Confidentiality is crucial in mental health support – that’s a given. Employees accessing workplace health and wellbeing services such as employee assistance programmes (EAPs) do so knowing they can talk anonymously to trained counsellors and therapists in complete confidence – their issues won’t go any further. And that’s absolutely as it should be.
But therein lies the problem. EAPs provide anonymised, confidential support, yet this creates a cloak of anonymity: a protective layer which makes it easier for employees to talk to an external counsellor than their own manager. It becomes a barrier to meaningful action and can reinforce distance and disconnect inside an organisation.
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Imagine a situation where dozens of employees are accessing EAP services because they’re struggling with debt, or experiencing financial issues. Maybe some are having issues with their line manager. The employer, of course, has no idea. They may be able to access aggregated data from their EAP and see general themes and numbers of people who have accessed EAP services, but not much else.
It would be completely unethical and against all kinds of clinical and ethical practices for the EAP to share detailed insight with the employer. But from an employers’ perspective: how are they meant to know? How can things possibly change? The organisation isn’t hearing the things it needs to hear in order to make changes and provide support.
The point here is that it’s not enough for organisations to provide EAP services and assume all is well. Organisations – or rather HR leaders – need to take a proactive role in engaging with their workforce.
So what practical steps can leaders take to help remove this cloak of anonymity, and encourage open and honest workplace conversations?
Look at the data that’s coming in, and talk regularly to managers. If the data is showing that a proportion of the workforce are accessing EAPs due to workplace stress or anxiety, yet managers are not having these issues raised within their teams, this is a mismatch, and HR leaders have work to do.
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Openness at work needs to start with onboarding, and extend far beyond it. From the moment an employee starts at an organisation, there needs to be conversations about psychological safety. Normalise this right from the start, and throughout the organisation.
Modelling vulnerability is also advised. When managers and leaders make it known that it's okay to not be okay, whether that’s by actively listening, sharing relatable experiences, or simply showing empathy, it sets the tone for a more human workplace where people feel comfortable to speak up.
Additionally, train managers to have difficult conversations. Provide training around emotional intelligence, how to spot warning signs, and so on. Make psychological safety a managerial KPI.
HR leaders might even want to consider training those with influence as mental health first aiders or mental health ambassadors. What could be more powerful than having leaders themselves as the go-to people for mental health support? Often, employees volunteer to take on these roles to provide additional support and signposting guidance. While these initiatives can bring great benefits to employees, the cloak of anonymity still prevails: the employer remains in the dark about the issues affecting the workplace. If issues aren’t discussed, how can improvements be made?
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So instead, train leaders – the very people who can influence things and drive change – in mental health first aid. Put them at the heart of wellbeing support, so when employees come to them with issues, they are the ones best placed to address it.
None of this is to undermine the important role EAPs play in supporting employee health and wellbeing. But HR leaders need to work alongside workplace wellbeing services and lift the cloak of anonymity by fostering psychological safety which balances privacy with a culture of openness.
By Karl Bennett, wellbeing adviser at Perkbox Vivup and chair of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association
