Employee Assistance Programs: what are they and what services do they offer?

Let's take a look at what Employee Assistance Programs are and what benefits the psychologist brings to them.

The idea that the only thing that companies should provide for their employees is an income stream is totally outdated nowadays.

And it is not simply a question of fashion, or of pure corporate image: it is known that organizations in which people work on a daily basis have an important potential to improve the well-being of employees, beyond the monetary. And that, if applied in the right way, this potential is profitable and has a positive impact on the performance of the entire company.

That is why more and more organizations are taking an active role in this matter and are including in their operation Employee Assistance ProgramsThe psychologists play a fundamental role in this type of initiatives, which are not only in the largest and most innovative multinationals, but are also consolidating in the national business fabric.

What are Employee Assistance Programs?

The Employee Assistance Programs (PAE) are a set of free services and protocols for the set of free services and protocols designed to offer assistance to employees, within the company, in the field of work psychology and organizations.They are a set of free services and protocols designed to help employees, within the company, to address problems that are not necessarily limited to the context of the organization, but that affect the employee's behavior at work. These services are free and confidential, so that each employee can talk about their personal problems without fear of being vulnerable in a competitive environment.

On the other hand, this kind of support of different types does not only encompass physical or psychological health. For example, it may include the option of finding alternative schedules to allow more time to care for a sick family member, or legal consulting services, management of communication problems between the employee and another co-worker, etc.

However, it is clear that many of the needs of employees have to do with psychological distress.. In this last category there are several frequent problems that we will see below.

The role of the psychologist in EAPs

What do we psychology professionals do to cover the flank of Employee Assistance Programs that have to do with mental health or psychological well-being? Here are some of the functions that employees most often turn to.

1. Help with stress or burnout management

In many work environments, there are workers who workers who, for one reason or another, experience too much stress and anxiety.. Sometimes, this discomfort reaches the extreme of becoming burnout syndrome, in which the employee, in addition to experiencing an accumulation of anxiety, feels emotionally disconnected from their work and only sees it as a means to avoid losing their paycheck.

Sometimes, a large part of the problem lies in the place where they work, the offices; in others, the root of the problem lies in the family home. But what is clear is that this discomfort affects job performance, making the person feel even worse for not being able to reach his or her goals.

In any case, psychologists are trained to help a lot in this, as agents of change (for the better) who are between the boundary of the work context and the personal context. We can train workers in stress reduction techniques. and, if necessary, communicate with the appropriate section of Human Resources so that they can try to adapt the working conditions of that person, directing him or her towards a more optimal way of working.

2. Professional support in case of bereavement

The death of loved ones is one more proof that the line dividing personal life, on the one hand, and work life, on the other, is nothing more than an illusion, or at least a social convention. We may compartmentalize our way of presenting an image of who we are in order to adapt to different contexts, but emotions do not understand compartments, and a worker who feels bad at home will also feel bad at the office, which will be reflected in his or her work.

3. Conflicts

The very nature of most workplaces is prone to fuel conflict between people if we are not able to mediate and provide psychological interventions for emotional regulation.

For this reason, psychologists can also take a broader view of the groups that make up the organization, going beyond the individual patient, and favor a good management of these misunderstandings or clashes of interests.. The fact that a company's philosophy is based on a competitive spirit does not necessarily imply that poor anger management or the normalization of hostility prevails.

4. Time management problems

In some Spanish companies, especially in those in which there is no clearly established timetable for many of the sections of the organization chart, there are cases of people who, without knowing very well how, spend the whole day in the officeDespite knowing that they could be much more efficient. Psychologists can help in these cases, helping these people to adopt more structured work habits with fewer distractions.

5. Integration of foreign workers

People who go to live and work in other countries may have problems due to the culture shock of being surrounded 24 hours a day by ways of thinking and behaving that are significantly different from those to which they have become accustomed. This can make the job unpleasant simply because of the association of experiences.If the fact of living in another country is unpleasant, it is difficult to like the workspace inserted in that country.

Therefore, having psychologists involved in the Employee Assistance Programs are a good way to offer psychological assistance on site, so that the adaptation to this new environment is done as quickly and harmoniously as possible.

Bibliographical references:

• Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.B. and Leiter, M.P. (2001) Job Burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397,422.
• Rodríguez Fernández, A. (2004). Psicología de las organizaciones. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.