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Canadian EAPs making a comeback

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In light of the extreme stress that mergers can place on employees, Ivanhoe Inc. and Cambridge Shopping Centers Ltd. figured their 2001 merger was the perfect time to introduce an expanded employee assistance program.

As it happened, use of the merged entity's EAP reached a peak rate of 13.5% among the company's 800 eligible full-time employees in the year after the merger, a development David Smith, vp, human resources, at Montreal-based Ivanhoe Cambridge attributes partly due to the stress of the merger. "Stress is a buzzword, for sure, but you probably see more stress-related issues than anything else," he said.

The EAP-which covers an extensive range of issues, from family and parenting counseling, mental illness care, substance abuse assistance, career/vocational concerns and legal and financial difficulties-helped earn the real estate company a spot on the 2004 list of the 50 Best Employers in Canada, published by benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates and Toronto-based newspaper The Globe and Mail. It also placed Ivanhoe Cambridge at the forefront of a growing trend among Canadian employers of adopting EAP programs. EAPs are now "becoming more prevalent and more popular," Mr. Smith said.

Many Canadian employers have implemented wellness and employee assistance programs in an effort to reduce absenteeism and health care costs, although some have justified the expense for purely altruistic purposes.

Program adoption

The adoption of wellness programs in Canada began in the 1980s and accelerated through most of the 1990s. They lost a bit of their luster in the late 1990s and early 2000, though, because the benefits of such programs had not been proven, said Ken Werker, a partner in consulting firm Morneau Sobeco's absence and disability management solutions practice. "Over the last two or three years, they've come back as part of a comprehensive strategy of absence and disability management," Mr. Werker said.

More than half of 180 surveyed employers have wellness programs in place, according to a February study by Morneau Sobeco. The study found that the percentage is higher for employers with at least 1,000 employees, with 75% reporting having wellness programs.

Although the consulting firm has not yet done a survey on the number of employers with EAPs, the vast majority of its clients now have sophisticated assistance programs, said Mr. Werker, who is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Wellness programs in Canada consist of seminars and workshops on physical and mental health topics, speakers discussing health topics during lunch or after work, exercise programs held either at work sites or contracted with off-site facilities, articles on various topics and online personal health assessments or diagnostic tools. EAPs, meanwhile, have become more highly developed, evolving from simple help lines to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week counseling and task management services.

Canadian employers will often use these two types of programs in conjunction to address key workplace issues, and then make changes to their wellness programs based on what their EAP providers say the employee population is using the programs for, Mr. Werker said. For example, if a company's EAP shows a high incidence of substance abuse, it can offer preventive courses and train supervisors to look for signs of abuse as part of its wellness program.

"Employers can use these summary reports as diagnostic tools to see if there are workplace issues that need to be addressed," Mr. Werker said. "You can take the reactive approach and turn it into a proactive approach."

Canadian EAPs differ slightly from those in the United States, because most are not limited to three counseling sessions as are many programs south of the border, said Judy Plotkin, national business leader for Toronto-based WarrenShepell, which provides EAP and health and wellness programs in both Canada and the United States. These programs provide a similar range of services in the United States and Canada, though the rate of utilization tends to be higher in Canada, she said.

Employer goals

Canadian employers that have employee assistance and wellness programs have varied goals, said Barbara Jaworski, director, work/life and well-being for Toronto-based FGIworld, which provides employee assistance and wellness programs in Canada. "Some organizations are really only concerned with containing costs," she said. "If the main goal of an organization is to maintain costs, they're going to be focusing in on things like absenteeism and the drug costs."

"Absenteeism and presenteeism are big drivers for organizations who put EAPs in place," Ms. Plotkin said. "Employers in Canada definitely want to see improvements in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism."

Promoting a healthy lifestyle was a key reason Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. developed its wellness program more than 10 years ago, said David Doull, director, wellness, for the Bolton, Ontario-based company. Chief Executive Officer Robert Schad "believes healthier employees are more productive," Mr. Doull said.

The company has onsite wellness centers, with nurses, doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists and massage therapists in several facilities, and its employees make about 9,000 visits a year to the various practitioners, Mr. Doull noted. Husky was also named to the 50 Best Employers list due to its fitness and wellness programs, according to Hewitt.

Many employers have offered these programs out of genuine concern for their employees who are having difficulty balancing work/ life issues, Mr. Werker said. "Most employers are doing this altruistically at this point," he said. "If there is a payback in terms of reducing absences, that's a plus."

Having EAP and wellness programs is also seen as a good recruiting tool, and an employer risks being seen as being uncompetitive or failing to show good leadership if it does not implement such programs, Ivanhoe Cambridge's Mr. Smith said. "It's common for leading employers to have it," he said.

Not for everyone

Not all Canadian employers, though, are in a rush to implement these types of programs. The Morneau Sobeco study showed that 31% of Canadian employers neither have wellness programs in place nor have plans to implement them.

One reason Canadian employers hesitate to implement wellness programs is that they do not sustain the same responsibility for health care costs as do their counterparts in the United States, Ms. Jaworski said.

For example, wellness programs that feature smoking cessation programs are popular in the United States because they focus on decreasing smoking-related health care costs for employers, but Canada's single-payer health care system places the responsibility for the bulk of these costs on the government. Canadian employers "don't need to face the full burden of health care costs as they do in the U.S.," she said.

Another key reason is that smaller companies simply do not have the time or the resources to devote to these types of programs, Mr. Werker said. The Morneau Sobeco study showed that only 36% of small employers-defined as those with fewer than 200 employees-had wellness programs.

Other employers are simply not willing to pay the costs of these types of programs, particularly because it can be hard to measure the return on investment, Mr. Werker said. "The benefits haven't been well documented, well researched or well publicized," he said.

Providers of EAP and wellness programs say companies can achieve a return on investment of 3-to-1 or 4-to-1. Husky's overall wellness, fitness and child care programs costs about $3 million a year but saves the company about $6 million a year, Mr. Doull said. The company's absenteeism rates are about one-half of the manufacturing industry's average, and its prescription drug costs are about one-third the industry average, he said. "We've calculated a fairly significant return on the investment," Mr. Doull said.

Ivanhoe Cambridge measures success based on the feedback it receives from employees rather than on its return on investment, Mr. Smith said. Employees "see it as a very positive thing, even if they don't use it," he said. "There's a comfort level knowing that it's there."

A recent survey by FGIworld found that 53% of the employees who access the company's work/life and wellness programs said their productivity had increased, while 57% said they felt healthier.

In addition, the EAP has enabled Ivanhoe Cambridge to help its employees who are facing life-threatening situations, Mr. Smith said. There have been several instances in which managers have called the EAP counselors out of concern that certain employees might be suicidal and asked for advice on how to help them. "We've actually intervened in some pretty serious situations," he said.

Based on all the anecdotal evidence of the help provided to employees, the company considers its EAP to be a success, Mr. Smith said. "We think it's money well spent," he said.