Words: Dr Nicola Eccles
Employee assistance programmes (EAP) are in place to support colleagues who are experiencing poor mental health or psychological distress. They provide solutions which are typically individually based, such as counselling. Given a recent statistic that nine out of ten UK adults experienced high or extreme stress in the last year and that one fifth of workers had to take time off last year due to poor mental health (as a result of pressure or stress) it would seem obvious that EAPs would be in demand by individuals and organisations.
However the take up of EAPs is consistently low – at around 5% – and we need to consider why.
One of the challenges is that some of them fall short of what’s expected. The BBC recently reported on one EAP that was under investigation, due to its alleged mishandling of calls from vulnerable people to its helpline. According to those interviewed by the BBC, limits on helpline call times and poor decision making by non-clinical members of the EAP team could have put lives at risk.
Research suggests that the focus on individual remedy rather than the context might also curtail uptake. EAPs are most effective when organisations address the psychological safety climate. That is, an EAP is only as affective as the climate of psychological safety within the organisation. Arguably, this is because if the climate feels secure then individuals don’t worry about judgement in accessing their EAP.
What is psychological safety and how can organisations improve it? We initially heard about psychological safety back in the 1950s. The clinical psychologist Carl Rogers prompted interest in ‘self-worth’ and the ideal environment to allow people to feel a sense of ‘unconditional worth’, with minimal evaluation or judgement. In terms of the workplace, this developed into the concept of working without fear of negative consequences.
Amy Edmonson, a renowned scholar in psychological safety, defines it as: “The belief that the work environment is a safe space to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. It is present when people trust and respect each other and they feel able, or even feel a sense of responsibility, to be honest. In other words, open and authentic communication is welcomed.”
In previous generations, pace and precision (on an assembly line, for example) was the critical skill. In the modern workplace, we manage complex relationships and process diverse information, making hundreds of tiny decisions daily, trying to fight ‘fire’ and solve new problems. We must take risks without a fear of consequences, experimenting with ideas without feeling stupid.
The workplace today is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, described in research as ‘VUCA’. Within this kind of workplace, we need to feel psychologically safe to thrive. If we don’t feel psychological safety then we feel fear – which counteracts effective thinking, leadership, co-operation and decision making.
So, for an EAP to be successful we need to create a psychologically safe environment. This emerges through a group rather than an individual. Managers and leaders are responsible for this creation through listening, acknowledging contribution and inviting awkward and challenging conversation with no retribution.
