Why You Can’t Just ‘Set and Forget’ an EAP

EAPs can be useful, but they’re not everything you need.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have long been thought of as the answer to a mental health or wellbeing crisis in the workplace.

They’re seen as a safety net that will catch anyone suffering from mental health issues and once it’s in place, you’re all set.

This is obviously not the case, as the data keeps showing us time and time again.

Whilst EAPs are useful tools when used correctly they are not proactive and should certainly not encompass the entirety of your approach to wellbeing management.

Here’s why you can’t just ‘set and forget’ an EAP and clock off when it comes to mental health in the workplace.

They‘re reactive.

EAPs are typically used as reactive devices to ‘catch’ people when they fall, but in modern wellbeing management we know that being proactive in our approach yields far greater benefits than simply reacting to a crisis.

Prevention is far, far greater than cure (if there even is such a thing as a ‘cure’ when it comes to mental health management) and proactively addressing wellbeing is an absolute must.

Not everything is a ‘crisis’.

When it comes to mental wellbeing, not everything is considered worthy of calling an external service and sometimes people just need a little support.

If one of your staff is having a tough day and needs someone to talk to or somewhere to turn, chances are they’re not going to call a stranger to help them through it.

If you stumble on a high platform you don’t straight away jump into the safety net, you grab onto something or ask someone nearby for help first.

Ensure there are simple channels and resources for your people to turn to when they’re struggling so a tough day doesn’t turn into a tough week and a tough week into a tough month.?

They’re not cognizant of your workplace dynamics.

An EAP service is not embedded in your workplace.

They don’t see what goes on day to day and they aren’t aware of the challenges your people are facing.

This is not their fault, as it would be impossible for them to stay up to date with every organisation they operate in, but it is nonetheless a severe limitation and why they can’t be used as your entire mental health intervention strategy.?

They won’t catch everyone.

Around 1 in 5 of your people are going to struggle with a mental health issue in a given year, but only around 3 in 100 of your people will call an EAP service in that year.

An EAP is a useful tool to have because it helps some people, but many others who might need it won’t utilise it for one reason or another.

It’s great to have this as a safety net but we know from the data that they can not and will not catch everyone who falls.?

This is not an article about why you shouldn’t have an EAP service.

Quite the contrary, as they can be extremely useful when used correctly, it’s an article about the need for being proactive in your approach to mental health and wellbeing in your workplace and why you can’t rely on an EAP to solve all your problems.

With the relatively recent changes to how psychosocial safety hazards are addressed and legislated there is now a requirement to proactively address them in the workplace, which goes far beyond the traditional safety nets of the past.

That is a much larger topic and one we will be covering in detail in future posts but for now, think beyond how you can manage crises and more about how you can prevent them from happening, and that’s a great start.?

Question: How heavily should we be relying on EAP services to solve mental health crises?

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