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.

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