More than 21 million employees have access to an employee assistance programme (EAP) at work. But their role in workplace health has evolved considerably from legal safety net to a vital tool to help people stay in work, writes Karl Bennett.
When I first stepped into the world of employee assistance programmes nearly 30 years ago, I didn’t know it would shape my entire professional journey, or that EAPs would grow to become such a vital part of the workplace landscape.
I’d spent the previous four years as a breakfast show presenter, so my first experience in my new role was walking into a review meeting with a colleague and an EAP client and just not understanding something that seemed to excite all those in the room.
They were delighted that usage of the EAP had reached 10%. I remember thinking, wait… isn’t that a bad thing?
Since that meeting, everything about how we talk about workplace wellbeing has changed. EAPs, once considered a niche benefit for senior staff, are now almost universal.
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Data from the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA UK) shows that EAPs are now available to more than 21 million employees, up from just under 5 million in 2003. Research from REBA estimates that around 96% of UK employers now offer an EAP.
That’s progress worth celebrating. But it also raises urgent questions about what an EAP actually is, what it’s expected to do, and whether we’re setting it up to succeed.
The truth is, EAPs have been both empowered and diluted by their success. Demand has brought visibility, but also some distortion in what’s being offered.
Duty of care
A turning point in the nature of the industry came in with one particular legal ruling: the 2002 Hatton v Sutherland case, which affirmed that employers had a ‘duty of care’ in terms of employee mental health and that employers who offered workplace counselling services with access to treatment were unlikely to be found in breach of this duty.
Suddenly, having an EAP wasn’t about proactively supporting people, instead it became a legal safety net. Employers were buying EAPs as general protection, not necessarily for the purpose of reaching the core issues by offering practical and emotional support for their employees.
This legal and reputational anxiety sparked a boom in the market, but it also fueled a race to the bottom. In the five years after I started, I saw prices drop by 500%. At the same time, usage doubled. And the nature of that usage was shifting from occasional support for early-stage challenges to a first-line response to serious psychological distress.
As demand grew, so did the pressure to perform. Employers wanted higher usage to justify investment. Return on investment (ROI) became a more important metric, rather than outcomes, impact, or prevention.
High demand and levels of usage are now the norm for EAPs, and this is the crux of the challenges now being faced by HR and OH.
Proactive intervention
The sector needs a fundamental reset in how we think about value. A great EAP is proactive, integrated, and targeted. It should be focused on early interventions, individual needs, and collaborative problem solving, not just reacting when someone’s already dealing with a serious issue with their mental health.
But then… like every area of HR and organisational health, EAPs were tested by Covid-19. We were suddenly front-and-centre in a mental health emergency. That visibility was both important in reaffirming the value of EAP services but led to more challenges.
There was a wellbeing goldrush, a surge of interest from insurers, brokers, and benefits providers keen to package EAPs as a ‘free add-on’ or all-purpose wellbeing tool. It accelerated access, especially among SMEs, but it also confused the core proposition.
Seeing the EAP as a holistic wellbeing solution has meant demands on providers to deliver an umbrella service, to provide a one-stop-shop service in everything from financial wellbeing and online GPs to menopause advice and neurodiversity assessments. As a result, EAPs have needed to invest and develop in areas well outside of their area of expertise.
Employees themselves are confused, leading to a typical kind of call to an EAP where the caller will say they’ve been told by their manager, or HR that they’re entitled to six counselling sessions, with no initial understanding of what the root causes might be and ways support may help.
I liken it to walking into a hospital with a tummy ache and demanding to have your appendix removed because that’s what you’re entitled to.
The truth is that, while you may be entitled, understanding the core issue behind your issue and providing the most appropriate support, has to be the most important thing.
I see too many people being given six or more sessions of counselling because they demand it, when a single, open and constructive conversation talking through strategies and tools would have been so much more beneficial.
What is the role of the EAP?
We have to return to the core: what is an EAP for? It’s a specialist clinical service, grounded in early intervention, supporting people before more complex psychological problems have the time to develop. It’s confidential, professional and human. That’s what makes it valuable.
That clarity must extend to how organisations use and promote their EAPs, embedding the offering into an organisation’s wider wellbeing strategy, and working with providers to understand how it can meet the specific needs of different groups within a workplace. And the relationship needs to be dynamic.
The sector needs a fundamental reset in how we think about value. A great EAP is proactive, integrated, and targeted.”
The best outcomes come when HR, OH, EAP providers, and employers sit around the same table and plan together. There’s real magic in targeted, joined-up, clinically-led support.
With OH in particular, and the overlapping of issues of physical and mental health, there’s real potential for working together more pro-actively: targeting needs and working together on pre-emptive actions and better clinical outcomes.
I get asked a lot, where does AI fit into the future of EAPs. While I think there is a place for AI, EAPs need to include human contact with professional counsellors at its heart.
Qualified counsellors, well-trained advisors, people who can read between the lines and offer support that really sticks.
But that human expertise needs to be better protected with the right investment, smarter models, and support systems around it. That includes innovations like AI, not to replace clinicians, but to enhance the service they provide.
For example, AI has a role in follow-ups, nudges, and digital touchpoints. But the moment of connection, the initial conversation, that has to be real.
While the model and the context has evolved over thirty years, the essential role and value of EAPs has stayed the same: changing lives, delivering services that really help people, in the moments they need it most, and doing that in a way that’s sustainable, strategic, and grounded in human connection.
They help people stay in work, find their way back, or simply feel like they’re not alone.
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