Support Your Employees' 
Emotional Well-being

Well‑Being Programs: Good for People, Great for Business

Employees carry a spectrum of pressures—from everyday stress to serious addiction—that erode focus, safety, and attendance. A thoughtfully designed well-being program counters these risks by blending mental‑health resources, flexible work options, healthy‑habit incentives, and a strong employee assistance program (EAP). By encouraging healthy lifestyles, mindfulness, and work‑life balance, companies alleviate stress, lift mood, and deepen engagement.

The EAP benefits ripple through the organization: lower absenteeism and healthcare costs, reduced burnout and presenteeism, and a workforce that performs at its best. Well-being programs also help attract and retain talent, cutting recruitment and training expenses. Investing in total well‑being programs nurtures healthier, happier employees while delivering measurable gains in productivity and profitability.

Some of the mental and physical issues most commonly faced by employees today:

Free or Embedded EAPs
Embedded EAPs, provided as an add-on by many insurance providers, are static, cookie-cutter solutions that prohibit employers from modifying or making model changes throughout the year. They also have slower response times.
In the worst cases, the free or embedded EAPs have shallow features, are not completely confidential, and have less qualified clinicians/providers. In the very worst cases, they carry hidden costs. They become the opposite of 'free.'

Fixed Visit Model
Typically, employees are limited to 3 sessions (1-3) of counseling. EAP models that fail to resolve issues within their programs result in increased behavioral healthcare claims costs.

Stand-Alone EAPs
A stand-alone EAP can be customized to fit your company's needs, is more likely to have a deeper bench of employee benefits, provides more highly qualified clinicians/providers, offers better training and support for HR managers, has higher utilization rates, and delivers a return on investment.

Total Well-being EAP
An EAP that includes physical and mental wellness for total well-being.

Free EAPs come with bare bones features like an 1-800 number to report a problem, and maybe a list of counselors for employees to research on their own. This does not typically include access to the providers.

A stand-alone EAP will have more features. Depending on what type of stand-alone EAP you choose, your program could come with common features like:

• 24-hour crisis hotline
• A large network of licensed clinicians
• Some free visits to clinicians

Think about your EAP in terms of customization. What would a custom-made EAP look like for your organization? You can help answer this question by conducting an in-house survey of managers and employees to determine the right EAP for your organization.

Ask your managers:

• What are the most common problems faced by our employees?
• What is the average age of our workforce (this would influence whether you need more support for retirement planning or family issues)?
• How many employees do we need to serve?
• If we already have an EAP, what do users value most?
• Is our current EAP delivering what it says it does and what we need?
• Are we seeing value and ROI from our current EAP?
• What are our EAP utilization rates? (HR departments that are proactively involved with monitoring and leveraging their company's EAP programs see the best value.)

Ask your employees:

• Are you aware of the EAP services offered by your current provider?
• What EAP features have employees appreciated from their previous employers?
• If we had a better EAP would you use it?

Ask your potential EAP Providers:

• What are their utilization rates?
• Are utilization reports provided?
• What are their customer satisfaction ratings?
• What features do they offer in their regular EAP that are not at an extra fee?
• What are the costs for the EAP services not included in the regular EAP?
• How easily and quickly can you provide support to someone in need?
• What type of clinicians/providers come with the EAP?
• What support can you provide to our HR team?
• Can you customize the EAP?

To start, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the type of EAP that best aligns with your organization's needs. Once identified, delve into the market to explore vendors that offer such services. This step helps narrow down your options, ensuring you focus on providers that are relevant and cater to your requirements.

If you're monitoring your EAP and looking at the data, through the service reports provided to confirm that it's delivering what you need, then you've chosen a great plan and provider.

Obviously, it's always better to be proactive than reactive. But it's often only after a disaster or critical incident that many companies take a long, hard look at their EAPs.

If you're trying to get ahead of the curve, consider these common signs that it's time to upgrade your employee assistance program:

• Low utilization rates of your current EAP program
• Low ROI of your current EAP program
• Organizational changes such as corporate mergers, a spike in hiring, layoffs, or a critical event in the workplace
• Poor response times from the provider
• Poor provider network or employees having difficulty scheduling appointments
• No utilization reports
• No account manager or one that does not have a degree/is not credentialed in social work