Employee Assistance Programme. Managed Referrals

Faced with the needs of employees on the one hand and the demands of senior executives on the other, managers can often feel squeezed between opposing and often contradictory pressures. 

At certain times, managers may have to deal with employees who are experiencing personal difficulties that affect their work. At others, they may be called upon to implement policies and strategies that are unpopular with staff. Whatever situation they face, they always have to cope with organisational pressure to deliver results. 

Managers can often feel that they have nowhere to turn when they themselves need support. It can be a lonely business. This is where our Managerial Adviceline can help support you with advice and signposting, including advice on whether to make an informal or formal managed referral for one of your team to the EAP, which may include an assessment for counselling.

When it comes to managerial issues, our consultant clinicians are skilled in helping callers identify key issues and explore creative solutions. Managers have to face difficult situations every day, but the immediate dilemma can often mask a deeper underlying difficulty. Some workplace challenges develop over time, others manifest themselves in sudden crisis.

Often, those who use the Managerial Adviceline have an idea in their own mind of what they want to do about a certain situation, but are seeking reassurance that their plan is appropriate. 

This is particularly useful when managers do not have the experience needed for a complicated issue, such as helping a member of staff cope with bereavement or supporting an employee who has disclosed addiction issues.

Our consultants will never tell a caller what they think they should do. They also do not advise on workplace policies or procedures, which are issues for the caller’s Human Resources department. Instead, they provide a facilitative and supportive space within which managers can think creatively about the challenges they face and the best way forward. The Managerial Adviceline provides an accessible means to an immediate resource.

Informal referrals. In these cases, the manager simply suggests to the employee that they contact the EAP Assistance Line, perhaps by giving them our freephone number or one of our leaflets or by pointing them towards our online resource, Well Online. Feedback from the employee is normally not requested in these cases.

Formal referrals. The manager requires the employee to obtain support as part, for example,of an absence or performance management process. The manager may receive feedback on the kind of support recommended, but the details of the employee’s personal issues remain confidential. Whatever the recommendations of the initial assessment, counselling is always voluntary. 

We recommend that you always speak to the Managerial Adviceline before making a formal referral.

Mandatory referrals. These occur when an organisation requires employees to have counselling as part of its duty of care. They may follow a traumatic incident or apply to employees whose work puts them repeatedly in stressful or distressing situations. They are always pre-arranged with the employee’s knowledge and consent and reporting is agreed by both employee and manager. 

A Managed Referral always requires care, sensitivity and courage. The Managerial Adviceline is available to all managers who would like to talk over the whole process, from identifying the problem and making contact with the employee, to working out and implementing a care plan, to establishing protocols for case management and feedback.