When care is hard for employees to reach, HR pays the price

Mental health concerns burnout, and trouble getting timely care are showing up inside Canadian workplaces. Too often, this is the workplace reality HR teams face, as employees often do not know where to go, cannot get help quickly, or will wait until a problem has already grown. When that happens, HR is left trying to support real health needs with limited time and resources.      

According to Mark Goad, general manager at Alan Canada, this has become one of the biggest gaps in employee benefits. HR teams are being asked to help employees stay healthy, while also handling recruiting, performance, culture, compliance, compensation, and everything else already on their plate.      

“Most HR teams are doing their best in a system that still makes it too hard for people to get help early and too easy for things to get worse before support shows up,” he explains.

Why access to care has become an HR issue      

In the upcoming webinar, How HR teams can support employee health earlier without adding more work, Goad will look at why employee health issues are often addressed too late and what employers can do to help people get support sooner.

A good starting point for any company is to ask a few straightforward questions. Where are employees getting stuck? Do people know where to go if they need help? Can they get the care they require quickly, or is it only available later when their problem has become more serious?

Goad stresses that the last thing HR teams need is more admin. They need benefits that make it easier for employees to get help earlier, without creating another program for HR to manage.      

“The companies making real progress are not the ones adding more programs just for the sake of it,” he continues. “They’re the ones making support simpler, earlier, and easier to access.”

What HR teams can do now

The webinar is built for HR leaders who want to support their people better while protecting their own team’s capacity. It will focus on practical steps employers can take to make care easier to access, especially around primary care, mental health, and prevention.    

Attendees will learn how to spot where support is arriving too late, where employees are running into barriers, and how to make it easier for people to get help before issues turn into burnout, absence, or leave.      “We’re going to explore why so many employee health issues are still being dealt with too late and where the biggest gaps in access to care show up,” Goad explains. “Most importantly, we’ll discuss what employers can do to make support easier to reach.”

Register now to learn how HR teams can help employees get support earlier while reducing the work they have to carry.

This article was produced in partnership with Alan Canada