Providing Employees With Support in the Workplace
Alan Kitto
With ever-increasing pressures on our lives, trying to balance the competing demands of our work, personal and family lives can be very difficult, frustrating, time-consuming and even expensive.
But, having an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in place offers a lot of support to employees to help them to manage life’s everyday challenges.
Support is available by telephone, email, instant message and online, an EAP provides free, confidential information and support to help employees gain a better work-life balance and deal with issues that they are struggling with.
Waiting times for NHS Counselling can be anything from 9 - 18 months, during which time, the situation or the employee’s mental health could deteriorate greatly, even to the point of seeing them unable to work.
Accessing face to face counselling quickly is likely to help an employee recover more quickly with less impact on the employee or employer. The EAP can refer employees to a face to face councillor if it’s felt they would benefit, and up to six sessions will be provided free of charge.
An EAP offers help and support on a variety of things and not just mental health. Support is also available for addiction and dependance issues, consumer rights, education and studying, pregnancy, birth, childcare and patenting, just to mention a few. It will also offer help and support on workplace issues.
An employee’s immediate family members can also access the same level of support
The information and support given is provided by experts, meaning the first person you speak to is a qualified counsellor. The calls have no time limits and can be a quick call or a lengthy consultation depending on your needs.
This is 100% confidential for the employee, with no information being passed back to the company other than statistics (no identifying information).
Private counselling typically costs £40 - £50 a session, and the full support that an EAP can provide is available for as little as £15 per employee per annum.
If you are interested in setting up an EAP Scheme for your Company, please let us know and we can arrange for a quotation for you and help you with the implementation.