What is the Employee Assistance Program?
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a service for employers to ensure their employees and their families have access to professional assistance for personal or work-related issues that are impacting on their employment or work performance. The EAP service aims to enhance mental health and wellbeing, maximise productivity and improve organisational culture.
Personal and work-related issues can lead to lost productivity, absenteeism, high levels of stress and anxiety, employee turnover, accidents, and critical incidents which all impact negatively on an organisation. Providing access to voluntary and confidential assistance with qualified psychologists, social workers or counsellors can lead to improvements in workplace culture and an increase in staff morale, performance and productivity.
What does the Employee Assistance Program offer?
Our EAP service is tailored to the individual employer and the needs of their business and team.
Better Place Australia’s modular EAP offers:
- Employee Assistance
- Private Mediation or Conflict Resolution Assistance
- Debriefing, Critical Incident Responses and Organisational Capacity Building
- Training and Professional Development in the area of mental health and wellbeing
- Onsite Health and Wellbeing Talks and Interactive Sessions
Participation in EAP is voluntary and confidentiality is assured at all times. Personal information and records remain with Better Place Australia and will only be released if required by law. Employees are under no obligation to provide information to their employer regarding their contact with the Better Place Australia EAP service.
Employee Assistance
Provides short term (the maximum number of sessions is negotiated with each employer and can vary between 3-6 per person/family), solution-orientated counselling, coaching and support. Issues discussed in Employee Assistance can be both work-related or of a personal nature.
Our diverse and experienced staff are trained to help people identify issues and options to generate a solution.
Our practitioners utilise methods such as:
Therapeutic interventions
Coaching/life coaching
Skills development and capacity building
Planning
Our staff also have access to a wide referral network of external service providers to assist people with long-term issues should this be required.
Sessions are usually face-to-face, however skype and telephone sessions are available on request.
Mediation or Conflict Resolution Assistance
Conflict is more than just a disagreement. It exists when neither party is willing to consider an alternative and the issue is becoming an ongoing dispute. Conflict can be managed through mediation and dispute resolution.
In a workplace, dealing with difficult behaviours and potentially inflammatory situations is challenging and requires the necessary skills and tools. Managing risk and impacts of escalation is important for managers and staff.
Our responsive and impartial counsellors and mediators support managers and staff to develop the skills and communication strategies to effectively work through and resolve conflict.
Mediation or Conflict Resolution Assistance is a short-term, solution-orientated coaching model that is delivered by trained psychologists, social workers or mediators who have a background in a broad range of conflict resolution principles and processes.
Better Place Australia complies with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Standards as set down by the National Dispute Resolution Advisory Council.
This service can be delivered face-to-face or via skype or telephone.
Debriefing and Critical Incident Responses
This service is able to assist with responding and recovering from a crisis. In recovering from a crisis, we can assist organisations to determine what needs to occur to rebuild confidence in the organisation, alongside supporting staff through challenging times.
We are also able to have trained crisis management staff on site or at follow-up appointments for debriefing and dealing with the potential psychological impacts of the crisis typically within 48 hours of a critical event.
Training, Professional Development and Organisational Capacity Building
We are able to offer professional development on a variety of issues upon request, including: developing skills and strategies for dealing with conflict on a personal and professional basis; improving negotiation skills and techniques; building positive, practical and sustainable outcomes; and managing anxiety and stress.
Health and Wellbeing Talks
We offer a valuable learning opportunity for employees to enhance their knowledge and build their individual resilience.
This service consists of a half hour presentation and question time on key health issues such as: work/life balance, mental health and healthy lifestyle (i.e. exercise and nutrition, QUIT, responsible gambling, alcohol and drugs).
Why use the EAP service?
Better Place Australia is aware that workplaces are often multi-disciplinary and employ workers from a large spectrum of educational, social and cultural backgrounds. Better Place Australia has a proven record in providing services to meet the needs of a broad range of staff and their issues in the provision of EAP.
Established in established in 1985, Better Place Australia is a not-for-profit community-based mediation and counselling organisation that provides quality support to individuals, couples, families, children and organisations. We provide a diverse range of quality programs, including EAP for government, health, community-based social services and corporate companies and have demonstrated experience in this field.
Our team of experienced and qualified staff include registered psychologists, social workers, mediation professionals, and accredited counsellors. All clinicians are provided with clinical supervision and ongoing professional development.
When and how do we use the EAP service?
Appointments for the EAP services may be made during normal business hours or at other times by arrangement. When making an appointment, management and staff are required to advise of their employer’s details to ensure priority booking and to facilitate account arrangements.
Find out more about Better Place Australia EAP services
Call 1800 639 523
Or email us at enquiry@betterplace.com.au
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Please make an enquiry if you would like to book an appointment for one of our services. Alternatively, you can live chat with us during business hours.
