Focusing on the job: EAPs and keeping Britain working

Focusing on the job: EAPs and keeping Britain working

Our new market report, Focusing on the job: EAPs and keeping Britain working, puts the role and value of EAPs into perspective. Because there’s an urgent need to help keep more employees in work, and make workplaces ‘healthier’ places to be.

EAPs have been playing a huge role in supporting workplace wellbeing as the demands and pressures have mushroomed: the new figures suggest remarkable growth in terms of the size of the market since 2023, boosted by the adoption of EAPs by more medium sized and smaller employers. EAP services are now an option for more than half of UK employees — and demand keeps on rising.

At the same time there are question marks over how employers can make best use of EAPs and their excellent resources of professional expertise to maximise their impact. The report points to how more providers are now expected to act as umbrella wellbeing services. Employers trust the professionalism of their EAP provider and want more support. But what does that mean in terms of the ability of EAPs to focus on their core strengths, the quality of clinical services and delivering the best clinical outcomes?

It’s clear there’s huge demand and pressure on counselling services. One trend picked up by the report is the number of parents contacting EAPs with concerns about the mental health of their children. This raises a new set of issues for employers and their EAP partners over how to provide support — a topic addressed by specialists who give their advice in the report.

So there’s a big job to be done in the coming years. Working closely together as a sector and with employers we can find the way to be an essential part of how healthy work and workplaces are made.

Karl Bennett, Chair of EAPA UK