How it works
Reaching in, as a system
Mental health risks don't appear suddenly. They build over time, often unnoticed, until they become difficult and costly to resolve. Most systems respond after the problem is visible. Reaching in means noticing earlier, and having people who know what to do next.
The problem
Why support that waits to be asked reaches almost nobody
Most people don't reach out when they're struggling. Not because help isn't available, but because in the moment it matters, they don't trust the pathway to support.
Around 5% of people ever use a reactive EAP. It's not the provider, it's the design: it relies on someone, at their lowest moment, remembering the service exists and reaching out to a stranger.
Three things keep it that way
- 1
Most distress is invisible until it isn't.
By the time leaders see absences, errors or claims, the strain has been building for months. Those are lagging indicators.
- 2
Peers are trusted, but untrained.
Friends and colleagues are the first people someone turns to. Without training they freeze, give advice too early, or step back.
- 3
Compliance has moved from policy to evidence.
ISO 45003 and the 2026 Code of Practice expect controls that are running, not a policy on a shelf.
The approach
What reaching in means
Every person gets a check-in, on a schedule the organisation chooses, whether or not they would ever have asked. What they share is confidential to them. What the organisation receives is de-identified: which pressures are coming up, how widespread they are, and what to fix. Then the organisation's own people are trained to act on it. Then everyone has a way to keep the habit between calls.
Three solutions
The three solutions, and how they combine
The Proactive EAP takes the organisation's pulse.
A trained, clinically supervised Mental Health First Responder or a conversational AI calls every person and asks how they're really doing. They're connected to support only if they need it. Themes become a psychosocial risk report.
Proactive check-insTraining lets your own people read the pulse and act on it.
Mental Health First Aid teaches people to understand. Mental Health First Responder training teaches them to act, and to carry the change through the culture. Trained responders can carry the check-ins too.
Mental Health TrainingThe Emotional Pulse app lets everyone take their own pulse.
A 30-second check-in, a trusted pair who notices, a team view that protects every individual, and support two taps away.
Emotional Pulse AppEach stands on its own. Each makes the next easier. Start where you are.
What you get
One system, three outputs
The calls surface the themes behind the risk.
The app surfaces the leading indicators between calls.
Your responders turn both into action.
- A de-identified report each period, mapped to recognised psychosocial factors
- Earlier identification of psychosocial risk
- Fewer escalations into claims and incidents
- Evidence that controls are running
Privacy, stated before it is asked
Visibility without breaching trust
For employees it is early access to support. For leaders it is visibility without breaching trust.
Managers can see that check-ins are happening and the general picture across a team, never who said what.
No team of fewer than five is ever reported.
Participation is voluntary every cycle.
How it starts
One department. Four weeks from agreement to the first calls.
- 1
Scope and contract
- 2
Platform set-up and manager briefing
- 3
Team introduction and app rollout
- 4
Calls begin and the first report cycle starts
Sample report
What you see after a check-in cycle
Click a factor, switch teams, or step through identify, assess, control and review. This is a sample for a fictional organisation with invented numbers.
Sample cycle, quarterly check-ins
Riverbend Freight Co.
Employees spoken to
81%
194 of 240
Unsuccessful contacts
11
to follow up
MHFR sessions booked
9
Avg. call duration
7:40
Work organisation
- Job security & precarious workNo signal this cycle
Social factors
- Organisational & workgroup cultureNo signal this cycle
- ⚠HarassmentNo signal this cycle
- ⚠Violence at workNo signal this cycle
Work environment
Work organisation · across all teams
Workload & work pace
- Mentions
- 28
- People who raised it
- 19
- Peak severity
- Chronic
- Trend vs prior
- ↑ 18%
By team
- Warehouse12
- Transport10
- Customer service4
- Finance and admin2
What people said, de-identified
- Shifts have been short-staffed most weeks since peak season started.
- Pick targets went up without a change to breaks or rosters.
- People are skipping breaks to keep up with the dock schedule.
Plain-language summaries, never anyone's own words.
All 20 factors are listed, including those where nothing surfaced. No signal means nothing was raised this cycle; it is not an assessment that the factor is safe or controlled.
- Team hiddenFewer than five people, rolled up into the totals
92 people · this cycle
Warehouse
Top factors raised
- 1Workload & work pace
- 2Job demands
- 3Support & supervision
Themes appear only for groups of five or more. Smaller teams fold into the totals so no one can be singled out.
Every person was offered a check-in this cycle, so hazards surface from the whole workforce, not only the people who speak up.
In this sample, Workload & work pace and Job demands surfaced most, concentrated in Warehouse and Transport. One escalation factor was raised and followed up.
Each theme carries a severity mix, the number of people who raised it and the trend against the last cycle.
Workload was raised by 19 people, mostly at strain and distress, up 18% on the prior cycle. That is the assessment input: how widespread, how serious, which way it is moving.
Your leaders and responders decide the controls, in consultation with the people affected. The report shows where to act first.
Example controls a business might record: rebalance peak rosters in Warehouse, add a mid-shift break, give Transport earlier notice of roster changes.
The next cycle is comparable with this one, so you can see whether exposure fell after you acted, not only whether actions were done.
Working hours & schedule is down 6% after last cycle's change to roster notice. Leadership is down 10%.
Worth 30 minutes?
A 30-minute conversation to scope your team and the right place to start. No obligation.
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