Do You Need an Employee Assistance Program?
All employers want to see their staff thriving and happy, especially during the work day. But this isn’t always the case. Stressors can arise that make employees feel unmotivated or unable to perform their work duties to the best of their abilities.
Employee assistance programs, or EAPs, are one way that businesses can support the mental health of their team and see an overall improvement in the health and happiness of their employees.
But does your business really need an EAP program for employees? While they’re not a legal requirement, they’ve become commonplace in businesses throughout the UK and globally.
Employee assistance programs for mental health support are a fundamentally reactive measure. They are in place to support employees who are already at a point of crisis. We’re here to help you get a better understanding of what EAPs are, how they work, and why it‘s better to take a preventative approach to mental health for your business.
What is an EAP?
An EAP, or employee assistance program, is an employer-sponsored program that offers confidential and free-to-employee mental health support. This typically includes a 24/7 helpline for employees to have a one-on-one conversation with a professional who they can talk to and confide in. EAPs usually include short-term counselling, while some offer add-ons like discounts to local gyms or programs like guided meditation.
How do employee assistance programs work?
For most businesses, an EAP service is purchased from an organisation that specialises in this work. There are many employee assistance program examples, but here are the four main types:
- Internal: These EAPs are based within the organisation and usually run through the human resources department. An in-house counsellor or mediator may be hired by the company to fulfil this support function. Employees may be hesitant to use this service though, especially if they feel that it’s too closely tied to company management.
- External: Companies who work with external employee assistance providers generally have the highest uptake, so these are the most commonly used EAP services. They operate separately from the organisation, so employees feel that their information is private. Much like a call centre, these EAPs are available around the clock and an advisor will assess the need level of the individual employee - businesses can expect around 5% of their employees to use this service.
- Embedded: These services are usually part of larger packages included in the company’s private health insurance program. This means that fewer options are offered as part of this EAP type. For instance, a hotline may be available, but counselling for employees may be more referral based rather than something provided as part of the program.
- Alternative programs: Not every business will use a traditional EAP. Instead, a comprehensive corporate wellbeing program can be an excellent alternative to an EAP for mental health. Unlike EAPs, these programs are focused on preventative healthcare to address the causes of employee stress and burnout before they arise.
Most EAPs cost around £1-2 per employee to implement and can help overcome long NHS wait lists for counselling services, without the financial burden on the employee to pay for private mental health support. However low overall utilisation and low referral rates for counselling sessions means this low cost is offset by what many see as both a poor return on investment and a reactive approach to supporting employee mental health.
Challenges with EAPs
The reality of EAPs is that very few employees actually make use of the services they provide, making it difficult for businesses to justify their investment in these programs.. There are a number of reasons for this.
1. Low awareness
Traditional EAPs date back to the 1950s and are essentially still customer service hotlines that you need to call before you are referred on for support. The service is often hidden within employee benefit platforms, a document often overlooked during the onboarding process for new team members. With limited ongoing signposting from the employer, general awareness and understanding amongst employees is often very low.
2. Low utilisation
Research suggests that only around 5% of employees are actually calling their EAP provider, while one fifth of that small group are then offered counselling sessions. Overall, that means only around 1% of employees in companies with EAPs are getting the mental health support they need.
This is both because of low awareness and because EAPs are usually used in response to a crisis, which is likely to be a small proportion of your workforce. And, as support is available through what is essentially a customer service hotline, it requires employees to actively go searching for the help. Particularly when it comes to counselling over the phone, many employees may not feel comfortable or motivated to make that initial phone call.
3. Long wait times
While NHS wait times for mental health support can be up to 18 weeks, many EAPs don’t offer a significantly improved service either. Although initial assessment may be faster when an employee calls the EAP hotline, the small number who are referred onto a counsellor may still have to wait several weeks for a provider to schedule a session with them.
Employees are also limited to the number of EAP counselling sessions they have access to. Those who meet the eligibility criteria for additional support will be provided with a set number of counselling sessions, usually five or six per employee. For those with symptoms of burnout or other mental health problems, ongoing support is often needed and something not offered by a traditional EAP.
Alternatives to EAPs
With ever-increasing global stress levels, alternative options to EAPs are becoming more necessary.
Businesses not only have a duty of care towards their team, but it also makes financial sense to invest in the ongoing health of your employees—reducing absenteeism and lowering employee turnover as a result of poor mental health can ultimately save your company significant money.
But if EAPs aren’t the answer, what options are there? Here are a few alternatives to consider when thinking about how best to support the mental health of your employees.
Preventative stress management
Recognising and addressing stress when it arises, before employee mental health is impacted, is essential.
There are numerous ways to proactively manage stress for your employees, from company policies, to always-on programs and one-off initiatives. We cover 10 ways to reduce chronic stress for your business in this guide.
With preventative stress management tools like Walking on Earth, employees can learn skills to help manage stress, with a wide variety of options known as micro moments of recovery.
By accessing these tools through their work calendar interface, employee engagement with the solution is 8x higher than your average EAP. This means not only is utilisation high, delivering you a better return on investment, but employees are able to train their stress management skills like a muscle - to deploy when they need it most, before they reach the point of crisis.
Ultimately, providing the right support for your employees, and ensuring you get value for money, comes from meeting their needs.
Coaching
Offering one-on-one and team coaching is also an option that many businesses may want to consider. While hiring someone in-house is likely not the most cost effective solution here, many companies are now looking into how they can provide this level of support to their employees on an ongoing basis.
This type of EAP alternative may be useful for leadership in particular, helping them to address any issues they may be facing while also training them on what to look for when it comes to burnout or stress triggers in the people they manage.
Coaching can be a worthwhile option to add onto a corporate wellbeing program or other mental health initiatives in the business. But it can also become a costly operation that may use up a significant amount of the wellbeing budget, while only being accessible to a small number of employees.
Addressing the root cause
While there are many causes of chronic stress and burnout, for most employees the underlying cause is most commonly workload and manager relationships. By not addressing these root causes, your business costs are likely to increase: the benefits you’ll need to provide in addition to the cost of employee sick leave and churn.
Solving the stress epidemic at work
Global levels of burnout are continuing to rise, but partnering with a company like Walking on Earth to build a comprehensive wellbeing program could be the solution within your organisation. We’ll work with you to present a new model of health for the modern workplace, providing an alternative to traditional employee assistance programs to bring meaningful change to your team.
Schedule a demo of our WONE app today and together, we can address the global stress epidemic.
