UK Employee Assistance Programmes - A guide to better supporting employees in need of a helping hand

As an HR or small business leader in the UK, you’ll be well acquainted with the virtues of a happy and healthy workforce by now. And if you aren’t, then you’ll find a wealth of resources to help guide you in the employee wellbeing section of this very blog.

You may have also heard about the concept of employee assistance programmes, which is a set of strategies that seeks to go one step further.

EAPs, as they’re often shortened to, provide an enhanced level of support not only for UK employees, but often their immediate family members or dependents too. From strictly confidential third party support that can bypass the employer altogether, to the 24/7 nature of the support, they are a complete package for providing assistance to your people in trying times.

Let’s take a closer look at the concept of employee assistance programmes in the UK.

What are Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)?

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) are employer-sponsored, third-party provided packages designed to support employees’ mental health and wellbeing. They provide confidential help to employees (and often immediate family members or dependents) who are experiencing personal or work-related issues. 

These could include (but aren’t limited to) stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, relationship problems, financial concerns, or legal issues.

Some key features of EAPs include:

• Confidentiality: Employees can usually seek help via the EAP provider without their employer being notified.

• Accessibility: Support is often available 24/7 via phone, online chat, or in-person.

• Breadth of scope: EAPs often provide short-term counselling, mental health resources, legal and financial advice, and crisis intervention. They can also refer the employee in question for further support if needed.

• Cost: The service is free to employees - you as the employer cover the cost.

By their very nature, employee assistance programmes can often be interpreted as being purely for ‘crisis’ moments. The employee in question might not feel confident enough to approach their manager or People leader with their concerns, and feel that an intervention by a third party is necessary.

However, when used effectively, they can be a powerful employee wellness strategy for helping your people to take a different approach to manage any problems before they do become a crisis.

Why should a small business consider an employee assistance programme?

Providing an EAP can serve as an additional way to reassure your employees that you truly value their wellbeing, and to give them the reassurance that they can fully express themselves to an outside party in confidence. 

Having a robust support framework in place, one that can help employees at the same time as reducing some of the load placed on managers to act as counsellors to their employees, can help them to save time and bandwidth for focusing on personal development and performance.

And as an HR or small business leader, you can take some of those escalations off your plate, and focus your time and efforts on strategic projects - for example new technology investments, refining company behaviours and culture, or building operational resilience.

A few of the practical use cases where an EAP will be useful to a UK small business include:

• Mental health support

• To manage stress

• In the case of a bereavement

• For family or relationship issues

• To address financial concerns or problems

• To tackle substance misuse

• In legal concerns or disputes

• To resolve a workplace conflict

• If a manager requires additional support with a particular employee

The key benefits of employee assistance programmes

You don’t need us to tell you that healthy and happy employees, who feel supported and valued, are more likely to stay with you for longer, do their best work for you, and positively impact all of those key business metrics.

By taking care of issues before they become a crisis, more serious problems can be avoided later on. That means fewer absences, and better performance. 

Here’s some of those core employee assistance programme benefits, broken down.

Improved productivity

Recent research shows that there’s a ‘hidden’ £25bn in annual costs to UK businesses from lower productivity as a result of people working through sickness. That’s in addition to the costs to businesses of employees actually missing working days.

Employee assistance programmes have the potential to change that. Looking at those use cases above, you can see how an EAP could intervene to ensure that your people are happier and healthier, take less sick days, and are more engaged when they’re at work, resulting in better performance and productivity.

Reduced absenteeism

Employees taking time away from work cost UK businesses over £100bn in total in 2023. The number of days lost to sickness has also risen significantly, with employees taking on average 6.7 days off a year (up from 3.7 in 2018).

EAPs have been shown to reduce absenteeism by up to 40% - a hugely significant figure.

Greater retention

In addition to the obvious reasons why happy and healthy workers are more likely to stay in a job for longer, the fact that a business offers an employee assistance programme sends a powerful message to your people. That is to say, that you genuinely care about them, and people that feel cared for won’t want to give that up in a hurry.

Increased workplace participation

Employees who are able to use an EAP to keep mental and physical stress in check are more likely to form connections with colleagues, be it on work projects or through social events. This fosters a culture of collaboration and community, which can be infectious, and feeds into better productivity and energy all round.

More time savings

EAPs save time for employees, their managers, and business leaders. By allowing the process to be led by a third party, it reduces the need for you as an employer, or your managers, to handle cases. And for staff, it represents a centralised and direct way for airing grievances, with a specialised provider obliged to respond very quickly.

A better bottom line

Studies have shown that more engaged employees are more profitable employees, with a 14% rise in productivity and an 18% increase in turnover. If that’s not enough to get you interested, we’re not sure what will be! 

Successfully implementing an assistance programme - the steps to take 

Getting the most out of an EAP means putting together a carefully thought out strategy. Key to this is communicating to your employees that the EAP exists, and of the benefits we’ve talked about.

Take time to engage with your people, and understand what they need or expect from something like an EAP. These findings can then be relayed to your employee assistance programme provider, who can use it to create a more personalised approach.

Distribute hard copy materials to employees (as well as sharing on internal chats and newsletters), and train up managers to know when to spot warning signs and therefore when to refer team members to the EAP. And organise introductory and training sessions with all staff to go through the ins and outs of the programme. You could focus on particular issues that are most relevant to your business. 

It’s a good idea to run regular internal surveys to measure the effectiveness of the EAP, and to gauge how those key metrics such as fulfilment, absenteeism and engagement are being affected - positively or negatively. Which leads us onto the final part.

Maximising (and measuring) the impact of your employee assistance programme

The best way to measure the impact of employee assistance programmes is to regularly take the pulse of your staff on things like fulfilment, engagement, productivity and wellness. Ask explicit questions in employee surveys about these topics (e.g.: ‘on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you at the company?’), and reassure staff that their answers will be strictly confidential.

PayFit’s People features can help managers get a better insight into their teams’ performance and engagement, with a handy 1:1 module, plus the ability to set up performance review campaigns.