Research commissioned by the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association [EAPA} confirms the effectiveness of counselling through EAPs. They support and promote employee health and wellbeing and reduce levels of psychological distress in the workplace giving good ROI.

The UK EAPA study, undertaken in partnership with CORE IMS, reviews the outcome of over 28,000 EAP counselling interventions. The findings indicate the success of EAPs when it comes to engaging with clients and matching client problems with relevant and appropriate counsellors, as well as offering speedy interventions that minimise the time employees are required to wait for professional support.

Key findings from the study, Benchmarking key service quality indicators in UK Employment Assistance Programme Counselling, are summarised here:

  • Recovery and improvement rates: 70% of EAP clients are demonstrably shown to recover or improve following their counselling intervention.
  • Access to EAP services: 92% of EAP clients were accepted for treatment in just 9 days (on average).
  • Clinical distress: 88% of clients presenting to EAPs score above clinical cut-off level, which means they are similar to NHS out patients.

Therefore EAPs are seeing and supporting clinical patients. EAP treatment completion: 80% of EAP clients were estimated to have completed their counselling intervention.
Number of sessions attended: on average, EAP clients attended four treatment sessions, with 88% attending five sessions and 95% of clients attending six sessions. In comparison, 23% of patients receiving care in an NHS primary care setting attended four treatments or less.
“The findings from our study should be welcomed by employers. They demonstrate that EAPs are getting employees back to work quickly and are therefore reducing the detrimental impact of mental health and employee psychological distress on the workplace,” says David Smith, chair of the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association.

“EAP provision has trebled in the last decade and EAPs are an increasingly popular strategic tool for employers who want to invest in the health and wellbeing of their employees and who recognise the importance of a healthy workforce in order to manage performance and drive productivity. This study confirms that organisations with an EAP in place are offering their people the very best opportunity to receive psychological help, should they ever need it and are taking proactive steps to protect both their people and their bottom line,” he says.