What can an employee mental wellbeing program look like?

Wikipedia defines Employee Assistance Program as a program that offers free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services for employees.

In the late 1930’s drinking during work hours, on the job was very normalized. But soon enough people started noticing the impact it was having on productivity and job performance. And that is how one of the first programs developed to help employees deal with occupational alcoholism. Some studies also indicate that offering EAPs may result in various benefits for employers, including lower medical costs, reduced turnover and absenteeism, and higher employee productivity.

According to Aon India Primary Care, eight out of ten companies in India have increased their spending on wellbeing in 2023 in comparison to 2019.

Let us try to explore why these programs are great for bringing about desired change at your workplace.

1. Enables a healthy dialogue about health and wellbeing at workplaces where there can be stigma and isolation.
2. Offers a non-judgemental, supportive space for employees to vent their emotions and seek comfort and support.
3. Provides great opportunities to educate and sensitize people about universal problems faced by emotions. This helps in developing camaraderie.
4. Allows an individual to critically evaluate themselves and introspect their choices, behaviors and decisions, ultimately providing a great resource for personal growth.
5. Teaches employees how to manage emotions and learn coping mechanisms and self-help techniques to practice while dealing with concerns such as stress, anxiety, low confidence, lack of boundaries etc.
6. Encourages self-care, promotes healthy work-life balance and contributes to enhancing overall wellbeing. 

Essentially the goal of any EAP is not only to provide support but also to enable and empower individuals to build resources that will allow them to care for their wellbeing and learn new coping mechanisms that they can use in their lives. Look at EAP as a catalyst that is capable of making you start your growth and healing journey. 

Let us look at some of the holistic programs offered by Manah Wellness.

1. LEAP: This program involves wellbeing resources such as reports, blogs, videos and newsletters that are accessible at any time and can provide a rich aid in sensitizing and psycho-educating yourselves through authentic information. All of these mediums are carefully catered by Mental Health Professionals making them credible sources offering trustworthy, authentic and up-to-date information. 

LEAP also includes wellbeing guidebooks that offer step-by-step guidance. These eBooks are your first set of resources to build clarity on what you should seek from your program and where you can achieve early success.

Along with this, you also get access to free Expert Webinars specially curated for HR Leaders that cover diverse topics and can provide you with professional guidance. 

LEAP also includes practical tools that are easy to use in daily lives. They offer easy tracking systems and dashboards for you to monitor your progress regularly. 

This program offers an awesome blend of coping mechanisms and self-help resources.

2. ACTS: This program spreads its roots deeper and focuses on enhancing your journey through Assessments, Content, Tools and Skills. Manah offers an exhaustive self-assessment tool that can add to employees’ awareness about the concerns and understanding of growth areas. This along with check-in calls by the professionals is a great way to keep your wellbeing in check. Manah also offers several courses and workshops. These include wellbeing champions, ambassador training, sensitization workshops and gatekeeper training. This program offers an amazing variety of self-help resources, tools and upskilling opportunities to work on your growth areas.
3. Wellbeing Champions Training Program: This involves choosing volunteers from your organization who will undergo wellbeing champion training. This offers them with right set of skills to contribute to workplace wellbeing. This involves building a place of safety and comfort where everyone is heard, seen and cared for. This also results in higher retention rates, boosts the morale of the organization and increases engagement and satisfaction rates among the employees. This program is great for transforming your workplace and employee communication as well as comprehension.

These programs are not only custom-made for your organization, but they help you holistically in having a well-rounded analysis of your organizational morale and employee wellbeing.

FAQ:

How to select a program for my organization?

A simple need analysis of your organization and employees can make you aware of the growth areas. Not every employee traditionally needs counselling services. Sometimes they may also benefit from socialisation, listening spaces, working on their communication skills or simply spending more bonding time with their colleagues. Based on your requests, we will design special plans to enhance and assist you in your goals.

Who can benefit from these programs?

Anyone and everyone can benefit from these services. These EAP programs not only help employees but also help managers, HR professionals, the families of employees and staff that work for the company. Mental wellbeing is for everyone. To create a better workspace, all elements need to come together.