Employee Assistance Programmes

This is a rapidly growing area as HSE requirements are now interpreted as extending to mental health as well as physical health. Stress is a large and growing problem in all areas and at all levels of occupation and employers need to be seen to be managing stress to avoid civil actions by employees.

An Industrial Society survey reported that in organisations with 2,500+ employees, 56% of Human Resources Managers responded that stress was a problem in their organisation. Mind, the mental health charity, estimate that 30% of all absence from work is stress related so there are strong commercial reasons to reduce this where possible. Commercial argument is strengthened by the potential effects on Sick Pay, Permanent Health Insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Employers Liability and Executive Professional Indemnity as well as the hidden cost of poor performance.

An Employee Assistance Programme is defined as "Counselling and support for staff whose functionality is impaired by stress, domestic or dependency problems".

Typically it will include assistance from specifically trained counsellors on:

• Work or career related problems.
• Personal or emotional problems
• Financial, legal or tax difficulties
• Marital or family problems
• Alcohol or drug problems
• Sexual problems
• Stress

To be most effective, it should offer a combination of telephone based support and information linked with access to completely confidential face to face counselling.

A wide range of different organisations provide EAP services and we can provide impartial guidance on selecting a suitable provider to meet your company's needs.

Depending on the type of service selected, costs are usually between £6 and £30 per employee per month.

For further information on how The Private Health Partnership may be able to assist, please contact us to discuss your requirements.