confidentiality of these programmes and the fact that people can ask for help without judgment,” she says.

“Also, by training leaders and managers, you’re creating a much wider level of awareness of these issues within your organisation which helps to create a climate of trust and acceptance where people can feel safe asking for help.”

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