Issued in 2021, the Biden-Harris Management Agenda directed government agencies to “promote awareness of employee well-being and support initiatives that extend beyond the workplace.”
In response to that edict, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) launched an initiative designed to revitalize the important role of employee assistance programs (EAPs) in supporting employee wellness in the federal workforce. Over the past year, OPM has hosted targeted focus groups with well-being experts and engaged with multiple EAP vendors as part of an effort to arrive at a standardized approach to employee wellness programs.
Through this endeavor, OPM has identified promising practices, disparities between various agency EAP programs and areas in which government employers can improve their employee assistance programs.
These efforts form the foundation of a new 19-page guidance document that OPM has issued to help promote “consistent, evidence-based approaches to EAP programming, expands the focus of EAPs to incorporate a more comprehensive employee wellness approach, and promotes equitable access to these support services across federal agencies,” according to an OPM memo accompanying the guidance.
The document “recognizes the EAP as a comprehensive and robust space for all employee wellness needs, which include financial literacy, legal services, mental health counseling, dependent care, life-stage planning and more,” wrote Veronica E. Hinton, associate director of employee services at OPM.
Identifying Areas of Improvement
The guidance includes a number of recommendations and highlights best practices for supporting comprehensive wellness programming, such as services and resources, equality and inclusion, employee feedback and key performance indicators, for example.
The purpose of the new document is to “establish parameters for employee wellness programs,” as well as providing agency leaders with resources for themselves, coordinators, supervisors and employees, and to equip agency leaders with the information needed to ensure employees are aware of and have access to the necessary well-being resources.
The guide also identifies targeted areas of impact for employee wellness programs, such as:
- Increasing federal employee awareness and knowledge of well-being services and resources
- Minimizing and eliminating negative stigmas associated with seeking mental and behavioral health treatment
- Ensuring greater equity in standards of care and services rendered across federal employee well-being programs
- Facilitating and increasing ease of access to and engagement with employee well-being program resources for federal employees
- Increasing communication and collaboration across agency well-being and work/life coordinators
- Supporting and fostering psychologically safe workplaces and increased cultural competency of professional employee wellness service providers across all agencies
As Hinton noted in the aforementioned memo, OPM also encourages agencies to remind managers, supervisors and employees about the importance of healthy habits, and urges agencies to create an environment in which leaders initiate regular conversations about mental well-being, for example.
“Leaders should also keep in mind that EAPs should be promoted not only in the wake of tragedies or negative events, but also when needed to address other mental health needs,” wrote Hinton, adding that EAP counseling services may sometimes be used in conjunction with health plan benefits to identify covered local care for federal employees.
As OPM plans to continue working on additional wellness-related resources, the organization advises federal agencies to “periodically assess their programs’ alignment with employee needs,” Hinton wrote, “and identify any additional opportunities for interagency and intra-agency collaboration to support employee wellness.”
09 June 2023
Category
HR News Article