During our Q2 webinar – A new focus: mental health, disability, and the whole employee we received a lot of great questions from our audience. One area where our audience showed interest was the benefit of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). More specifically, how could an EAP help someone who may be experiencing mental health related issues when transitioning back into the office? During this episode, we tackle that question as well as explore all the other assistance areas an EAP can help with.
Joining me for this conversation are David Campbell, Senior Vice President of Quality Control – ComPsych Corporation, Keith Birns, Senior Account Manager – ComPsych Corporation, and Emily Igrejas, Senior Product Manager – Lincoln Financial Group.
AM-LAAEA-AUD004 02/24 Z01 LCN-6421032-022224
© 2024 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved.
During our Q2 webinar – A new focus: mental health, disability, and the whole employee we received a lot of great questions from our audience. One area where our audience showed interest was the benefit of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). More specifically, how could an EAP help someone who may be experiencing mental health related issues when transitioning back into the office? During this episode, we tackle that question as well as explore all the other assistance areas an EAP can help with.
Joining me for this conversation are David Campbell, Senior Vice President of Quality Control – ComPsych Corporation, Keith Birns, Senior Account Manager – ComPsych Corporation, and Emily Igrejas, Senior Product Manager – Lincoln Financial Group.
AM-LAAEA-AUD004 02/24 Z01 LCN-6421032-022224
© 2024 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved.
Hello again listeners Chris Takesian here marketing manager for leave and disability at Lincoln Financial Group. During the Lincoln Absence Advisor Q2 webinar, "A new focus mental health, disability and the whole employee," we received a lot of great questions from our audience. One area where our audience showed interest was the benefit of an employee assistance program, or EAP. More specifically, how could an EAP help someone who may be experiencing mental health related issues when transitioning back into the office? During this episode, we tackle that question as well as explore all the other work life assistance areas an EAP can help with. Joining me for this conversation are David Campbell, senior vice president of quality control for ComPsych Corporation, Keith Birns, senior account manager ComPsych Corporation, and Emily Igrejas, senior product manager from Lincoln Financial Group, we hope you enjoy. Alright, so thank you all so much for joining me today. I really, really appreciate it.
Keith Birns:Thanks for having us.
David Campbell:Thanks.
Emily Igrejas:Good to be here.
Chris Takesian:Great. So to kick us off, why don't we maybe go around the horn and have each of you introduce yourself to us and maybe tell us a little bit about what you do?
David Campbell:OK, I'll start if off. My name is David Campbell. I'm the Senior Vice President of ComPsych. It's a international EAP company and I've been with ComPsych a little over 27 years and look forward to talk to you more about what EAP is in 2021.
Chris Takesian:Awesome.
Keith Birns:Yeah, my name is Keith Birns, I'm a senior account manager with ComPsych Corporation as well. My main role as an account manager is really to work with the employer groups that purchase our services, help them to, you know, both promote the services work on different ways to increase utilization and report back the results that our programs Garner.
Emily Igrejas:Great, and I'm Emily Igrejas, I'm a senior product manager with Lincoln Financial, I'm responsible for managing a portfolio of our disability products and services. So things like short term disability, long term disability, and the nice tie into our topic today, which is EAP, or employee assistance programs. It's very common in the group benefit space for those to be included with the purchase of long term disability. So our disability product team is also responsible for our overall EAP offering and managing that relationship with our great colleagues like Keith and David over at ComPsych.
Chris Takesian:Great. So we've talked a lot about employee assistance programs in the past and the benefits, but to kind of recap or level set with our audience who may not be aware. Can we talk about some of the services that an EAP provides?
David Campbell:Sure. You know, like I said, I've been in the business for about 27, 28 years now. And it's clearly changed. I mean, I think originally people thought of an EAP, or employee assistance program is kind of a alcohol, substance abuse kind of services, very limited, mostly for employees. And it is really evolved a lot I would say over the last 10 years, where yes, we do provide short term counseling, which is probably the most important thing we do and makes up probably 80% still of our business, short term counseling, but it's expanded to, you know, other mental health issues, families, children stress, which something we've all experienced over the past few months. But it also has gone beyond that in that it includes what we call work life services. And that is like childcare and eldercare. legal services, financial services, being able to figure out budgeting and figure out legal issues, because all of these things also create stress and anxiety in our lives. So we always saw it as a combination of all of that together. And even since then, you know, the online type of services. So we provide a lot of tools, a lot of educational materials on our website, as Keith plays a big role with working with customers training, handling critical incidences, like natural disasters, not just the pandemic, but we're all experiencing some of us on the East Coast, the hurricane, so how does that impact the workforce in the workplace and how we support them in those types of natural disasters. But we also support them on those incidences when an employee may may have an accident at the workplace or dies unexpectedly. So we support the employer in that way too. And training has become more and more important for the employer to use all of these resources come to play working with the employer and with their employees. And one of the benefits of an employee assistance program is we're usually available to all employees, not just benefit eligible employees, they don't have to sign up for us. You don't have to enroll. It's available to anyone and we usually extend it to anyone in the household. So you don't even have to be married or the family member. If you live in a household you are eligible for the services. So it's it's a great resource for people to use.
Chris Takesian:Absolutely. And I think you touched on one of the really big benefits that I don't think a lot of people realize is that family members are included in that so it extends beyond you know, just that employee especially when you have that those kind of open lines of communication with your employees that hey, you know, if they talk about something that they're struggling with at home or personally, financially, that can extend to their, at their family members. I think that that's really key. In our current environment, and especially as we phase out of the pandemic, you know, how has our collective thinking evolved about the importance of an EAP? How has that thinking maybe changed from 10 years ago, when, you know, we thought it was just, you know, the substance abuse? Or we're hearing more of those types of things? How does the pandemic kind of changed that view?
David Campbell:Well, I think the importance of resiliency and people feeling how they can deal with stress has changed. Because I think this really tapped a lot of people's limits on trying to make those adjustments. I think we all figured out, or we thought we had this all figured out work life balance, being able to do work, and then come home and have this and that. And when everything kind of got kind of jumbled up and mixed up in our lives. And some people couldn't make the difference between what my my work, oh, I'm working at the kitchen table, and now I'm eating dinner at the kitchen table. I think it all kind of brought that to the forefront. People's abilities to deal with change. Change is something that's not new. But dealing with that.
Emily Igrejas:And and at the same time, too, right? I think that's a big thing is, this isn't new, and stressors aren't new for people. But I think with the pandemic, it happened to everyone at the same time. And even from the employer perspective, I think that the last, you know, 15 months or so helped shine a light on for employers to show the importance and the value of these programs that they've probably been offering for many, many years. And because they saw their employees all struggling at the same time, I think that helped shine a light on the importance of EAP.
Keith Birns:Yeah, and I'd also you know, also echo that, you know, at the about 15, 16 months ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, we're supporting a lot of organizations because they had a team of employees who were transitioning to working from home for the first time, now they've been home for, you know, 14-16-18 months, and it's kind of come full circle. Now we're working with organizations on helping them deal with the stress that the employees might be facing coming back to the office now. So it's really kind of come full circle. And it'll certainly be interesting to, you know, to see how the next several months plays out as organizations return to either a full return to work or, you know, some sort of hybrid model.
Chris Takesian:Yeah, for sure. I think that that's definitely. And as you'll see, I'll I'll definitely ask some questions about that. I think that that's like kind of the next the next wave. But how has this kind of impacted usage, the usage of an EAP have, from a statistical standpoint, or from a usage standpoint, have we seen more interest, maybe in a virtual offering, or more people coming to that EAP now that more people are looking for that information?
David Campbell:Well, it's interesting that we saw a decline last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, when everybody was making these changes in everybody's lives, we tend to focus more on taking care of the basic needs, where am I going to work? How am I going to work? Because my telephone work? Does my internet work? How am I going to get my work done? You know, and we kind of regress into this kind of basic survival mode initially. And all of this stuff isn't complicated. And I think the other part at the beginning of the pandemic is, we didn't know how long it was going to last. Right? We all thought, Oh, this will last a few months. I remember. I remember Keith talking to some employers. Yeah, by summer, we'll be back to work. Yeah, no, and we'll be back there. And it just kept dragging on. And I think that's, you know, where the demand, we saw it, and I kept telling people, we're gonna, it's like a tsunami, you're gonna see the decline, and then all of a sudden, the wave is going to come in and we're seeing that wave now come into the part. And I think the big savior for this has been that the technology has improved, to be able to provide for that tsunami and all of last year to accommodate that, you know, video, telephonic counseling, that was a novice before this, you know, it's like, oh, you offer it great. Now, you better offer it because that's the way people are gonna get seen. And serviced. Technologies have enhanced itself to allow us to do video counseling telemedicine started a few years ago, when you saw the tela-doc and the United Healthcare, put those doctors on websites and you can talk with Doc, it's Saturday afternoon. And now counseling is becoming more and more common that you can do video counseling, and the hybrid is really going to become a hybrid. It's going to be face to face, telephonic video, whatever the customer feels that's needed for the client.
Chris Takesian:Yes, certainly. And I'm sure that on the mental health side, you're most likely seeing I would assume more cases on that side. It does. Is that true? Or is it still kind of balanced between mental health as well as the other services that you offer? Is there kind of one more than the other these days or?
David Campbell:I think initially earlier on in 2021, we saw the mental health issues. And I think now with companies coming back to work, the work life has become more important. It's interesting a few years ago, we saw the shift of childcare going down in our request and eldercare becoming more of a question, relocation. And now childcare, you know, is starting to surge back because people are going back to work, that childcare center that they used to go to, hmm, never reopened or hasn't reopened yet. So now they're scrambling around trying to find other resources. And I think that's where I think people need to really refocus the energy on communicating the EAP. And the importance of the EAP is because we can help on that, you know, basic need, it's like where's childcare, and even elder care, we're seeing, you know, daycare centers, opening up for elder care services, we used to think of daycare just for children. Now, there's daycare programs for your parents, because you may have relocated, and that's another thing we've seen shift is people have relocated, not just remote to home, but literally physically have relocated themselves. They used to live in New York, or they used to live in Boston, and now they now moved to South Carolina, or they moved back to their parents in Florida or whatever. And they're having to rethink about childcare and resources of moving and relocating services. So we've seen a shift, and we're seeing the work life programs creep up now because of the and we see that going to happen more and more as we go back to work and people go back to their office.
Chris Takesian:It's interesting, too, because, you know, we make this, you know, I'm speaking from a Lincoln perspective, we make this pretty drastic shift to work from home pretty quickly. And then you get used to that, and then all of a sudden now, okay, it's time to go back to the office. So it's, it's, you get comfortable in this new setting, and you're just trying to adjust and then back to the office, I'm sure that, you know, when you're thinking of an EAP, all those things that you just mentioned, are now coming back to the forefront of Oh, I have to think about childcare again, I wasn't having to think about I have to think about my commute again. I didn't have to think about that for free. And now 16 months, 18 months. So yeah, I can, I can definitely understand why that might be coming back to the forefront.
Emily Igrejas:We're creatures of habit. And we I think we easily get settled into our routines. And it's a such a good point, Chris, because now we're people are getting ready to shift back to the workplace, which is not new, because they were there, you know, 16 months ago, but it feels like a lot more for them. And it's overwhelming from that, you know, stress and anxiety standpoint of what to expect and what's what's it going to be like. And then also on the other side, you now have, like you said, there are things they have to figure out, whether it's childcare, now they're maybe they have an hour commute, you know each way and that's time away from their day to you know, chip away at just the work life stuff that they have to do just on a regular basis. And so we talked earlier about the the stuff EAP provides that is outside of just the the counseling and you know, the stuff David's mentioning in terms of work life, and childcare and elder care, those are the things that can really help take the burden off of individuals that are just trying to juggle all this stuff. And and it's almost like you can outsource some of the research to an EAP vendor and say, Hey, I'm trying to find childcare because I pulled my kids out of the daycare shutdown. And then I you know, I didn't want to keep paying for them in daycare, because a lot of people still had to keep paying, even though they closed. So they made the decision, I'm going to pull them out, I'm going to lose my space in the daycare, and who knows when they're going to reopen or when I'm going to be ready to send my kids back. And at that point, they might not even have a space for me. So it's almost like starting completely from scratch to research daycare, which is a lot for people to have to do. And then if that individual also has a you know, an older parent that they're caring for that's one more thing and right. Yep, it just keeps piling up.
Chris Takesian:It really is a true benefit. It's in the in the in the truest sense of word, it is a benefit. That is, you know, that should be utilized. But you know, when we look back over the past couple years, we have seen under utilization in the program, and I'm just curious as to why we think those programs have been, you know, an EAP program has been underutilized in the past.
Emily Igrejas:Well, to David's point, I think commonly they were, there's a there's a big association with you know, mental health and the component of that sometimes folks struggling with substance abuse or what have you. And I think overall generally speaking, there's a lot of stigma around mental health right. And while that I think has gotten a lot better in recent years, and is encouraging to see as someone who's in this space on a day to day basis, and advocating for these type of programs, there is definitely still a stigma out there and and that is hard to overcome. And I think it's even worsened by the fact that these are employer provided benefits. So for individuals that might be really feeling that stigma, whether they feel it around them and just society or they have it themselves about how they you know, perceive their own mental health struggles and see it as maybe like a flaw or something wrong with them versus, you know, a medical issue that should be treated, there's a hesitancy to seek out these services. Because, you know, a lot of people don't understand that it's confidential, that your employer doesn't know that you're using this benefit. They're not seeing that information. And I think a lot of people still worry about the confidentiality of an employee assistance program, and whether they should take that step and get help. So I think the education piece and the awareness piece can really help to bridge that gap and get people the treatment they need.
Keith Birns:Yeah, that's a great point, Emily. And I mean, I would say, when I work with employer groups on promoting an EAP, you know, the stigma is certainly still there, it's gotten better. And David, I'm sure you could, you know, attest to that your, your years at ComPsych, I'm sure back when, you know, it was just the the substance abuse hotline, so to speak, it was you know, there was very much a stigma, and, you know, also addressing those concerns around confidentiality, like Emily mentioned, it's been big as well to, you know, fear that Oh, my employer, just gonna know that I called in because I'm having marital problems or substance abuse problems. So, you know, I think a lot of different things lead to, you know, kind of a slow incline to the number of, you know, the cases that we've seen, but certainly the stigma is still there. But you know, it's, I think we're certainly making progress.
David Campbell:Yeah, I agree with both you and this. But there's also another piece here is that people think of their medical plan, if you ask an employee walked around employer, and you said, Who's your medical plan, they will, in seconds, tell you who the medical plan is. Why? Because they had to read a book of 28 pages, or go to a website and select 18 slides to figure out what plan they want to select, they probably talk to their spouse to say, what do we need to have coverage, and there was a lot more thought and process involved. And we use it every day, to some extent you use it. And you don't sign up for it. It's one of those benefits that are there. And unless it's, I always say we have to be there where the client needs us at the moment. And you know, we look at it as life events, you know, is really a communicating piece is life events, having a child getting a new job, because we're talking about employer employees coming back to work, there's a population out there that has gotten new jobs during these past 18 months, who have actually never been at work. They don't even know what the workplace looks like, you know? And how do you educate them? And how do you get them to get motivated to come back to the work? But it's really it's being there at the moment in time? You know, we talked about disability. And Emily, you probably can attest to this, disability has gone up these past few months. How are we getting there? How are we you know, your kid is going away to college, you know, you're getting married, you're having a child, all of these life events. And we don't...Keith you can attest, when we communicate it in those ways people can connect with it, we used to promote a simple thing. Can't talk to your kid today? Call. You know, to identify things that you Chris or Emily or Keith can all kind of identify with, because that's what people don't think about us in that way. It's every day. We have serious issues going on now. But we also deal with some fun stuff, Keith, right, we promote?
Keith Birns:Yeah, absolutely.
David Campbell:Typically, this time, we would be promoting our camps. And we would be promoting to families about how to get your child into a camp and enrolled into a summer camp, we would have started that three months ago, with camps not opening. You don't do that this month. But next year, hopefully, we'll do that because it's a way to promote the program in a very positive way, not just the fact that I have an emotional issue, because hopefully we engage with them on a simple, easy, comfortable way. So when the time comes, they know what the number means, you know, so it's a combination of how you promote it's it's constant promotion, communicate, to communicate and communicate. Can't over communicate on something like that. I couldn't agree more. Speaking of fun things, funny thing that I did a few years back, I actually used an EAP to do research on places to go on a honeymoon. And it was great! I knew about the benefit, so...
Chris Takesian:Within a few minutes, I just learned of two new services that an EAP provides. And it really just just like you said, communication learning. You know, you have, you know, you spend all this time as David mentioned, looking at your medical benefit, there are other benefits available to you that that could pay large, you know, dividends to your physical mental work life help, that that are that are just being thrown out there and given to you and you also touch on a key key component, which is that confidentiality, that that is number one, especially as we're kind of getting into this question here. When we're thinking about what are some of the services that you may offer somebody who is experiencing issues with mental health something I'm sure that has, you know, it's definitely coming up more now. Well, first, I mean, first we would do some type of assessment, but then we would offer counseling with a therapist in their, in their community, again, via video, telephonic or face to face, we would encourage them to go to our website, which has a lot of self help tools, a lot of videos that people can learn from. We have relaxation techniques, we have deep breathing techniques, we have assessments, we have articles, you know, because we want to empower people to take control their lives, we don't want to just give them the answer or say counseling and talk therapy is the only thing. We want to give them the support to be able to empower themselves and giving them the tools to make change in their life. It really is important for us in that way, too.
Keith Birns:Yeah. And I would say to just, you know, the how robust the services we offer are, I mean, to David's point, if you're having a mental health issue, whether it be stress, anxiety, or depression? Well, that initial intake assessment with that master's level clinician, what they're often able to do is, you know, kind of peel back the layers of the onion. And we may find out on that intake call, well, yes, there's certainly an issue with with depression or anxiety, but you know, what the, you know, that underlying issue is, maybe you're having some sort of legal issue or financial issue or trouble with a spouse. So, you know, let's not only get you set up with a referral to a local clinician, but we also have a team of financial planners or attorneys that can also help to address some of those issues. So you know, that very holistic experience as well too, you know, kind of a one stop shop for whatever might be going on, on your on your, you know, in your personal life. Yeah, that's huge, too, especially if somebody is a little bit lost with the direction that they need to go, you know, Google is such a wide array. But if you can make one call and kind of be set up with all these different steps into getting better, it kind of it just leaves you a little bit more focused, as opposed to all over the place and scattered, which can feel overwhelming of course, if you're if you're dealing with a mental health issue. One area that, you know, we talked about earlier, and is the topic of going back to the office, versus working from home. And in sometimes that you know, I've heard it, especially, you know, my own life, it can be a split case scenario where a co-worker or family member is at home, while another individual has to go into the office. So this unfortunately, can you know, have some adverse impacts on mental health or, or other areas? Are we seeing this trend, as we, you know, head back to the office, or as a lot of companies head back to the office as a point of mental health or other issues that are that are arising? Are we seeing that trend?
Chris Takesian:We've seen it, we're seeing it in the data. And I think this is another area that the EAP really plays well, in a sense that typically, if you're arguing with your spouse, or your partner, that's not usually covered under a health plan, you know, that that type of service, and that's one of the advantages of an employee assistance program is that, you know, those kind of non diagnoseable types of conditions is really perfect for us, because that's what we're here for, you know, we've seen a 10% increase in relationship issues over the past few months, you know, so we know that that's going to happen, and it's the whole thing, not just I have to go to work, and you don't it's I have to go to work on Mondays and Tuesdays, you have to work on Thursdays and Fridays. So how are we going to do this balancing of this? Or Oh, my God, we both have to be home on Wednesday? How are we going to accommodate that? And how are we going to communicate? So it's really communication skills. And I think that's where the EAP really plays well in. Because again, it's something that when people think of mental health, they think they have to have a diagnosis, they have to be something's wrong with them. So this is a beautiful place in the sense that there's nothing wrong with either one of them, they just have to learn how to communicate. And the EAP as a place for that to happen is that they can go to talk to a counselor, they can just be able to go and share and communicate and improve their skills. Along with counseling. Again, I always feel that it's important for somebody to feel control. So we have articles, and we have training sessions that you and your partner can take place with on our website to enhance your communication skills and an answer relationship. Because the unfortunate side of the coin is the other thing we're seeing an increase on our legal side is we're seeing divorce cases come in at about 7% increase. So those are the people that didn't call us early enough. So we're trying to do is really communicate. Because I think, Chris, your important part of this is how this life is going to change for all of us, not just employee and communication is important. But the other area is his kids, his children in the home. If you're having to go back to work and your child, still school isn't open, how is that going to impact you and having to go back to work? And again, same thing, how do you communicate with your child? How do you meet with your teenager? Perfect, perfect. Answer is the employee says his program to go to seek help and to seek support from.
Keith Birns:Yup. I love that. That's great answer. And obviously, throughout this podcast, we've really hit on a lot of benefits of using the EAP. But you know how can employers keep this top of mind with their employees right? Because that's Well, that's what we're trying to do is build that awareness, employers are trying to build that awareness with their employees, because they want them to be able to use this benefit. So, so how can employers go about, you know, keeping this top of mind? Yeah, Chris, I mean, one of my roles here at ComPsych, is as an account manager is to help employers do exactly that. So I mean, I would say the employers that I have seen be most successful at keeping the EAP Top of Mind are those that really get the buy in, you know, it's one thing to distribute those flyers to the employees or sitting in the break room, but you know, something like a testimonial from a vice president or the head of HR, who used the service when they're going through a difficult time, that really goes a long way in building both, you know, not only the recognition of the program, but the competence in the program. So if you're speaking to a senior leader, and they mentioned, you know, even if it's the childcare packet that they requested, and you know, the how robust it is, you know, that can really go a long way in building the overall confidence, you know, David kind of touched on many programs include those annual hours that can be used towards Lunch and Learn training sessions, employees can sign up for those as well too. And those are like a regularly scheduled lunch and learn those are a great way to promote the program in a unique way too. And you know, the the topics for those really run the gamut anywhere from personal development, communication skills, older adult care, parenting, resilience. So you know, those sessions holding those on a regular basis are, you know, really, really a nice way to keep the services top of mind, you know, many, many employees don't even know that their program provides that type of support. So it's those employers that are, you know, more aggressive and using those. And then, you know, of course, we touched on a lot of, you know, I guess what we call the non counseling aspects of the program. So whether it be legal support, or financial support, finding childcare, planning a vacation, or even finding those local COVID safe activities for children, you know, taking a look at some of the non mental health components of the program is a great way to keep it top of mind as well, too.
Emily Igrejas:I think you made a good point, Keith, about getting buy in from, you know, the leadership level. And I think if one thing the pandemic has hopefully, showed in the last, you know, 16 months or so is there's been a ton of research coming out showing the impact that these stressors have on employees and their productivity in the workplace. And I think sometimes, you know, leaders, they need to see that that data, the backup, you know, why they should be really aggressively communicating, supporting, advocating for usage of the employee assistance program, and some of that nice research that's come out, because it was so amplified by the pandemic, and everyone going through those stressors at the same time, there's been some nice research to tie in the impact of these stressors, whether it's financial, whether it's, you know, not having that work life balance, and the childcare issues, whatever it might be the direct impact that has on productivity in the workplace. And hopefully, that's a motivating factor for employers to really get the word out and encourage the usage of of their EAP programs.
Chris Takesian:That's why we're encouraging our information to be included in the return to work plan, per se, you know, when they talk about, you're coming back to work, here's a flyer, here's some information, let us throw in some examples of you know, you're coming back to work, here's how you can use it and kind of, we're part of a plan, and really being seen as part of the support for the company to kind of help you do that. So again, communicating when the need exists, because that's the part where we we shine.
Keith Birns:Yeah. And I like all of those strategies that I think that those could be implemented relatively easily by a lot of employers, but can be really impactful down the line. What about in a, maybe a split scenario where I have a couple employees in the office? Couple at home? I have them all over the country? How can those types of strategies be implemented in that type of office environment slash virtual environment? Are there where they work the same way? Yeah, I mean, I would say with the last 1618 months, you know, remote workers and virtual teams are, they're guaranteed to be a future of the business landscape for years to come. That doesn't maybe make it any easier for those who must manage those teams that are split between at home or at work, or maybe you've got a team where, you know, some of them because of their role, they were able to come home during the pandemic, but then you've got a group of employees that their job wasn't one that can be worked remotely. So there's, you know, some of that is there. You know, obviously, communication i think is is key when you've got team split between virtual and in office, you know, important for an organization to make expectations very clear. In the office, the kind of the company norms can be reinforced by just by just by being in the office by the culture of that company. So, you know, and those face to face one on one meetings that aren't possible with, you know, the virtual employees, but still trying to foster that team environment when you've got that split team. So make sure that that you know, the atmosphere is casual enough, so It allows for that free flow of information. And we talked before about communicate, communicate, you know, I don't think you can communicate these types of things a lot. And you know, listen to your employees reach out to those virtual employees just as often as you would walking by the Office of somebody who's actually in so, you know, making them all feel part of a team is important and probably want to stay away from making those in office decisions only because you're, then you're kind of alienating that group that could potentially feel a little bit alienated already as well.
Chris Takesian:Yeah, that's a good point.
David Campbell:For some employers, this isn't new, they've had a multi hybrid model three years. 2020 is just putting more people into that hybrid model. And I think you're gonna see some companies probably in the next six months come out and say, this is what's worked for us and I think sharing success stories and success techniques are going to be important, I think, openness and transparency amongst all of us. I mean, I know at our company, what we did, was, you know, each manager was really to make sure that they had a weekly team meeting virtually with all their teams in house in a remote. So to Keith's point, no one felt left out. I mean, it was always communicating. And, you know, I used to do with my staff is, you know, part of the team, either either before the meeting, or at the end of the meeting, it was more casual, just, how's things going? What's going on? What are you doing this weekend? Again, just so people can feel more comfortable? Because when you'd walk down the hallway, you would see them? And they'd go, hey, how was your weekend? And that's not happening.
Emily Igrejas:Yeah, No small talk? Yes, right. Then you get everyone in front of the computer, they jump on, and they just dive into the meeting. And sometimes you forget it, because it's really a simple concept. You know, at the end of the day, we're humans, we have lives. And we're interested in what everyone's up to, but you sometimes forget to take a minute, take a break and talk about that stuff before you get into the business.
Keith Birns:Yeah, and and I think my last question here is from the, you know, the employer side, you know, how can they stay informed to ensure you know, their employers getting that trickle down information? Where can they find the information to then pass that along? Yeah, I mean, obviously, the, you know, the simplest way for an employer to ensure that the word is trickling down is to analyze the data that's available. So you know, that's, that's the data that, you know, me as an account manager would provide. And David and his team would, you know, would compile that for us. So those go a long way, in simply looking at the numbers, you can tell if, you know, communication campaigns are working, but, you know, regular meetings with your EAP provider to help keep employers in the loop. I mean, when, when you roll out a program, there's some of the core communication pieces that are provided. But you know, there's also a lot of great self serve tools that we provide as well to that allows HR or benefits professionals to log on to, you know, a portal that we provide, to pull the latest flyer, whether it be you know, on mental, you know, mental health awareness, or world Mental Health Day, but I mean, I think that, it's very important to keep those communication pieces very fresh, don't let them you know, you don't want an employee looking at the at the same poster in the break room for 18 months, keep it fresh, keep it simple, you know, simple to find simple read, easy to understand, as you know, is very important with those types of things.
David Campbell:And make sure you're they're training, you know, their frontline managers and supervisors. I mean, if anything, one of the big hurdles we've talked about today is just education and awareness, and people not necessarily knowing the breadth of services that an EAP provides. And, and oftentimes, if you were to poll a random, you know, manager, supervisor, and you know, any given company, they probably wouldn't be able to check all the boxes of the services and capabilities. And so if you start to really get that awareness and education out within the workforce, particularly with managers and supervisors, they're then also able to identify when an employee might benefit from those services. And then they're sharing that, you know, like David was just talking about, there might be someone who's having a staff meeting, and, you know, you're opening it up, and you're talking about your weekend, and somebody makes a comment about I don't know, you know, they're having a issue with their kid or their childcare, this or that. And then the light bulb goes off. And that managers mind said, Hey, did you know your EAP can help you with that, and it just facilitates that conversation and awareness from there. So I think the more employers can do to educate their, their own staff, and their managers and supervisors can can go a long way.
Keith Birns:Yeah. And then going back to the previous point, starting at the top, right, if it's, if the C suite, you have this buy into the C suite, and it goes down, that that always helps a lot to to then trickle down to those managers, supervisors and then down to the employees. That's a it's a it's a great effect. Yeah, I mean, we also talk a lot at comps like about about vendor integration to make making sure all of your other vendors are talking make sure that you're, you know, your health plan knows who the EAP provider is and vice versa. Nothing makes an intake call run more smoothly when we've got all of the employers other benefit information up there as well too. So we're not just telling the employee you know what you should check with the medical plan or you know, we're we're doing actually a warm transfer providing the number. So, you know, vendor integration is almost also a big thing that we talk about when making sure that the word is trickling all the way down.
Chris Takesian:Because it's interesting. At the end of the day, Keith was saying that they should look at the data, we are one of those few benefits where Keith strives to make those numbers go up where everybody else wants the numbers to go down as far as cost, services, is the only vendor that goes into the room and says, How do I increase my utilization of your serv...my services to your employee? Right, right. That's a unique position that Keith sent, making sure that it's front of mine of everybody.
David Campbell:Definitely. And hopefully, you get that higher utilization on the the EAP. And those other things you have less utilization on because you're preventing them from becoming bigger problems. So there's less medical claims, maybe you don't end up filing for a disability claim. And yup...
Keith Birns:Yeah, and then the satisfact..., you know, the employee satisfaction scores go up as well. So it's a it's a compounding effect, in a positive way, when you're stacking these services and utilizing these services on a more continual basis. That's all the questions I had for you all today. I really appreciate the time. I think there was a lot of good points that came out of today's discussion. So I think our audience is going to find it very informative. But I really appreciate the time again.
Emily Igrejas:Yhanks for having us.
David Campbell:Appreciate you inviting us. Thank you.
Chris Takesian:To everyone listening. Thank you for joining us, we will continue to cover topics that help employers and their employees to this new environment. So be sure to follow Lincoln Absence Advisor on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Disclosures:The information contained in this podcast is for general use and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney or your human resource professional. Lincoln Financia Group is the marketing name fo Lincoln National Corporation an its affiliates. Affiliates a e separately responsible for the r own financial and contractu l obligation