Employers: How to Increase ROI of your EAP
Many employers hired the added benefit of an EAP years ago and saw low utilization rates until recently with Covid-19 increasing the needs of employees for additional assistance. EAPs cover the gaps that traditional benefits often leave out, taking into account the employee as a whole person with a number of responsibilities and stressors outside the workplace. Additionally, since EAP utilization is entirely protected by HIPAA, employees may feel more apt to engage with its services knowing there’s confidentiality.
As an employer, you might feel you’re paying for an EAP and not getting your ROI. This could be in part the confidentiality model, and also because employees may not know it exists, if they do, they might not understand the depth of services available. Here’s a tip on boosting utilization: If you have an EAP, make it clear to employees (again) that it exists and list the services offered. Specifically focus on the services for employees who double as caregivers.
According to the 2020 AARP Report:
89% Caregivers of adults care for a relative
50% care for a parent or parent-in-law
12% care for a spouse or partner (12 percent),
8% care for a grandparent or grandparent-in-law
6% care for an adult child
10% provide care to a friend or neighbor
40% of employed caregivers live with the person receiving their care, a significant increase from the 34% in 2015.
74% of caregivers aged 75 and older are caring from someone their own age or older
A second tip is that many of your employees who are caring for people who either live with them or live outside the employees home, are unaware that they are considered “family/informal caregivers.” Helping staff members to understand that as an employer, you know they have external responsibilities and that in our modern era, more people are caring for people at home than ever before. Make it clear that your EAP can help them to find resources, relief and support.
If you’re unsure what your EAP covers, speak with HR and the Employee Benefits specialist within your organization.
Perhaps you are unaware of the caregivers in your organization, or do not think caregiving resources are necessary. A report from Harvard Business School’s The Caring Company produced the results below in 2019. The “care paradox” is a mismatch between what employers perceive and what employees actually experience. This data also makes the point that if no data is collected and conversations with staff are not had, employers may be remiss to understand their employees’ needs and how it’s affecting their company culture, morale, and bottom line.
The next graph shows the distribution of surveyed employees who ranked specific benefits, if provided, how they would impact the employee’s ability to be productive at work. The top rated benefits are caregiving referral services and flexible working hours, both directly related to employees who act as caregivers.
Below are the results of employees who said caregiving impacted their ability to be productive at work. Those who are caregiving state that some of the time to all of the time, caregiving impacts their ability to be productive at work. No specific age group is affected more than the others, and also does not apply to specific positions in the workplace. Showing that this loss of productivity could be counteracted with additional services that an EAP can support.
Doctor’s Choice can support EAPs and employees who use them through Medicare enrollment support, education, and guidance. If employees themselves are not Medicare-eligible, often the person they are caregiving for, is eligible. Getting that person signed up for a plan, making sure they are receiving maximum coverage to put everyone at ease, and also utilizing all services insurance can provide to alleviate the burden on the caregiver while balancing caregiver cost is essential to increasing productivity at work.
To summarize:
An increasing number of employees are doubling as caregivers for older adults
Of those employees, many do not self-identify as caregivers and therefore do not know there’s resources available for them
An EAP is uniquely structured to accommodate caregiving needs and resources
To increase utilization of your EAP, make sure employees are aware it exists, explicitly speak to the services it provides as they are relevant to your company’s demographics
To overcome the “care paradox” make sure to have conversations, surveys, and understanding for how many of your employees double as caregivers
Sources:
2020 Report Caregiving in the U.S. - AARP. (2020, May). Retrieved April 2, 2021, from https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2020/05/full-report-caregiving-in-the-united-states.doi.10.26419-2Fppi.00103.001.pdf
The Caring Company: How employers can help employees manage their caregiving responsibilities—while reducing costs and increasing productivity (Rep.). (2019, January 17). Retrieved April 22, 2021, from Harvard Business School website: https://www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/Documents/The_Caring_Company.pdf