EAP Program
Most organisations within the current vocational climate provide an EAP service to their staff for a range of issues that might be affecting their personal or working relationships. Whether government, not for profit or private, most agencies generally provide between 6-10 sessions annually to their staff (and sometimes families) which may involve crisis intervention, counselling, interpersonal skills training, psycho education or psychotherapy.
If you belong to a small to medium workplace, whilst your employer may not have a ‘formalised EAP service’ for their employees to contact, they will generally agree to providing some annual sessions to yourself and your family members if you book an appointment with your own chosen Counsellor/Psychologist. Confirmation from your employer ‘MUST’ be provided to us in writing/email prior to your appointment in order for them to cover the cost of your sessions.
Our EAP Program endeavours to provide your business with the opportunity to ‘reduce it’s people risks’ over the long term and offer a value add service so that you are recognised as a preferred employer. Furthermore, the EAP process aims is to improve productivity in the workplace by reducing the incidence of absenteeism, the affects of stress, anxiety, depression and other symptoms that can sometimes negatively impact the working environment and place considerable pressure on people in human resources roles. EAP organisations integrate services to employers and their employees to alleviate psychosocial, psychological and work-related behavioural issues which impact on work, personal wellbeing and productivity.
Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides confidential and effective solution-focused counselling to employees and their families onsite at our professional offices. We offer EAP programs to small – medium level organisations. Our professional consulting rooms provide your staff with off-site private and confidential services so that positive outcomes are maximised. Telephone and Skype are also available as required. We offer competitive rates @ $180 (+GST) per 50 minute session utilised by each staff or family member for general (our site), telephone, email or Skype support. This is generally charged on a case by case basis. We also provide Critical Incident Attendance (CIA), Educational Workshops, Mediation Services, and Seminar packages if this is also required on a situational basis @$300 per hour plus travel. Each organisation receives annual statistical reports as required also within the packaged fees. GST applies to all fees advised.
Our imperative is to provide a service to your business that saves you money in the long term.
There is strong evidence that concludes the overall return on investment of a good EAP program is between 5-10 times return on investment the company spend measured by a reduction in absenteeism, increased productivity and overall insurance/legal costs (Hargrave et al, 2008; Jorgensen, 2007).
Typically, EAP service components include:
(a) professional, short term counselling, with referral and case management;
(b) management consultations to address work-related, behavioural issues;
(c) organisational and team interventions and
(d) aggregate reporting to assess effective program penetration and to direct the development of preventive strategies.
The Key Benefits of an EAP program:
- EAP services will enable you to prevent, identify and resolve personal and work related issues before they negatively impact your workplace
- EAP Services increase staff morale, now seen as an excellent employee benefit for ‘employers of choice’
- They ‘improve productivity’ due to the improvement in personal life distractions and issues
- They ‘reduce the risk of workplace accidents and compensation claims’ by having a proactive system in place for supporting your employees mental health
- They assist managers to deal with those often tricky and complex employee issues and challenges
- EAP Services ‘reduced workplace absenteeism’ by increasing positive mental health and support
What we provide:
- Short term solution focussed counselling with ‘a qualified and mature team of Psychologists and Counsellors’
- Management support for many different work or personal related topics which reduces the risk of isolation amongst high level employees
- Full Access to Crisis Counselling and attendance to Critical Incidents
- A fully accessible ‘Manager Hotline’ – Modern work is challenging for managers, this service allows managers to call us, text or email us anytime to ask us a question about managing a difficult employee or situation at work. This gives managers immediate peace of mind about their decisions and next best steps to take.
- Access to Talk Text, Email and Chat counselling for general staff – This allows employees to simply text to a special mobile that connects people immediately with a Psychologist (Text counselling may not suit all counselling concerns). The most important thing about text counselling is it allows people to connect, quickly and immediately, wherever they are.
- Critical Incidents – We provide incident management, triage, response and recommendations as part of the service. We also provide 24 hrs/7days and 30 day follow up advice all included.
- Monthly invoicing and Quarterly or Annual Reporting – This powerful reporting is provided de-identified to give you an idea of the sorts of issues employees are seeking help for. This report also shows industry benchmarking so you can see how your company compares to other similar organisations.
- Materials – Brochures and business wallet cards.
Critical Incidents: They can happen anywhere, anytime.
A critical incident is an event, often unexpected, that poses an actual or perceived threat to an employee’s well being that produces a strong emotional response that temporarily overwhelms an employee’s ability to cope.
Our counsellors provides a ‘best practice service’ for when these unexpected events occur.
The most common critical incidents with which employers’ request assistance are:
- Employee death or disability
- Suicide attempt
- Violence in or near the workplace, such as robbery
- Workplace accidents
- Redundancies
- Organisational restructuring
The Initial Call
When calling our practice you are connected to a professional with critical incident response experience. You are asked questions to evaluate what’s happened, what’s needed immediately and how to respond over the days that follow. We undertake a comprehensive assessment of the situation and provides ongoing support from the time of call. An option for some crises is on-site assistance for employees and managers. Managers are supported and educated in understanding how to care for their employees in a confidential and thoughtful manner.
Onsite Support
Depending on the type and intensity of the event, the critical incident responder (Psychologist or Counsellor) may be needed on site within a few hours of the crisis. More commonly, though, scheduling an on-site visit within 24-48 hours of an event is best. Workers may be in shock in the immediate aftermath of a critical event and may not benefit from interacting with a professional right away. And logistically, it may be difficult to gather employees together. Depending on circumstances, the psychologist may stay for several hours, an entire day or sometimes longer.
The Process
The psychologist may conduct group psycho education sessions with employees to review common reactions (emotional and physical responses felt by others who experienced similar events) and discuss coping strategies. One on one support sessions are encouraged as part of our approach to Critical Incidents. Attendance is encouraged but not mandatory. The goal is to help employees realise that their reactions are understandable, reasonable and likely temporary. Ultimately, our psychologists and counsellors can monitor and support any employees that may be particularly vulnerable or significantly affected by a particular incident and provide this information and recommendations to managers.
Next Steps
The psychologist onsite will always remind employees of the various services provided by our EAP Service, including the availability of referrals for individual counselling sessions. They will also encourage leadership to continue to communicate the availability of EAP telephonic or face-to-face counselling afterward, too.
The follow up
We generally undertake a 4 week follow up review of all impacted employees to ensure that screening and support for Acute Stress Disorder (2 weeks) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (4 week) is undertaken. Generally the process is ‘same day’, ‘next day’, two week and four week follow up to ensure that your employees are adequately recovering from a critical incident.
For high risk or high potential incident workplaces we can also provide in house training to first responders and leaders in managing traumatic events so you can respond quickly and effectively in situations.
Every incident is different and our experienced team will guide you in managing any incident with confidence, providing the best levels of support based on most recent research and best practice models.
Common Misinterpretations made by Employers
1: Dismissing the event or not reading the situation
“They are all OK, they don’t need any psychological help”. This is the assessment some managers make following the wake of a Critical Incident. It could be inaccurate. Just because employees appear fine does not mean they are fine. Few managers know how to correctly assess the impact of a critical incident.
2: Delaying Response
Waiting several days or weeks in the hope that the situation will improve is a risky option. Contacting EAP is not a sign of poor management skills. Rather it takes true leadership to acknowledge the range of emotional reactions following a critical incident.
3: Discouraging Communication
It is important to encourage a workplace to discuss their feelings rather than stifle them. They may impact on workplace performance and day-to-day functioning. Employees need to talk about these significant events. They will do so anyway and it is far more constructive to do it with the EAP who can focus on resilience and positive coping strategies.
4: Misunderstanding the purpose of a Critical Incident Team
The goal of an onsite psychologist is to support workers to process their emotions positively following a critical incident. Issues such as conflict between 2 employees, poor job performance and sexual harassment claims should all be taken seriously. However they do not meet the criteria for a Critical Incident. The EAP can assist however it would fall under Organizational Development services.
Workshops Training
We divide our workshops into two delivery areas –
- Workshops for Leaders and
- Workshops for Employees
Then under each of these we have developed workshops focussed on Enhanced Performance and Holistic Well-Being.
Workshops for Employees
Workshops can be facilitated in 1, 2, 3 or 4 Hour Formats
Enhanced Performance
- Effective Customer Care
- Healthy Boundaries
- Cultural Intelligence
- Fatigue Management
- Time Management
- Emotional Management
- Anger Management
- Strength Based Reflective Practice
- Job Interviews
Holistic Wellbeing
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Resilience and Self Care
- Mindfulness
- Grief & Loss
- Drugs, Alcohol and Other Addictions
- Sleep
- Mental Health Literacy
- Assertiveness / Self-Confidence
- Personal Relationships (Enhancing PR – separating well)
Workshops for Leaders
Workshops can be facilitated in 1, 2, 3 or 4 Hour Formats
Enhanced Performance
- Managing Mental Health for Managers
- Middle Management training for New Managers
- Managing Change
- Bullying and Harassment
- Leading with Dignity & Respect
- Policies and Procedures
- Supervision and Reflective Practice
- Building a Culture of High Performance
- Outplacement/Change
- Appraisals
- Breaking Bad News
- Critical Incident Training
- Soft Skills for Managers (counselling staff)
- Introduction to Mentoring
Holistic Wellbeing
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Resilience and Self Care
- Mindfulness
- Grief & Loss
- Drugs, Alcohol and Other Addictions
- Sleep
- Mental Health Literacy
- Assertiveness / Self-Confidence
- Fatigue Management
- Emotional Intelligence
We also develop ‘bespoke workshops’ for any workplace situation you may wish to address via training of your team. Please talk to us about your particular needs and our professional team will prepare an exceptional training plan for your particular situation. We have access to some of the best trainers and researchers in Australia to deliver workshops that really work.
Employee Turnover Management – Exit Interviews
Externally conducted exit interviews can be a powerful tool for your organization. With employee replacement costs at about 150% its extremely valuable to establish the reasons people are leaving your employment. We often hear HR people say, ‘we never seem to get the real reasons people are leaving us”. By utilising our Employee Turnover Management Service, we will conduct an exit interview with each staff member and you will get to the root of the reasons why people might want to leave your organization. Our carefully constructed processes will get you the best feedback from exiting employees. If you use us regularly we can also show you trend reporting to help you identify the particular job areas to improve upon inside your business to ensure your turnover decreases. Psychologists have a valued reputation as holding the highest skills in interviewing, consultation and investigative methods
Fees for our EAP Services:
We offer competitive rates @ $180 per 50 minute session utilised by each staff or family member for general (our site), telephone, email or Skype support. This is generally charged on a case by case basis.
For any Critical Incident or Onsite Services such as workshops, mediation services, training and seminars packages fees start @$300 per hour plus travel.
Invoices are sent out monthly and we provide annual statistical reports to all our EAP Organizations as required (fees apply). GST applies to all fees. Should your organization require pamphlets, business cards and general material for a more formal service then the cost involves a package fee but will depend on your specific needs.
EAP Counselling – Outcomes, impact and return on investment study