An employee assistance program gets used when people can find the phone number, understand what a call is for, and believe the reason for the call will not land in a manager's inbox. A poster that says "support is here" without a number is decoration. A number buried in a PDF behind single sign-on is a number people will not dial from a park bench on their day off. Put the number in the message. Say the privacy rule you actually have. Say it more than once a year.
Keep this distinct from mental health benefits communication, which is about getting to a covered appointment: cost, wait, and two doors into care. The EAP is often the earlier call — a counselor, a referral, or a practical problem — and it usually has its own vendor, its own number, and its own privacy statement. Mix the two up and people call the wrong line, or they call neither because the story was fuzzy. This is communication guidance, not clinical or legal advice. The EAP contract and your counsel control confidentiality, consent, and what a supervisor may be told.
Say what the call is for
List the reasons your EAP actually handles, in the words the vendor agreed to. Typical lists include short-term counseling, a referral into longer care, help finding child or elder care, and a financial or legal consult. Your list must match the contract. If you do not offer a legal consult, do not borrow one from another company's poster. People remember the promise and test it.
Say how to start. Phone, chat, or both. Say whether the first call can happen after typical work hours, and publish those hours in the time zones where your people live. Say whether household members can use it, if the contract allows that, and how they identify themselves. A benefit that covers a spouse is unused if only the employee's work email ever mentioned it. Say how many sessions or what kind of consult the plan includes, using the figure in the contract, not a round number you hope is close.
Say what the call will not do. It will not replace emergency services. Put the local emergency number in the same message, above the fold, so a person in crisis is not hunting past a wellness paragraph. It will not guarantee a next-day appointment with a specialist. If the EAP refers into the medical plan, say that the medical plan's network and cost sharing apply from there, and point to the mental-health note for that path. One message, two doors, labeled.
Say what HR does not receive
Write the privacy sentence with the vendor and with counsel, then use that sentence everywhere. People need to know whether HR receives the caller's name, the topic, or only a headcount. Those are different levels of trust. Publish the level you have. If managers can make a formal referral, explain what the manager is told back and what they are not told. A surprise "your supervisor knows you called" ends the program's credibility for a site.
Train managers on the sentence and on the boundary. They may hand someone the number. They may not ask what the call was about, and they may not treat a call as a performance fact. Give them the card: the number, the hours, the emergency line, and "I will not ask why you called." Reuse the posture in manager talking points. The EAP card is shorter, and it has to be available on a weekend, because that is when people look for it.
If you ever receive a mandatory report under the contract — a safety threat, for example — do not hide that the contract has that exception. Say that the vendor follows its legal duties, and that ordinary counseling topics are not forwarded to HR. A blanket "100% confidential" that your contract does not support will be discovered. Discovery sounds like betrayal. Precision sounds like respect.
Put the number where a personal phone can open it
Publish a page with no work login. The number, the hours, what the call is for, what HR receives, the emergency line, and whether family members can call. Text the number to people who have opted into texts, on a cadence that is not only after a hard week in the news. Print a card for break rooms, lockers, and the back of an ID badge if the workplace allows it. A QR code should dial or open that page, and you should test the dial on a personal phone.
Add the number to the places people already go for help: the new-hire packet, the disability first message, the furlough page, and the wellness communication you send in ordinary months. Each of those moments is when someone is more likely to need a human. Dropping a new URL on them only in those weeks, with no prior memory of the number, asks them to trust a stranger. Repetition in calm months is what makes the crisis-week message recognizable.
For crews without a quiet office, say they can call from a personal phone off site, and that they do not need to tell a supervisor they are stepping out to do it. Hospitals, plants, stores, and restaurants all need that sentence. The note on hospital and health-system communication is a useful sibling: shift work and a public break room make a "confidential poster" an oxymoron unless the actual call can happen somewhere private.
A cadence that is not only after a crisis
Put the EAP on the year-round calendar four times: new hire, a calm month, open enrollment as a one-line reminder beside the medical choice, and one seasonal moment you choose with care. Skip the week of a public tragedy as your only mention. A first introduction that arrives beside a headline feels like damage control. A number people have seen in March is usable in a hard week.
Ask the vendor for usage you are allowed to see: calls or cases started, by month, by work site if the contract permits, with no names and no topics. If the contract forbids even that, count how often you published the number and whether the page was opened. Label those as activity. When usage is flat and the page is invisible, fix the placement before you rewrite the slogan. When managers still ask "what is the EAP," the card is not in their hand.
Review the privacy sentence once a year against the contract. Vendors change. Portals get added. A sentence that was accurate last January can be wrong after a renewal. The annual check is a thirty-minute meeting with the vendor and HR, followed by an edit to the page, the card, and the new-hire packet on the same day. One outdated badge card will be the version people trust, because they can touch it.
Key takeaways
- Lead with the phone number, the hours, and the reasons for a call that your contract actually includes.
- Put the emergency number in the same message.
- State what HR receives and what a manager is allowed to ask. Match the contract.
- Publish the number on a no-login page, a card, and the messages people see in hard weeks.
- Mention it in calm months so a crisis-week note is not the introduction.
- This is communication guidance. The contract and counsel control confidentiality.
Frequently asked questions
How is an EAP message different from a mental health benefit message?
The EAP note is about the first call: the vendor's number, what that call can help with, and what HR is told. The mental health note is about a covered appointment, the cost, and how to get in. Label both doors so people do not call the wrong line.
What privacy sentence should we use?
The one counsel and the vendor confirm. Say whether HR gets a name, a topic, or only a headcount, and mention any exception the contract requires, such as a safety duty. A blanket promise the contract does not support will surface later as a breach of trust.
Can family members use it?
Only if your contract says so. If they can, say how they identify themselves and put that on a page that does not require the employee's work login. If they cannot, say that plainly so a spouse does not call and get turned away without warning.
When should we promote the number?
At hire, in a calm month, as a one-line reminder at open enrollment, and once more on the calendar you choose. Keep it on the disability, furlough, and wellness pages too. A hard news week should not be the first time anyone sees the number.
Publish the EAP number, what a call is for, and what HR does not receive.
Pairs strategic thinking with a drive to get it right every time. With 16+ years of experience — including a communication practice in Sydney, Australia — she specializes in simplifying complex benefit programs.
