A transportation company is making improvements to its EAP to better serve its global employees and dependents under 18, alongside its partner, Ginger. Ginger is a virtual emotional support vendor that offers employees on-demand mental health coaching, video therapy sessions, guided access to resources and psychiatric services.

One technology company recently launched a pilot program with an EAP that offers a 24/7 concierge. This confidential advocate helps employees connect with the mental health resources they need by contacting available providers and then following up to ensure that the employee got an appointment. In addition, the company is training these advocates to refer employees to all the resources – including those not under their umbrella. Though there is no conclusive data available yet, employees are utilizing the program, and so far, it seems to be going well.

One company hosted EAP webinars globally for all employees. This company is also working with its equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) team to connect employees with other available resources and has changed its plan design to cover out-of-network mental health providers.

A transportation company will begin to offer mental telehealth care that is within medical benefits along with a mobile app that focuses on providing peer support for employees. The app was implemented by its HR and Benefits team to make sure employees had remote access to health care services and resources during the pandemic, when travel and face-to-face interaction was very limited. Reportedly, by the end of April 2021, over 7,000 employees had downloaded the app.

Several members are leading initiatives to provide more access to on-site mental health support and resources.

One technology company is utilizing a data-integrated EAP alongside mental health benefits to track employee mental health conditions. When an employee calls the EAP about counseling, the EAP automatically triages employees to care and anonymously sends that data back to employers. The data help keep employers continuously informed about the top mental health conditions experienced by employees. The company stated that the data-integrated EAP is being utilized by many employees to obtain the support they require.

One pharmaceutical company is conducting an “Erase the Stigma” webinar series to support mental health awareness and to diminish the stigmas related to mental health among their employees.

Another pharmaceutical employer is launching an organization wide “Make it Ok” campaign. The campaign uses personal storytelling among employees to normalize and lead further conversations about mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with receiving mental health care.

A technology employer is establishing a campaign to educate employees on how to maintain a healthy work/life balance every year. The campaign also plans to inform leadership on how to recognize the warning signs of an employee with an unhealthy work/life balance and then effectively direct them to further resources

Another employer announced that it plans to launch a 4-week emotional well-being challenge with MyEvive that focuses on self-care skills. The challenge will kick off by inviting employees to share a picture of what brings them joy and happiness; the company hopes to compile all submitted pictures and create a piece of art with them. All benefits-eligible employees can participate, and employees enrolled in the medical plan can also earn incentives. In addition, this company also implemented a 15-minute emotional well-being break for employees during work hours.

One transportation company is encouraging a positive mental health culture in the workplace by launching a “Year of Resilience” campaign. This employer also implemented “Operation RedBlock,” an initiative that allows employees who are impaired (by drugs and/or alcohol) to call into a phone line to let employers know they are unable to work safely that day. Then the employer follows up with a call, and depending on the legitimacy of the reason, that particular day is removed from the employee’s attendance record, and no PTO is used.

One employer in the financial services industry announced that it is rolling out a mental health learning toolkit for managers this year (first in the U.S., then everywhere else). The goal of the toolkit is to help build awareness for managers and provide them with tools to assist employees with referrals. Training for managers is currently virtual, but this company is considering a live program for the future.

A retail company has implemented evidence-based leadership training via webinars, created weekly leadership action goals and offered a multitude of informative webinars that help leaders recognize mental health symptoms.

One member company is conducting surveys to identify which resources are being utilized by employees. The survey findings will then be analyzed and used to determine how to make mental health resources more accessible (for example, creating download buttons for resources).

One technology company created a more robust mental health resources webpage located on the employees’ benefits site. This strategy streamlined and simplified the search process for employees by utilizing the intranet and creating one central mental health page. This page provides easy access to all mental health resources, which are organized by employee needs (e.g., burnout, stress related to COVID-19, pregnancy, childcare and caregiving demands).

To increase engagement, one employer created new EAP promotional flyers with informative and real-life examples that demonstrate the emotional and mental well-being support its EAP offers. The content in the flyers varied depending on location and the differing needs and cultural norms of various employee populations.

To address the stress caused by having kids at home during the pandemic, one member in the pharmaceutical/biotech/medical products industry rolled out a virtual babysitting and tutoring service for employees with free membership and 5 hours of care.

One company in the transportation/shipping industry reported that it is creating a partnership with Ginger to offer a text-based teen counseling program to address mental health challenges of dependents.

One technology company offered a sleep program, Sleepio, for employees, as many were reportedly suffering from sleep disturbances, pandemic fatigue and burnout.

One pharmaceutical company offered the mental health app Headspace for employees to utilize any time from their home.

Another employer described its success with Lyra in 2019 to launch a virtual well-being program. Use of Lyra has since skyrocketed, with 30% of all employees registered. Furthermore, Lyra has completely replaced this company’s EAP. The program offered 25 session per year and utilized rewards to promote it; those that took the initial assessment received a $50 reward.

Another technology company is providing mental health and well-being support by collaborating with Talkspace, a behavioral health and well-being app that offers online therapy for its employees.