The economy and the role of employee assistance programs (EAPs) appear to be inversely proportional. That is, as the global economy sagged during the last year, EAP utilization spiked.
But the trend goes beyond utilization and volume. The nature and intensity of calls to tap EAP resources - an indicator of the issues among employees has changed dramatically as the recession continues. Work-life calls requesting summer camp information have been replaced with urgent calls for financial guidance. In October 2008, calls to ComPsych EAP financial counselors in particular were up more than 30 percent and calls regarding housing assistance due to evictions are at record highs.
These changing needs represent a new door for brokers to open. They represent an opportunity to listen to client challenges, provide counsel and identify employee assistance tools that will better solve employer and employee problems in a down economy.
In fact, the economic downturn is changing the role an EAP can play within your clients’ organizations. For covered employees, a strategically planned and flexible EAP moves beyond mental health to serve recession-induced employee issues such as financial and legal challenges. For employers, the EAP role is evolving. Among some ComPsych clients for example, the EAP has become a ready resource to manage and support layoffs or organizational change. And, if the EAP is strategically positioned for early intervention and integrated with other benefits, it also can have a direct impact on managing spiraling health, medical and disability costs - all while helping employees cope with stress-induced behaviors.
What’s in the Numbers?
As the world’s largest provider of EAPs, ComPsych’s utilization trends are consistent with reports from the American Psychological Association indicating that at least 70 percent of today’s workers are emotionally strained or financially stressed. Overall volume in call centers spiked more than 15 percent since September 2008.
Clearly, the economic downturn brings with it new stressors: the threat of foreclosure or eviction, the erosion of retirement savings, the pain of job loss or a potential relocation. Such financial challenges have spurred an increased employee need for legal and financial advice. And industry data underscore just how much employees need that counsel. A study from market researchers at Russell Research indicates that 88 percent of people surveyed said they were concerned about financial and legal matters. Worse, one in three reported taking time off work - an average of 13 days - to cope with such problems.
Given those numbers, an EAP that helps employees efficiently address credit, housing or legal woes can handily deliver improved productivity. And ongoing, timely promotion of EAP services to meet employees’ current needs will ensure the relevance of the EAP benefit and give the employer the best results.
But it is incumbent upon the benefits broker to educate clients and improve their understanding of EAP value.
Too often, an employer’s understanding of an EAP is limited to the traditional behavioral health counseling component, which has long been the mainstay of many EAPs. Make no mistake - employee needs remain high for services to cope with family stress, anxiety, depression and substance abuse. But brokers who can educate clients about serving employees with targeted, diversified EAP resources such as much-needed legal and financial counseling have an opportunity to grow business as they help clients navigate today’s choppy economy.
A Management Resource
Educating and informing clients now about the increased importance of a full-service EAP is especially critical for those prospects and customers who are considering responding to recession pressures by switching to a “free” EAP such as those offered within the health plan. Why?
First, it’s no secret that many employers have had to scale back their workforce. But what’s left? A downsized staff that - although stressed and likely suffering “survivor guilt” - is expected to be more productive than ever. Supporting that remaining workforce through EAP resources becomes essential to the organization’s ability to power through the recession, normalize and engage employees and sustain overall productivity. Offering an EAP rolled into the health plan often results in less promotion of the benefit and therefore, little usage.
Second, the EAP infrastructure is proving to be a built-in resource to manage layoffs and organizational change. Among the ComPsych EAP services that became vanguards in the last year: critical incident stress debriefings to cope with organizational change; training sessions on how to manage workforce reductions and how to help the remaining workforce cope; outplacement resources to jump-start job searches for departing employees.
Many organizations have asked to extend the availability of EAP benefits beyond employee termination. Such shifts illustrate “value adds” in which the EAP serves as a resource to support change. These robust services can have a major impact on how an organization weathers the economic storm, but such services are not typically found in a scaled-back, free-of-charge EAP tucked within the health plan.
About that Cost Issue
Perhaps the “hardest dollar” quantification of EAP value is emerging in relation to spiraling health care costs. Now more than ever, brokers who counsel clients on uncovering returns on the EAP investment not only solidify the client relationship, but they keep clients current and informed as they steer through the uncertain economy.
Wellness programs are one increasingly common EAP component employers are adopting, even incentivizing, to manage if not lower organizational risks and medical benefits costs. With its roots in behavioral wellness, the EAP is the foundation to drive broader, healthier behavioral changes such as losing weight or sustaining an exercise program. When integrated with a wellness component, the EAP can cross-refer to resolve both mental and physical health issue - early intervention and behavior change that result in reduced health care costs.
In a down economy, the value of a wellness program becomes especially important for employers. Economic stressors often result in unhealthy behavior for employees - smoking, substance abuse or bad dietary choices. An effective EAP and wellness program can proactively address these issues and help employers avoid increased managed behavioral health and medical costs.
Beyond wellness, the degree to which the EAP integrates across the benefits continuum can demonstrate a hard dollar return on investment. For example, we are increasingly helping clients link EAP services to disability and Family and Medical Leave Act administration. The results - reduced claims duration of upwards of 60 percent in some cases - can yield tremendous bottom-line savings.
Benefits brokers are wise to recognize that employees and organizations each suffer in a down economy. By understanding how both groups tap EAPs to cope with the financial fallout, brokers can provide clients with strategic insights that will improve client relationships, widen the portfolio of solutions the broker offers, and ultimately increase sales - all while providing what clearly has become an increasingly essential array of services.
Author Mike Garfield leads global business development for ComPsych Corp., the world’s largest provider of employee assistance programs including integrated EAP, behavioral health, wellness, work-life and crisis intervention services under the GuidanceResources brand.