Employee Assistance Programs: Key Benefits & Mental Wellness Support

Companies have been aggressively investing in their employees well-being and health in recent years (Ton, 2014). Corporate wellness programs, which include basic health monitoring, exercises, and training seminars to improve well-being, are used by almost 90% of firms in the United States (Wieczner, 2013). Are you curious as to why their prevalence is on the rise? It s because the number of people suffering from physical and mental illnesses is on the rise. As a result, a drop in employee health and well-being results in a rise in insurance costs, which are carried by the employers.

According to a metanalytic analysis, every $1 invested on wellness initiatives saves $3.27 in health-care expenses and $2.73 in absenteeism costs (Baicker et al. 2010). Even though these benefits are enormous, they leave out an essential area of functional benefits from investing in employee health and well-being: increased employee productivity. Healthier employees are not only less absent and less expensive, but they are also more productive, according to management experts (Odegaard & Roos 2014).

Employees who are actively involved in their work do far better than those who are not. When you re suffering from physical or mental illness, it s challenging to stay focused at work. Even a little ailment, such as a cold, can wreak havoc on productivity by sapping employees energy and focus. Stress and other chronic or long-term problems have a significantly greater impact on work productivity.

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Productivity:

A by-product of a healthy mental state is being productive. EAPs help employees build motivation and strengthen work-life boundaries thereby enhancing their productivity at work.

Orientation Workshops:

Mental health issues are unfortunately still hold stigma towards it. Usually, EAP providers only offer Online Counselling sessions without helping and encouraging employees to come forward and seek help if they require. Orientating about mental health and letting them know it is okay to have issues and they are treatable; the services will only then be utilized to its optimum level creating a positive impact.

Loyalty:

Wellness programs can strengthen the commitment of the individual to the company. It’s a reciprocal relationship; employees who feel cared for are likely to match that feeling in commitment to the company - not to mention engaged employees perform 20% better than their counterparts

Confidentiality:

HIPAA compliance is a certificate that ensures how client records are kept highly confidential and the system is encrypted. Many EAP providers fail to comply to this. Employees need to be assured that their conversations and therapy processes are kept confidential between them and the therapist. If this is not in place, employees won’t be comfortable using the services that are being offered.

Therapy processes:

Another key factor is the quality of therapy provided. Many economical plans would offer 30-minutes consultations contrary to typical and traditional 60-minute sessions. Qualification of the therapists also need to be checked while evaluating EAPs.

Accessibility:

Minimization of user interaction is essential for the best usage of EAP services. When a lot of processes are required to simply book an appointment, hesitations come up and eventually employees are not up for a lengthy process.

Engagement:

More often than not, EAP providers do not offer to do the background work. That is, managing employee requests, helping them in choosing a therapist, calling, and making emailers to create a buzz for the services provided. This is done because, employee are many a times never aware of such a program running in the organization!