Journal of Employee Assistance Q. 1 2019 cover story

1st Quarter 2019 | VOL. 49 NO. 1

The magazine of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Aligning EAPs & Corporate Inclusion Strategies |Page 10

PLUS:

Special Report: Suicide in Japan

X2 AI Tess

Page 18

Page 22

Orchestrating Return to Work Page 30

coverstory Aligning EAPs & Corporate Inclusion Strategies |By Kimberley Messer

C

orporate diversity and inclusion programs are well established and tightly integrated into the business strategy of large multinational organizations. These same multinational companies invest significantly in EAP. Despite sharing similar goals and objectives, EAPs and inclusion strategies tend to operate independently from one another.

Approaching employees’ needs more holistically can offer significant business opportunities for EAPs and benefits providers to offer new services that support corporate inclusion goals.

Stronger collaboration with corporate inclusion programs will drive wellness and belonging outcomes for every employee with greater significance and lasting impact.

Background For IBM, it is critical to our business success and fundamental to our values as a company to be forward leaning on issues impacting the well-being of our employees. We hired our first person with a disability in 1914, introduced equal pay for equal work in 1935, promoted our first female VP in 1943, and in 1953 we introduced the first non-discrimination policy of its kind. Our longstanding commitment to our values and our

progressive inclusion practices have positioned IBM as a thought leader on global inclusion programs, policies, and advocacy.

One of the strongest examples of our leadership is our ongoing commitment to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender + community, which we have supported for over 30 years. IBM provides domestic partner benefits in 50 countries, offers employees the opportunity to confidentially selfidentify as LGBT+ in 42 countries, creates targeted leadership development programs, sponsors over 40 LGBT+ organizations around the world, and advocates for equality outside the company walls. For instance, IBM helped defeat the Texas bathroom bills in 2017, and has issued a business statement in support of transgender equality. (Additional examples are provided in the accompanying article.)

This article will highlight the many opportunities for collaboration between EAPs, benefit providers, and committed employers to improve support for the LGBT+ employees and their families.

Education and Awareness Creating a culture of belonging requires education to promote greater awareness. In 2017, IBM released an LGBT+ inclusion learning and education framework,

a global resource for online learning accessible to all IBM employees. The courses on LGBT+ inclusion include:  Becoming an LGBT+ Ally: This course includes a set of modules to educate LGBT+ Allies on issues affecting the LGBT+ community, as well as specific behaviors they can adopt to help create more welcoming and inclusive spaces — at work, at home, and in the community.  LGBT+: Leading Inclusively: This course educates managers and employees on the LGBT+ community, including company policies, practices, and expectations.  Transgender: Leading Inclusively: This course educates managers and employees on the greater transgender and gender nonconforming community as well as company policies, practices, and expectations. Included here are concepts, terminology, and background on the current challenges faced by the community.

Many companies offer similar development trainings to their employees, covering a diverse set of communities. Companies either work with a third-party provider, invest in the creation of internal education and training, or buy it from IBM. Delivering a compre-

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hensive set of offerings and trainings to clients to address inclusion, identity and belonging, links strongly to other programs that support employee wellness.

Are you offering support and services to meet the unique needs of diverse employee groups? Is there an opportunity to expand the types of offerings currently positioned with your clients? The demand for these types of corporate trainings provides new opportunities for EAPs to expand the types of services they offer.

Support for Transitioning Employees Workplace transition education, support, and benefits for transgender employees represents another significant opportunity for EA providers. IBM has offered workplace transition support to employees for well over a decade. It is an area where we have extensive experience, as our HR team supports dozens of employee transitions around the globe every year. IBM currently offers comprehensive gender affirmation health benefits in six countries and counting.

Earlier this year, IBM partnered with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest US-based LGBT+ civil rights organization, to release a white paper that outlines IBM’s approach to supporting employees transitioning at work. IBM’s comprehensive and thoughtful global workplace transition framework guides and supports an employee’s entire gender transition journey.

The framework is designed to be an accessible resource for the people charged with implementing these critical policies in the

day-to-day workplace environment — human resources, line managers and executives, diversity and inclusion professionals, and colleagues of transgender workers.

It puts the transitioning employee at the center, supported

by HR, managers, integrated health, and legal. These issues are complex, sensitive, and most companies do not have the manpower or financial resources to support transitioning employees successfully on their own.

Forward thinking (and smart) companies want to be proactive and prepared to respond to a request for support, and not reactive. Companies urgently need these resources, and many come to IBM for support and guidance.

EAPs are uniquely positioned to provide comprehensive transition support services to their clients.

Additional Opportunities There are also opportunities for EAP and benefits programs to take a leadership position in driving more inclusive benefits for transgender employees. The HRC invites US-based companies to participate in an annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The CEI is the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices pertinent to LGBT+ employees.

IBM has been participating in the HRC CEI since its inception, and we have scored 100% for 16 consecutive years. In the 2018 survey, 609 US companies scored 100% out of the 947 submitted surveys.

The most significant progress in the CEI has been the widescale adoption of transgenderinclusive initiatives across businesses. In order to achieve the

coveted 100% score, organizations must provide transgenderinclusive health care coverage.

The current CEI also collects data on (but does not score) how many businesses have adopted gender transition guidelines for employees. This helps promote adoption of the policy. The expectation is that in addition to transgender-inclusive health care coverage, gender transition guidelines will become a requirement for a 100% score in a future CEI. Ensuring Access to Care Ensuring that a transitioning employee feels respected and supported within the walls of a workplace is well within our ability. However, access to appropriate health care and services in the community can be a challenge. While employers and EAPs do not directly influence available services in cities, states, and countries, there are other ways we can have an impact. The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care promotes the highest standards of health care for transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people.

It would be inspiring to see a large benefit provider or health care organization enter into a partnership with WPATH to help increase transparency and understanding of the benefits being offered and ensure that benefit providers are indeed following the WPATH standard. I see an opportunity for a WPATH certification of sorts.

A partnership that allows for annual updates to the “standard of care” and encourages benefits providers to offer a comprehensive

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coverstory approach to care, beyond the minimum requirements would be groundbreaking.

and invested $500,000 to build an internal Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent (chatbot) to connect 14,000 IBM staffers to EAP and other IBM internal resources.

Since launching the self-service chat in January 2018, access to EAP wellness resources has increased significantly. The platform will evolve from selfserve, to peer-to-peer support, to personal team support, and then to therapist-assisted. The chatbot is also being trained to support diverse communities, including health care workers, first responders, veterans and the LGBT+ community.

Also in 2017, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR) awarded IBM and Queen’s University with a grant to provide personalized mental health support to Canadian military personnel and their families. Similar to the veterans’ collaboration, IBM is working on a solution to provide personalized mental well-being care and support to individuals who identify as LGBT+.

Mental Health Support Opportunities to improve people’s mental health and well-being are abundant, especially in the workplace, where mental health-related issues have a tremendous negative impact on productivity and economic growth. This is certainly a focus for EAPs. However, not all EAP mental health services are adequately addressing the needs of marginalized communities.

In 2017, IBM Canada took deliberate steps to help improve access to EAP services and also expand support to service diverse employee groups.

IBM employees were surveyed on the ease of access to support services. The results confirmed that employees had a low level of engagement with wellness resources.

In response, IBM Canada launched a Workplace Mental Health Leadership program for managers,

Important Questions for the EAP We know that there are higher ��������������������������� rates of mental illness in the LGBT+ community stemming from a variety of factors including oppression, discrimination, stigma, violence or the threat of violence – especially for trans- and gender non-conforming communities of color, along with rejection and lack of access to social support systems and resources.

• Does your EAP offer access to LGBT+ friendly/ trained counsellors?

• How would the employee find one?

• Does your EAP provide services to support parents of LGBT+ children?

• Can an employee find a counsellor who specializes in gender identity or gender dysphoria issues?

More on What IBM is Doing for LGBT Community  Offers transgender health benefits in six countries (that is more than any other multinational that I am aware of).  Added gender identity and gender expression to our global non-discrimination policy in 2002.  Invited transgender employees to act as transcoaches in the development of our Workplace Transition Support Framework used to support employees all around the world who are transitioning at work.  Placed full-page ads in three Texas newspapers fighting against the discriminatory legislation in 2017 and sent a team of IBM executives to Texas to meet personally with legislators. See http://fortune. com/2017/07/14/ibm-texas-bathroom-bill/  Held Transgender Inclusion Forum in Tokyo.

This was Japan’s first-ever client forum dedicated to addressing transgender community programs and policies. The event attracted over 40 corporates – both multinationals and local Japanese enterprises. v

These are real challenges for the LGBT+ community and are often buried or non-existent in many EAPs. Removing barriers is key for anyone seeking support. AI can remove barriers by providing access to safe, stigma-free, and non-judgmental space and connect employees with assistance sooner.

More Questions/Summary When looking at your current offerings, ask yourself the following questions: • Is there anyone being left out of your current support programs?

- Kimberley Messer

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• Are you effectively supporting mental health and wellness outcomes with your clients?

• Are you offering support and services to meet the unique needs of diverse employee groups?

Approaching employees’ needs holistically will require stronger collaboration with corporate inclusion programs and have the power to drive wellness and belonging outcomes for EVERY employee with greater significance and lasting impact. v

In addition, can you envision opportunities for EAP and benefits providers to work more collaboratively and in partnership with corporate clients, like IBM? Finally, do you see opportunities for EAP and benefits providers to take a leadership position in driving more inclusive support services for employees?

Kimberley Messer is a member of IBM’s Global Diversity Business Development organization, focused on LGBT markets for the United States and Canada. Kimberley provided the opening keynote at the EAPA 2018 Conference & Expo. She can be reached at kdmesser@ca.ibm.com.

earoundup Guide Details Best Practices for Non-Binary Inclusion Out & Equal Workplace Advocates has released, “Best Practices for Non-Binary Inclusion in the Workplace,” an important guide detailing methods for ensuring non-binary inclusivity in the workplace. The guide, which draws upon insight from Out & Equal’s many partners as well as cutting-edge resources in diversity and inclusion, provides a solid framework for implementing a greater awareness and understanding of non-binary identity in the workplace.

“Best Practices…” reviews basic concepts surrounding gender, gender neutral language, pronouns, and facilities, and more.

A majority of non-binary individuals remain closeted in the workplace. Furthermore, additional research indicates almost half (45%) of non-binary individuals had experienced negative incidents at work on a monthly, or even more frequent basis.

The guide encourages companies and employees to develop greater empathy and awareness of non-binary identities in order to create places of belonging.

Read more here http://outandequal. org/app/uploads/2018/11/OE-NonBinary-Best-Practices.pdf.

CEAPs Recognized at EAPA Conference Employee assistance professionals who earned their Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) credentials were recognized at EAPA 2018 Conference and Expo. Those individuals were: Louis Buchhold, CA; Dawn Clover, PA; Mary Ellen Kundrat, NY; Amber Cardinal, MN; Samuel Lima, FL; Denise Loggie, FL; John Kaiser, AE; Mary Viavattine, NY; Lyndsey Harrison, TX; Renee’ Evans, NC; Nicole Moure, TX; Sierra Farmer, OH; Tonya Slawinski, PA; Jennifer Lavan, DC; Maullika Sharma, India; and Karen Johnston, NY.

EAPA-SA Issues Book In conjunction with its 20th anniversary, the Employee Assistance Professionals Association of South Africa (EAPA-SA) has issued the book, Creating Legacy in EAP Business. The book, commissioned by the EAPA-SA Board and authored by Prof. L.S. Terblanche (PhD), chronicles the concept of EAP (Employee Assistance Programmes) in South Africa as well as the historical development of EAPA-SA. Creating Legacy in EAP Business includes details on the role of international role-players in the field of EAPs, giving recognition to not only certain prominent experts in the field, but also to some international organizations in the field (i.e. EAPA).

The 650-page book, which took five years to research, explores and describes the historical development of an upcoming and growing discipline in the field of human resources as well as the history of the EAPA-SA, as the Continued on page 21

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