What’s going to work in a national ‘ mental health recovery plan ’?

The 2022 Workplace Health Report commissioned by the NHS flags some worrying trends for employers: 58% of employees claiming to be experiencing mild symptoms of anxiety, and 18% that they have already been diagnosed with a mental health problem.

There is a gender divide. In the study, carried out by Champion Health, 37% of men reported symptoms of anxiety and 32% of depression, compared with 62% of women reporting anxiety and 61% of depression.

The main cause for stress was found to be levels of workload, followed by a ‘lack of control’, and ‘lack of support’. Outside of work, 30% of employees pointed to financial wellbeing as the biggest cause of stress.

On their own

Meanwhile, at the same time as more than half of employees are reporting mental wellbeing concerns post-Covid-19, relatively few are getting any support. Only 9% of employees say they are currently receiving support and treatment. 61% claim to have never received any kind of help. Three-quarters of those who have accessed support are women.

Sean Duggan, the CEO of the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, is calling for the Government to map out a mental health recovery plan for the UK, looking at long-term policy and filling shortfalls in funding for NHS services.

Who’s on call?

“It’s critical that we, as a country, acknowledge that we’re living in a different world when it comes to mental wellbeing,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The Champion Health report urges employers to think about the causes of stress in their organisation, and how these can be mitigated with more reasonable workloads and targets — based on an assumption that if things do go wrong the NHS will be there to deal with mental illnesses.

“Experience shows there isn’t the capacity, waiting times for appointments and treatments can be very long, and employees are put off from getting any help at all.

“In this context, immediate support through an EAP is an essential. Confidential professional support that’s always available and provides a channel into counselling when it’s needed.”

The Ukraine and Russia conflict happening in your workplace

A major conflict like the invasion of Ukraine sends out ripples across societies and into workplaces, particularly in a multicultural nation like the UK.

Staff with a Ukrainian background or links will be living with intense day-to-day anxieties; Russian nationals might be worried about criticism, harassment and their future prospects; while other employees will have their own fears about an escalation of the crisis, the growing impact on their finances, or have become embroiled in heated social media exchanges.

When sympathies are confidential

Under the 2018 Data Protection Act, employees are allowed to keep their personal background — and any particular links to the conflict — confidential. At the same time, it’s obviously a key part of an employer’s duty of care to make sure HR are thinking about the impacts on staff: who might be in need of emotional support, whether managers need to pay particular attention to how some are being treated.

Employers need to be able to demonstrate they have made reasonable efforts to meet changing needs. That might be allowing time off or more flexible working for staff most affected by the invasion; monitoring behaviours to prevent bullying and harassment — but most of all, to make sure there are opportunities to talk confidentially.

Independent ground

“The invasion has led to all kinds of emotions among staff, many of them personal, sensitive and complex,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“We live in an age when social media is where much of this emotion is displayed, poured out in ways that people will later regret, leading to fierce arguments and a ratcheting up of anger.

“It’s so important that employers are a foundation of understanding and reason, who are there to provide support if and when it’s needed to all their people. EAPs are the natural partner in this situation. They’re able to provide that all-important independence and confidentiality, able to help unpick complexity and offer advice across the spectrum of issues that might be involved.”

The Ukraine and Russia conflict in your workplace – EAPA UK

Who’s going to pay for the energy price hike?

Bosses at a string of smaller businesses are pre-empting the impact of the new energy price cap and the doubling of household energy bills.

That Recruitment Company in Birmingham, for example, have been given a permanent 5% pay increase so that the team don’t feel the pain of energy costs. RSL Renewables in South Shields have followed suit. Staff at Firefish Software in Glasgow have been given a £600 pay rise, while London PR firm Comms Co has given everyone a £700 pay rise.

Posting they care

The action by employers has been a great way to signal to staff — as well as the wider world — that they’re thinking about their people and the hard realities of the 2020s. News of the pay increases has been buzzing with shares and likes on social media.

Chris Stringer, Chief Executive at That Recruitment Company, said: “The energy increase is concerning. Everybody is struggling now. I don’t think you should work just to pay the bills. Life is hard. Anyway, it’s only 14 staff not like 250,000.”

Wider wellbeing

“Quick pay rises to cover the huge increases in energy bills will really be a weight off the minds of staff,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “But that’s obviously only going to be for the very few. Big employers — who will have their own bigger energy costs to pay as a business — just can’t do it.

“We all know that bills will be doubling or maybe even more, but it will take some time for the real impact on budgets and lifestyles and relationships are known. HR need to make sure that their people are actively thinking about what it means for them. Anticipating problems and planning for ways to cope. EAPs are here and easily accessible to make sure those conversations can happen early.”

Who’s going to pay for the energy price hike? EAPA UK

Do you have a ‘work-spouse’?

More usually, work and home are seen as being a disruptive influence on each other: working couples struggle to balance responsibilities, who’s dropping the kids at school, and what happens when someone has to work late?

Researchers at the University of Bath (alongside IESE Business School and Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands) studied the experiences of 260 couples where both partners were working. The purpose of the research had been to discover what happens when it comes to sharing out chores — and then where couples look for support when they are feeling under stress or worried about work/life clashes.

Love and the co-worker

Rather than going to talk about work/life balance issues with a manager, it was found that colleagues were far more important for support and advice. These are what the researchers refer to as ‘work-spouses’.

“They are the starting point of what we call a ‘gain spiral’, in which the benefits of a supportive relationship with colleagues then transfers to an employee’s home life, where they are subsequently shared with a partner,” say the researchers.

“In the other direction, a loving relationship at home is likely to translate into greater dedication and creativity in the work place.  if you’re happy at work, you’ll be happier at home, which in turn will make you better at your job.”

Caring spiral

“Most often, home and work lives have been thought of as acting against each other. Conflict in one place leads to trouble in the other,” suggests EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“It’s useful to think about the other side of the picture and how good practices of caring and support lead to a virtuous circle. EAPs play an important part in this kind of culture. People know they always have someone to speak to, they can open up and move forward. And that’s such a fundamental principle for working couples to catch problems early and start conversations before things escalate or fester. Employers can only ever benefit from a cycle of positive feelings and experiences in terms of satisfaction and productivity.”

Do you have a ‘work-spouse’? – EAPA UK

Can wellbeing be a priority at the same time as post-pandemic growth?

Fewer than a quarter of managers in new research say that employee mental wellbeing is a priority for them in 2022.

The research by King’s College London an South Westminster Business Alliance also suggests that managers are also aware of their own shortcomings: 78% agreed they wouldn’t be able to spot the signs of struggles with mental health among their teams. The main causes of issues were found to be related to work rather than home.

Hybrid working, it was discovered, just makes the signs of poor mental health among employees harder to spot.

Troubles ahead

The findings come at a time when growing financial pressures — from spiking energy bills and inflation generally — are likely to bring more stresses on employees and their relationships.

King’s College researchers suggest the coming months are a critical time for establishing good processes of support. “There is increasing awareness of the rise in mental health challenges, which have been accelerated by the pandemic. It is a crucial moment in time for employees returning to hybrid working, so is vital that businesses do all they can to support,” said Lucy Strang, Research Associate at the Policy Institute, King’s College London.

“Our research finds that participating companies were advocating health and wellbeing checks, so it is encouraging that given time and resource required that they can deliver and better support employees.”

How growth happens

“Businesses in 2022 are certainly prioritising growth and recovery,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The question is whether an issue like employee wellbeing gets lost in the drive for implementing the necessary changes and hikes in effort. In many ways, the ability of organisations to grow will be based on resilience, the breadth and depth of staff — their engagement and performance. And ultimately all of those things depend on wellbeing and making sure managers and the workplace culture  overall is set up to help.”

UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thursday 31^st March 2022 at 5.00 pm

Webinar Online

The 23rd Annual General Meeting of UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association will be held on Thursday 31^st March 2022 at 5.00 pm 

Order of business

1.       Open the meeting

2.       Apologies

3.       Approve minutes of the last AGM held on 24th March 2021

4.       Chairman’s address

5.       Treasurers report

6.        Election of Officers and Board members

7.       Awards presentation

8.       AOB

9.      Close the meeting

Following the formal part of the meeting, we shall have a discussion on the evolving market for EAP and broadening expectations.

EAP usage and ROI: the pandemic effect in 2021

The pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 put huge pressures onto employers, their people — and also EAPs. Data from the EAPA UK ROI calculator on EAP usage, impact and financial returns in the UK, representing anonymised information from seven million employees, has suggested that 347,000 more employees turned to support from an EAP between October 2020 and October 2021 compared with previous years.

More people used the full range of EAP services – but in particular there was more complexity of cases, meaning more employees withy multiple issues who needed to access ongoing support and counselling.

Rising ROI

A headline from the latest 2020/21 data, based on information from more than 1,000 EAP usage calculations, is the increase in ROI reported: £8.00 per £1.00 invested, compared with £7.27 in the previous year.

Large employers in particular have seen huge increases in their EAP ROI. Up to 50% in some cases (for those with 5,000 or more staff, up on average from £8.43 to £12.75; and from £8.47 to £12.48 for the 1,000-5,000 employee group).

Get more

“EAPs have done a remarkable job in responding to the spikes in demand,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “The industry knows that levels of usage are going to stay high for the foreseeable future as people deal with the ongoing fall-out from Covid-19 and the different impacts on finances, relationships and wellbeing in general.

“For HR it’s a critical time for demonstrating that wellbeing programmes and support is having an impact and that increased spending is worthwhile. Using the EAPA ROI calculator is one way of doing that – as well as making sure attention is being given to the EAP in how its used, its promotion, management and benchmarking.”

EAP usage and ROI: the pandemic effect in 2021 – EAPA UK

A third of employers are still not talking about mental health

In the second year of the global pandemic — when more employees were struggling with the fall-out from all the initial threats and disruption, the disconnection from routines and colleagues, and no end to problems in sight — all employers would have been expected to step up their attention to people’s wellbeing.

Through a YouGov poll, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) asked employers whether they had talked in person to staff about mental wellbeing in the past year. 

Making contact

The survey findings, gathered in time for February’s ‘Time to Talk Day’, showed that more than a third, 35% had not brought the subject up with people (3% didn’t know or couldn’t remember, and another 3% preferred not to say).

In response, Acas has called for employers to make sure they are “approachable, available and encourage team members to talk”, as well as keeping in regular contact with remote and hybrid workers. It has also highlighted the importance of meeting individual needs for different methods of talking — via phone, email or video call.

Value of being pro-active

“The past two years have seen a real focus from HR teams on wellbeing as a whole — but that doesn’t mean the box has been ticked on mental health,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “Occasional awareness campaigns aren’t enough.”

“Steep rises in the use of EAP services in 2021 have been one signal of how employees have needed professional support and people to talk with confidentially. Our latest research at EAPA also shows how the more pro-active employers are in promoting their EAP the bigger the ROI, £8.00 for every £1.00 spent on average, but up to more than £15.00 for some of the most engaged EAP-users.”

A third of employers are still not talking about mental health – EAPA UK

EAPA Virtual Conference

Conference Date: March 24, 2022

Time: 9:00am Eastern Time U.S. – 4:15pm Eastern Time U.S.

Cost: Register Early and Take Advantage of Early Bird Rates! 

• Early Bird, EAPA Member rate – $300 (through March 1, 2022)
• Early Bird, Non-member rate – $400 (through March 1, 2022)
• Regular Registration, EAPA Member rate – $350 (March 2 – March 21)
• Regular Registration, Non-member rate – $450 (March 2 – March 21)

PDH Credits available: Approved by the EACC for 5 PDHs

Schedule of Events:

• 9:00am – 9:15am – General Opening
• 9:15am – 10:15am – Session 1 (3 sessions to choose from)
• 10:30am – 11:30am – Session 2 (3 sessions to choose from)
• 11:30am – 12:30pm – Lunch Break
• 12:30pm – 1:30pm – Keynote – Integrative Care in Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment, Dr. Philip Hemphill
• 1:45pm – 2:45pm – Session 3 (3 sessions to choose from)
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Session 4 (3 sessions to choose from)
• 4:00pm – 4:15pm – Concluding thoughts

Join Us!

Please join us for the first ever EAPA Virtual Conference! The event will take place on Thursday, March 24, 2022. This event will offer you the opportunity to earn PDH/CEU hours, while participating in interesting sessions, networking with new and old friends, and getting back to the business of being together and learning.

We will kick off the day with opening remarks from EAPA President Kristin Rantala and EAPA CEO Julie Fabsik-Swarts. Following the opening remarks, we will have 2 morning breakout sessions, each separated by a 15-minute break, and then we will break for lunch. During lunch, you can use tools provided by the platform to connect with other attendees. You will have the ability to send messages to people through the platform, and you can also do things like make calls through the platform. Use that hour to meet new people or catch up with folks that you haven’t seen in a while! At 12:30pm, we will reconvene for our keynote speaker Philip Hemphill, PhD, presenting Integrative Care in Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment. When we finish with the keynote, we will go back into two afternoon breakout sessions, each separated by a 15-minute break. At 4pm, we will all re-convene as a group to hear some concluding thoughts, from Kristin Rantala and Julie Fabsik-Swarts. We will conclude for the day by 4:15pm ET.

Find out more about the EAPA Virtual Conference HERE

Why UK employers lead the world on wellbeing practice

Based on data on people practices and policies from across 1,800 organisations certified by Top Employers Institute, the UK is doing substantially more around health and wellbeing.

Almost all UK Top Employers offer an EAP (98% of the 84 that have been certified). That compares with 71% internationally. Meanwhile 80% in the UK have their own wellbeing champion to drive initiatives versus 59% elsewhere. There’s also more breadth of offering: 76% have religious or spiritual facilities (compared with 26%); 89% provide financial education (60%). Activity has stepped in the past year. 96% now promote physical activity, up from 79% in the 2020/21 data.

On/off

Importantly, there’s also evidence that UK businesses are trying to address the fall-out from ‘always on’ working. 58% now guarantee time to “unplug” or take stress-relief breaks (up from 44% in last year’s data); 65% now actively discourage use of email outside normal working hours (up from 48%); 48% offer programmes for coping with information overload (38%). 63% now also offer burnout recovery support (compared with 49%).

Other data provides more context for why UK employers are putting more into employee wellbeing. In terms of business priorities for HR, supporting organisational and cultural change remains top; the need to drive growth has jumped into second place. Health and safety of employees has stayed third.

Necessary action

“The top priorities for HR highlighted by the data are all linked,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The need for change and growth in the post-pandemic period, to re-build and re-assert market presence, is clear. But all of that is founded on the effort and commitment of people still dealing with the after-effects of the Covid-19 crisis and all it’s meant for their lives and routines. That’s why new and expanded health and wellbeing practices have become so important, not just as a token principe, but for helping build the resilience of people resources.”

Eugene Farrell on UK wellbeing practice.