Our EAP: Pam Whiteley, Reward Manager at household products manufacturer McBride
Our EAP: Pam Whiteley, Reward Manager at household products manufacturer McBride
“McBride launched its EAP in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, aiming to support colleagues during those challenging times. We’ve continued to offer this service ever since.
“Our EAP provider has global coverage, allowing all colleagues to access the service from day one, along with their immediate household members. This encompasses over 3,400 colleagues across nine European countries, three countries in Southeast Asia, and Australia.
“The McBride EAP features a 24/7 telephone helpline offering unlimited support for colleagues dealing with stress, anxiety, relationship issues, or other personal and work-related challenges. Additionally, there’s an online hub for information and advice, and colleagues can access licensed therapists, coaches, and other mental health professionals for up to six sessions of counselling or coaching per issue, per year. These sessions can be conducted virtually or face-to-face, depending on the issue and the preferred type of counsellor, such as a female who speaks Dutch.
“Currently, usage of the EAP has been relatively low. Two-thirds of recent queries have been related to legal issues, wills, and divorce, while the remaining third have been related to counselling. Our challenge lies in raising awareness about the EAP and the wide range of services it offers. We’ve encountered some technical difficulties ensuring everyone can access the app, and we’re working on effectively communicating the benefits of the EAP to colleagues through various channels such as emails, webinars, posters, TV screens, noticeboards and during the onboarding process.
“We receive numerous updates from our EAP provider relating to a wide variety of topics such as mental health, ADHD, and trauma, and the materials are consistently excellent. We have a global account manager and one of the good things about our EAP is that they have local managers who can provide more insights on what’s available locally.
“We’re striving to find the best way to disseminate EAP-related information within the business, which can be complex given the number of countries involved. Recently, I held a session with all the local HR Managers to talk about the EAP offering and discuss how we can collaborate to effectively share this information in their regions and ultimately increase engagement levels. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact of this work in our next quarterly review, where we can not only evaluate what has happened, but can identify further opportunities to increase usage levels further.”