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25 Sep 2020
by Rima Evans

Value of EAPs goes way beyond addressing emotional support

Nearly all employers (93%) offer staff an employee assistance programme (EAP) as part of their wellbeing plan, a survey shows.

 

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REBA’s Employee Wellbeing Research 2020 report, published in association with AXA PPP healthcare, revealed there is a wealth of services that come under EAP provision – though not all are provided without incurring extra cost.

The vast majority (97%) of EAPs offer telephone counselling as standard, with grief and loss support (95%) commonly provided, as well as support for family issues (92%).

Online counselling is offered as standard in the vast majority of schemes (87%), as is face-to-face counselling provisions in over three quarters of cases. Support for adoption is the least common service but still included as standard in just over half (56%) of EAPs.

Meanwhile, the two services most employers opt to offer as “paid-for extras” are critical incident support (13%) and face-to-face counselling (11%).

The survey of 309 wellbeing, HR and employee benefits professionals gives some insight into EAP spend too. Although a third of respondents said they don’t know the amount spent on their EAPs, among those that did know, median spend was between £26 and £50 per employee per year. A tenth spend more than £300 per employee a year on their EAP.

“Our research shows there is a large range of services on offer and that EAPs go way beyond addressing only emotional wellbeing,” said the report.

“It is worthwhile for every employer to take the time to review their particular EAP package and ensure it has all the elements they require – it’s important that organisations are not spending on services that their employees are not using,” it added.

Download a copy of the 92-page Employee Wellbeing Research 2020 (free to REBA Professional Members and all those working for REBA Associate Members).

The author is Rima Evans, freelance writer for REBA.