“There is no health without mental health; mental health is too important to be left to the professionals alone, and mental health is everyone’s business.”
Vikram Patel – Harvard professor and psychiatrist
Value
Benefit Evaluation
A healthy work force is critical to the success of any organization. Traditional approaches to employee benefits packages are no longer effective in this competitive labor market. It is time to reevaluate how you provide the most value to your employees through overhauling your employee benefit packages.
Attract and retain quality talent through your package offerings
Build organizational resilience with a compelling purpose
Increase benefit utilization at an affordable price
Improve the health of your workforce
Organizational Mental Health Program Design
Organizational mental health programs are becoming increasingly necessary for employers to attract, retain and grow talent. It is becoming an expectation of workers and a standard for high performing organizations. Effective mental health programs or EAP’s all share the following characteristics:
- Accessible
- Leader supported
- Multifaceted
- Measurable
- Culturally relevant
At Human Capital we are uniquely positioned to help your organization develop an effective workplace mental health program. We have first hand experience researching, administering, and providing workplace mental health programs. We will help you develop a program scaled to the size of your organization founded on the 5 characteristics listed above.
What does an organizational mental health or wellness program look like?
Organizational mental health programming varies widely across organizations. There are philosophical implications (employee vs. employer responsibility for health) practical consideration such as cost, and also privacy related implications concerns to address. Some preliminary factors to weigh when considering investing in an organizational mental health program include:
- Organizational budget
- Type of job or role
- Employee needs
- Length of employee lifecycle
- Employee demographics
A basic organizational plan typically includes a Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and wellness initiatives tied to the organizations medical benefits (ex: smoking cessation, weight loss). That is the cookie cutter model you will find in mid-to-large employers. The problem with using a such an approach is that it does not work well. The smoking cessation and weight management interventions are aimed at decreasing the health plan premium and has a positive impact in that regard. The typical EAP program is not utilized by employees with utilization rates of 3-10%. If such a small number of employees utilized the EAP benefit why would organizations keep it?
There are a myriad of reasons including a positive ROI on increased productivity and decreased health insurance utilization cost. Well intentioned leaders all too often direct employees to utilize the EAP as a way of avoiding the topic of workplace mental health. Human resource departments almost always direct leaders to include EAP recommendations into written disciplinary actions.
We are navigating a new era in the workplace. DEIJ is becoming more prominent as it should be. If an organization is truly committed to developing a workplace that supports the mental health of employees, there are actions we at Human Capital can assist with implementing. Contact us today to assess, design or implement a strategy.
