Employers are on the frontline when it comes to support on mental wellbeing, with more staff being directed towards EAPs by their GP. HR leaders need to be working more closely with their EAP providers on pro-active prevention to protect the availability of services like counselling.

Levels of demand for EAPs have reached new highs: more self-awareness around mental health has combined with immediate worries around the cost-of-living crisis; political and economic instabilities; climate change; remote working routines.

In the post-pandemic workplace, more employees are making use of their EAP. The average usage figure during 2022 topped 12%, compared with the typical average from previous years of 10.4% — a small difference in the numbers that translates to a huge number of additional calls on services, given that EAPs are available to 24.45 million employees in 105,000 organisations in the UK. The increasing reliance on EAP support isn’t confined to particular regions of the UK, some business sectors or type of organisation. The demand is coming from everywhere. And notably, the pattern of calls has changed. Whereas there used to be known peaks on Sunday evenings and Monday mornings — now the peaks can come at anytime.

The majority of calls received by EAPs continue to be due to anxiety and depression. What’s hidden in the headline figures around usage is the nature of the calls being dealt with. EAPA members report that they are receiving more complex, longer and more intense calls on a regular basis. There has been a significant increases in referrals from GPs to EAPs as the usual ‘go-to’ option, due to NHS waiting times for access to mental health support (which in some cases has been reported to be more than two years).

In the last recorded year, an estimated 640,250 employees contacted their EAP — of which, 434,250 (68%) were offered counselling as a result of concerns over their mental health. As a consequence, EAPs provided more than 1.375 million counselling sessions. On average, 1.7% of counselling cases came with a ‘red flag’ (involving an immediate and serious risk of suicide). This translates to more than 10,000 lives at risk that EAPs supported. Some EAP providers report red flag cases as being at levels above 3%.

The question for HR is: can EAP offerings — originally designed purely to deal with providing straightforward, short-term advice — be used as a replacement for NHS treatment? EAPs are worried about increasingly needing to act as a ‘blue light’ emergency service, and becoming overwhelmed by demand. As Sir Cary Cooper has commented in response to the EAP figures: “The EAP sector has coped this far with the giant swell of demand and more serious cases, through training and recruitment initiatives, more online services and apps. But neither employers nor the UK as a whole can afford to see EAPs become overwhelmed.”

With this in mind, HR leaders and EAPs need to be working more closely together to make sure current levels of access to important services like counselling can be maintained. This means a partnership to deal with the risks from poor mental health in the workplace and an approach focused on actual needs and action. Partners not just suppliers and customers; breaking out of the cycle where competition among EAP suppliers means companies are continually expanding their range of services, with others needing to follow and stretching resources further away from core delivery.

HRDs need to be looking in detail at their data on absence to build a clear picture of what the pressure points are: where and when do they occur, and among which particular staff groups? The insights should be used to determine the kinds of early intervention and preventative campaigns needed to stop people from reaching the crisis stage and the need for extended programmes of mental health support and counselling. Data evidence should be at the core of the mental wellbeing strategy, as the basis for directing action and use of resources.

Fundamentally that action includes encouraging employees to use their EAP much earlier on, when initial concerns emerge, not when a situation has become a crisis. But HR also need to look at what changes can be made to the design of work roles and routines to minimise unreasonable levels of stress; give more attention to psychological safety within teams and whether people feel able to go to their managers and colleagues to talk?

EAPs have stepped up in difficult times to make sure employers can offer valuable and professional mental health support to their people. But the model has to shift away from EAPs as the replacement for blue light options. Working together on prevention and early intervention will help more employees, protect the integrity of EAP services, and be a practical means of reducing demand for NHS services rather than being a temporary alternative that only serves to hide accumulating problems around provision.