Introduce, manage and review an employee assistance programme
Key points
An employee assistance programme provides employees with a confidential support and advice service. This can be over the telephone, face to face or online, or a combination of the three.
An employee assistance programme is usually offered via a third party, so employers will need to research the market in line with their requirements.
Employers setting up an employee assistance programme will need to think about how the effectiveness of this benefit will be monitored and how they will encourage employees to use it.
Where an external provider is being used, the employer should agree with the provider the type and frequency of usage data that will be reported to the employer.
Employers should regularly review the employee assistance programme in line with the wellbeing and/or reward objectives that it was introduced to meet. Reviews should look at take-up, value for money and effectiveness.
