EAP Supplier List – By Provider Type
This is a list of the key Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providers, with a short description of their remit. The five biggest organisations are at the top. Bear in mind that the market changes quickly – use this list as a guide but make sure that you contact providers directly to get up-to-the-minute information about what they offer.
INSURANCE PROVIDERS
Atos Healthcare, Connect Employee Assistance
Atos Healthcare is part of international IT services company Atos Origin. The company’s annual revenues are €5.8 billion and it employs 50,000 people in 40 countries. In the UK Atos Origin has more than 6,800 employees and revenues of more than €1 billion. It runs over 150 occupational health (OH) centres in the UK and offers services to about 800,000 people.
Clients: Atos has clients in logistics and the private sector, central government, local authority and the NHS (including the ambulance service, mental health trust and primary care sectors, giving the company a broad experience in delivering healthcare solutions). No client companies are named on its website.
AXA ICAS
AXA ICAS is one of the world’s leading providers of wellbeing and EAPs, OH services, behavioural risk management and critical incident support. It works with over 1,700 companies worldwide with the aim of boosting employee performance and wellbeing and reducing the costs associated with human behaviour. AXA ICAS is part of global finance company AXA Group, which has 210,000 employees and distributors and has operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area.
Clients: Associated British Ports, Woodhouse College, Southeastern (railway).
Bupa Employee Assistance
Bupa Employee Assistance is part of healthcare company Bupa, which was established more than 60 years ago in the UK and is now an international healthcare company with customers in 200 countries. Bupa offers various levels of EAP service to organisations, depending on their size. These include a full EAP, a budget EAP and an EAP for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Clients: BUPA “provides health cover for staff in over half of the FTSE 100 companies”. Names of clients are not given on its website.
Care First
Carefirst works with clients across the world – across a multitude of industry sectors with organisations varying in size from 25 to 220,000 employees – and specialises in health and wellbeing. Based in Gloucestershire, it runs a counselling programme, directly employing its counsellors, and offers its services in more than 150 languages. It has over 700 permanently employed “associate counsellors” in its network.
Clients: Ofsted, Network Rail, English Heritage.
CONSULTANCIES OFFERING COUNSELLING-RELATED SERVICES SUCH AS EAPS AND MEDIATION
Ceridian
Ceridian is a provider of HR and payroll services, flexible benefits and EAPs. It was established in 1965 as Centrefile and purchased by the Ceridian Corporation in 1995. It employs more than 9,500 people globally, and offers services to 25 million employees in 130,000 businesses. In the UK it employs 800 staff supporting 1.7 million employees. It provides services in multiple languages, and its EAP service is part of its broader HR services range.
Clients: World Design and Trade (WDT), Samsung, Future Publishing.
CiC
CiC runs EAPs, lifestyle support, work-life solutions, critical incident support, organisational consultancy services, employee wellbeing packages, mediation and training. It supports around 350,000 public and private sector employees and their families in more than 80 organisations worldwide.
Clients: Associated Newspapers, Dorset Police, Hillingdon Council.
Dovedale Counselling
Founded in 1997, Dovedale Counselling’s services include Dovedale Direct, which gives ad hoc referrals for employees whose work or personal problems have become sufficiently serious to have been brought to the attention of senior management. It is used both on a stand-alone basis and as part of an EAP, and also offers services to expat employees. It offers a training service for managers in areas such as performance management and the use of counselling skills in the workplace.
Clients: A client list is not given on the website, but Dovedale does state that is works with the NHS.
FirstAssist Group
FirstAssist operates from two sites and currently employs 400 people. A number of its operations deliver a 24-hour service, every day of the year. It offers telephone advice, information and support, and individual “off the shelf” services for insurers and membership organisations to use with their existing products. Its products include: legal advice and information; telephone counselling; medical advice and information; and a call centre for firms which outsource their telephone service.
Clients: Mencap, Raleigh, Toshiba.
Focus EAP
Focus EAP specialises in the provision of EAPs and related services. It is contracted to over 144 organisations and works in both the public and private sector. Its services include critical incident support, 24-hour telephone counselling and stress-management support. Focus EAP was acquired by leading EAP provider PPC Worldwide in January 2008.
Clients: Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre PCT, Westminster Council.
Oakdale
Oakdale is a specialist provider of psychological services based in Harrogate. The company has been established for 10 years. Oakdale’s services include: psychological therapies for NHS patients in Primary Care; employee support including EAPs and critical incident and post-trauma services; OH-related services including psychological assessments, case management and treatment. It is a subsidiary of Cygnet Health Care, an independent provider of psychiatric care.
Clients: No client names are given on Oakdale’s website.
PPC Worldwide
PPC Worldwide provides EAPs and work/life, wellbeing and personal development services. It provides services to over 3,000 organisations, covering 3 million employees in over 130 countries. Its services include: resilience consultancy; coaching; employee health; credit-crunch support; disaster response; and pandemic support.
Clients: Christie’s, Diageo, T-Mobile.
Right Corecare
Right Corecare was formed in 1989 and is one of the UK’s leading providers of EAPs. It provides services to more than 280 organisations, covering over 500,000 employees across all business sizes and sectors in the UK and Ireland.
Clients: No client names are included on Right Corecare’s website, but it has clients in local government, financial services, retail, education, health, manufacturing, media, communications and legal. It claims to operate the UK’s largest EAP contract, covering more than 150,000 staff.
The Validium Group
The Validium Group is an employee assistance and wellbeing consultancy that works in partnership with HR and OH professionals to help prevent and overcome stress and absence at work. It was established as a specialist and independent EAP provider in 1998. It has recently been awarded ISO/IEC 27001, the international quality standard for security and BS 25999, the industry standard for business continuity.
Clients: Nationwide, Royal College of Nursing, Renault.
Workplace Options (Formerly Employee Advisory Resource)
Workplace Options provides customised work/life services and EAPs all over the world. Founded in the US in 1981 as Employee Advisory Resource, it was one of the first companies to introduce EAPs to the UK. In 2006, Workplace Options acquired Employee Advisory Resource in the UK, and it adopted the name of Workplace Options in 2010 .
Clients: No specific names given, but Workplace Options says it works with clients in all sectors, including: telecoms; media; transport; health care; manufacturing; and the voluntary sector.
EAP CONSULTANTS
Enlighten Limited
Enlighten offers an EAP service for UK companies, the NHS, local government and charitable organisations. It acts as a broker, working with all the suppliers in the market and passes on the best corporate benefits at sensible prices. It stresses that its EAP customers are organisations with good employee relations who want an EAP package and account management service that is stable and value for money.
Clients: No client names are given on its website.
SPECIALIST PROVIDERS
Employee Counselling Service
Employee Counselling is a Scottish not-for-profit organisation which adapts its service to meet the needs of individual employers. It is a leading provider for employee counselling to the public sector in Scotland and currently works with over 200 different organisations.
Clients: 19 NHS organisations, 15 Scottish local authorities and four universities, as well as many SMEs within the public, private and voluntary sectors. No client names given on its website.
Managehealth
Specialist EAP provider, working mainly with HR and OH staff. Services also include: health screening; stress management; mediation; health and stress audits; and absence management.
Clients: The Action Group, Weston Area Health Trust.
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Saunders Clinic Assist
Saunders Clinic is a small independent clinic based in Colchester, Essex. It provides tailored treatment programmes to accommodate clients’ needs. It specialises in CBT, counselling, psychotherapy and training.
Clients: No client names are given on its website.
Work Stress Management (WSM)
Work Stress Management (WSM) was established as a specialist and independent EAP provider in 2002. The company concentrates on the core EAP services of counselling, advice and management reporting, and on reducing the impact of employee problems on the workplace, as well as supporting individuals coping with a variety of personal and domestic issues. WSM provides EAP services to organisations of every size, ranging from small companies with under 100 employees, to UK-wide multi-site organisations employing thousands of staff.
Clients: No client names are included on its website.
