Corporate health refers to a healthy corporate culture and the measures taken to promote the health of employees* in a company. Sympatex has formulated specific goals that are not so much geared to the success of the company, but rather to promoting the health of its employees. This involves strengthening health competence, improving well-being and health in the workplace, and maintaining employability.

Whether at work or in private life – stress, conflicts, changes, everyday worries or health problems can lead to overload. It can be helpful to look at your own situation from a different perspective together with a neutral and independent expert. We would like to support our colleagues in finding a good balance and are launching the external and professional consulting service meinEAP (EAP=Employee Assistance Program) from INSITE, an experienced provider of occupational health management, on July 1, 2023.

We conducted an interview with Thomas Weißenfels. Thomas is a customer consultant at INSITE and explains what support Sympatex employees receive from INSITE.

1. Dear Thomas, INSITE stands for a healthy balance of employees. Could you please explain in more detail how INSITE supports Sympatex?

There are always challenging situations in life. They can be serious crises, but also seemingly minor things that throw you off balance. In these moments, INSITE is there to help employees. What we offer is a so-called EAP.  The three letters stand for Employee Assistance Program: in short, an external employee counseling service. EAP is an independent and professional consulting service that all Sympatex employees and their first-degree family members can use free of charge for almost all professional and personal issues. Our consultants are experts in their field. They clarify the issue and together take the first steps towards a solution. Especially in challenging times, the EAP can be an effective tool to get help and relief. The service is not only 100% confidential. It can also be used completely anonymously.

2. The INSITE Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is available to Sympatex employees in all situations and provides solution-oriented advice and concrete support. Can you give us a few examples here?

Our counseling sessions usually deal with psychosocial issues from the private-personal or professional spheres of life. These are, for example, questions about partnership, family and children, but also about work-life balance, stress symptoms and mental health, as well as, for example, conflicts or change processes at work. We also support employees in all matters relating to care. This can involve questions about powers of attorney for long-term care and living wills, but also concrete help if a care case should arise in the family. In addition, we provide support in legal matters with specialist attorneys, in all areas of law except labor law with initial legal advice and in financial difficulties with budget and debtor and insolvency advice.

When it comes to the topic of family, we also provide support with our experts in questions concerning the desire to have children, education, choice of school and in development issues. We also provide support for questions concerning physical health, e.g. with the “translation” of the doctor’s letter, questions about medication side effects and interactions, and questions about alternative treatment methods or diagnoses.

3. What problems do you see employees facing nowadays and how does INSITE help them?

The problems of each individual are very different and always have to be seen in an individual context. We can help, among other things, to identify individual room for maneuver or to jointly develop strategies to better deal with the stresses. In addition, we provide support in finding rehab, nursing and therapy places as well as specialist appointments by means of a capacity query within a desired search radius. Thus, by using the EAP, not only support can be experienced, but also a lot of time can be gained for other things.

4. What areas of counseling does INSITE offer Sympatex employees?

We offer all Sympatex employees telephone, video, e-mail and chat counseling on the topics of “work and career”, “family and children”, “children and the desire to have children”, “care”, “body and soul”, “law” and “financial difficulties”. We are available around the clock, 365 days a year, and always have psychosocial counselors on call in case of emergency, even in the middle of the night. This means that no one has to be left on their own in critical situations. All you need to do is pick up the phone to be connected to our experts.

5. What do you want companies to do for their employees in the future?

In my eyes, companies should have a realistic view of the world in which their employees live. If you look closely, you will always notice things where you can support your employees. In my view, offering an EAP is a great way of providing employees with professional help with the issues that are currently acute for them. Not least because it is also an offer for first-degree family members, and their problems can also have an impact on the employees’ health.

But there are also a lot of other ways to support employees. My wish is that both the companies support the employees and the employees support each other. Because in my view, this is the only way that healthy work can work for everyone involved in the long term.