Employers must help their staff with employee assistance programmes, otherwise known as EAP, writes Dan Kettle of Pheabs.com.
EAP refers to those programmes offered by employers to help with stress, mental health and wellbeing and are part of the wave of employee benefits that are being adopted by companies across the UK.
Examples of EAP include stress support, financial assistance, health care, medicals and psychiatric help - with registered providers including AXA PPP, Bupa and Spectrum Life.
“Wellbeing is very important for employees and if employers are not looking at this already, they certainly should be,” explains Dan Kettle.
“Especially under covid-19 and lockdown, you should be checking in on your staff and making sure they are mentally content and are not feeling overworked or burnt out.”
A study by Unum, employee benefits provider, showed that 300,000 people lose their job each year due to mental illness. But the question begs - how many of these jobs could have been retained if the individual had professional help?
“A lot of these products such as health cash plans start at just £5 per month (such as Equipme) and if employees get access to things like physios, dentists or 24/7 helplines, it is a very worthwhile investment - especially if you consider the cost of replacing key staff or the costs incurred when having them absent from work.”
“Whilst we offer financial products,” Kettle continues, “we can see the stress that emerges from having financial difficulties is abnormally high and ultimately we don’t want to be the first place that people come to, because loans are generally quite costly.”
“Ideally, there should be a simple way to speak to your employer first if you are having financial trouble - and then consider the credit card, short term loan market.”
You can speak to your employer about EAP and other employee benefits, with products such as medical cover or discounts often coming with tax benefits since they are considered a benefit in kind to employees.