What are the benefits of providing an employee assistance program (EAP)?
- admin
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) offer a wide range of benefits for organisations and their employees. By ensuring employees can access support they need, when they need it, organisations can benefit from increased performance and productivity, better retention and attraction staff and savings to the bottom line.
What is an EAP?
An EAP is a free and confidential counselling service that organisations offer to their employees, and in some cases their immediate family members, to assist in managing work-related and or personal problems that may be adversely affecting them and their performance at work.
An EAP can assist employees with vast areas of clinical challenges, including but not limited to:
Stress management
Psychological disorders
Addiction
Crisis management
Grief and loss
Sleep issues
Anger management
Relationships
Domestic violence
Burnout
Bullying/harassment.
The benefits for the organisation
In the workplace, mental illness is a leading cause of absence and lost productivity. By taking proactive action to protect the mental health and well-being of employees, the potential benefits are substantial, not only for the individuals but for the organisation as well.
Research shows that organisations that support the mental health and safety of their employees can benefit from:
decreased errors and accidents,
increased productivity,
better retention of staff,
reduced absenteeism, and
fewer workers’ compensation claims.
All of these benefits can contribute to huge financial savings for the organisation. In fact, recent research has found that organisations that successfully implement effective action to create a mentally healthy workplace can expect an average return on investment of $2.30 for every dollar invested due to a reduction in absenteeism, presenteeism and workers' compensation claims.
The benefits for employees
Mental illness has a significant impact on all aspects of an individual’s life, including their performance at work, their relationships with family and friends and their ability to participate in the community.
Providing accessible, flexible and autonomous support through an EAP can assist employees with a range of mental health and life challenges. In addition to improving their mental health and well-being, other benefits for employees can include:
feeling like their employer cares about their well-being,
decreased stress and/or anxiety at work and home,
feeling more engaged at work, and
having direct and quick access to confidential expert support if and when they need it
Not all EAPs are created equally
EAP programs can differ greatly in the services that they provide, so it can be difficult to know which one will be best.
The Australian Government’s Comcare has released ‘Principles for Better Practice Employee Assistance Programs’, which provides evidence-informed guidance to help organisations implement an EAP that better meets the needs of their workforce. One of the key guiding principles that they have outlined is to ensure that an EAP offer an inclusive and accessible service delivery model. This includes:
Ensuring access is simple and clear for workers
Identify the needs of the workforce (e.g., onsite, remote, shift workers, FIFO, etc.)
Understanding and providing options for various user preferences (E.g., gender and experience of practitioners)
Offering a range of service delivery modes (e.g., phone, face-to-face, video and/or other digital services)
Address accessibility needs, including for people with disabilities and those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
Provide educational material, using multiple mediums and technologies, to support prevention, promotion and other strategies to address issues impacting the mental health and well-being of employees.
If you are unsure as to whether or not you may need to implement an Employee Assistance Program in your workplace, please reach out to the HVH Advisory team for guidance.
We are always here to help!
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