Employee Assistance Programs: How Do I Select The Best One?

An employee assistance program offers free and confidential assessments, counseling, and follow-up services for employees. This allows employers to help guide their employees through various issues affecting their mental and emotional wellbeing, contributing to an overall healthy work-life balance.

In this blog post, Pacific Prime will go over employee assistance programs and what companies can do to select the best program possible to ensure their employees maintain their mental and emotional wellbeing.

What is an Employee Assistance Program?

Both small and large businesses use employee assistance programs at the workplace in the hopes of assisting employees in resolving personal issues that might have an impact on their performance at work.

This can be in the form of counseling sessions, free and confidential assessments, or follow-up sessions. While employee assistance programs began over 80 years ago to combat employee alcohol and drug abuse, they have since evolved to counteract even more employee concerns, as seen below.

• Gambling addiction
• Depression and mental illnesses
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Financial difficulties
• Relationship problems
• Maintaining healthy lifestyle
• Everyday concerns
• Childcare
• Dependent adult care (grandparents or elderly parents)
• Grief and loss

The average annual cost of employee assistance programs range from USD $12-40/employee per month. These programs are also usually offered in tandem with an employee healthcare package or as an added benefit to the latter.

Types of Employee Assistance Programs

From external and internal to hybrid employee assistance programs, each type of employee assistance programs operate differently and each of them are suitable for different organizational sizes.

Below is a general outline of the different types of employee assistance programs.

The Value of Employee Assistance Programs

Employee assistance programs help with a multitude of employee concerns, one of which includes work-related stress and anxiety. Ongoing stress leads to exhaustion and apathy, which often results in a lack of productivity and burnout.

According to a survey by global recruitment firm, Robert Walters, 60% of Canadian employees suffered from work-related stress, while 34% stated they constantly felt stress. With employee assistance programs, however, employees can get critical support, preventing them from succumbing to stress.

Key Benefits of Employee Assistance Programs

From increasing overall work productivity to contributing to employee retention, the key benefits of employee assistance programs culminate in a healthy work-life balance for both employers and employees. Below are some of the key benefits of employee assistance programs.

Increased Work Productivity

As mentioned before, stress and anxiety are two of the areas of employee concerns that employee assistance programs seek to fix.

When employees become stressed out due to personal issues, they can become less motivated and productive and fall victim to chronic absenteeism, where they take more days off in an effort to cope with the stress yet these excessive absences could prove detrimental to their work performance.

With the help of employee assistance programs, however, employees get to openly discuss their concerns with someone who they can trust, like a counselor or therapist, allowing them to resume work with a stress-free mindset once more.

Increased Employee Retention

Employee assistance programs help contribute to increased employee retention by providing supportive measures such as counseling to help employees’ personal challenges, which then enhances their overall wellbeing and reassures their job satisfaction.

Through open discussions in counseling sessions offered by the company as part of the employee assistance programs, employees will then feel their voices are heard and valued, further contributing to increased employee retention.

Fostering a Positive Work Environment

Thanks to helping address employees’ personal concerns, such as stress through supportive measures such as counseling sessions, employee assistance programs help employers foster a positive work environment where every employee feels heard and valued.

How To Select The Best Employee Assistance Program

Because employee assistance programs come in different variations, selecting the most suitable program can be challenging. Below are factors to consider when deciding what type of employee assistance program to select for the company.

The Cost Structure

The cost of specific employee assistance programs can vary depending on the type and extent of services offered as well as the method of calculating charges. These programs should not only disclose what’s covered in the contracted fee but also additional charges for services such as counseling.

Is There a Guarantee of Privacy?

All client records should be kept confidential and separate from health insurance records.

The Counselors

Counselors with expertise in a wider range of areas can offer employees greater guidance to meet their unique needs, allowing them to openly discuss their personal concerns.

Useful Communication

Providers should regularly update their program’s effectiveness in helping your company achieve the agreed-upon productivity goals.

Do the Programs Meet the Employees’ Unique Needs?

Lastly, it’s important to consider if the employee assistance programs meet your employees’ unique needs and your business’ productivity.

To ensure this would happen, start by gathering a committee consisting of HR, managers, and other leaders in your company to discuss potential benefits, costs, and the program type you wish to implement.

By taking all these factors into consideration when selecting employee assistance programs, you ensure not only your employees’ voices are heard thanks to open discussions in counseling sessions but also a healthy work-life balance overall.

Let Pacific Prime Help You With Employee Benefits Solutions!

As not only an international health insurance broker but also an employee benefits specialist, Pacific Prime can not only help match expats and locals to their health insurance plan of choice, but also help businesses with employee benefits solutions like employee assistance programs.

Whether you’re a larger or smaller organization, Pacific Prime and our team of specialists are more than happy to help offer guidance for your company’s employee benefits solutions to ensure employees’ voices are heard and valued.

And if you have any further questions, please get in touch with us.