In his latest blog Neil McLeese, Director at BeyondHR, explains what an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is and what benefits it might hold for your business to improve employee well-being.
What is an EAP?
An Employee Assistance Programme is a preventative and reactive support service, supplied by an organisation to its employees.
The purpose of an EAP is to not to only help service users in times of distress, but also to support people prioritising their mental wellbeing.
EAPs usually offer access to supports around areas of life that are widely acknowledged as stressors and therefore effecting employee well-being, such as legal professionals issues, financial difficulties experts and more.
This is also why EAP programmes usually provide access to partners and dependent children over 16, as again it is understood if we are concerned about the people closest to us in life this too can affect our mental wellbeing.
The EAP offered by our partner, Spectrum.Life, is the most comprehensive on the market. They offer a range of routes to access the service including live chat and free phone telephone support. From this they offer referral to professional services (legal, professional, mediation, life coaching and more), referral into short term mental health intervention which can be face-to-face, telephone or video counselling sessions, as well as access to hours of evidence-based eLearning content around mental health topics and more.
What are the benefits of improving employee well-being for your business?
- Improved Productivity
Research has shown that three-quarters of employees showed a significant increase in work productivity after accessing EAP services. This doesn’t just help boost profitability, but can also help strengthen morale in the workplace.
- Strengthen Workplace Mental Health
Individual mental health has an impact on workplace performance, so it’s in an employer’s interest to ensure employees feel that they can deal with life’s challenges.
- Reduce Absenteeism
Encouraging employees to make use of an EAP can help reduce the number of sick days taken.
BeyondHR are a team of professional HR Consultants with offices in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have more than 25 years proven experience of providing HR advice for employers including employment law support through our range of outsourced HR services and HR projects.
We have recently partnered with Spectrum.Life, who are a leading EAP provider. As a Spectrum.Life partner we are able to offer preferential EAP rates for our clients. If you would like more information on this blog or our EAP offering please do not hesitate to get in touch.
