Booming use of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) triggered by the pandemic means there is now a greater importance on the quality of data coming from these services, according to the Worldwide Broker Network (WBN).
The intermediary body also highlighted that other mental health and wider wellbeing services sold during the pandemic will need to show evidence of their return on investment (ROI) to remain relevant for organisations.
But it added that in general businesses recognised investing in employee wellbeing was money well spent.
Buying and valuing specialist EAPs
Worldwide Broker Network global employee benefits practice leader Alan Fergusson told Health & Protection that after being seen as an add-on or emergency use product for so long, EAPs have become far more important over the last two years.
In many cases, this is prompting organisations to buy a specialist service instead of thinking of them as a simple add-on available through most insurance schemes. And this means the need for appropriate planning.
“Before staff value them, employers need to value them and work out what path they want their employees to take,” Fergusson said.
“Previously there’s likely been a situation where EAPs have been bolted on to insurances and there’s maybe been two or three paths which the employee could take – that’s confusing.
“If you present anyone with two roads to take, in theory 50% of them will take the wrong road, while some of them won’t take any route because they’re confused immediately.
“So the situation has rationalised the employer response to EAPs and that has driven some of them to come out of the free category and buy an EAP, be that globally or locally, and have that as a defined service.”
Usage, engagement and ROI data
Fergusson noted that with deliberate choice and direct financial cost came a greater responsibility, connection and ownership from the employer.
“When you start paying for something like that you are going to value it more as an employer and you’re going to communicate it better, which means you’re going to get better usage – and I think that’s what we will see,” he continued.
“I don’t have any usage numbers in front of me, but we all know that average usage on EAPs previously was about 2% to 3%.
“It will be interesting to see those trends change and hopefully they will be growing trends, because there’s very little doubt that it sits central to many a wellbeing policy.”
Usage and related data is also vital in other wellbeing programmes and Fergusson warned that in the next year or two there could be fallout for providers who cannot demonstrate these to employers.
“Two years down the line I think the strains of some of the sales made within the mental health or wellbeing community and how they are delivering that will start to show,” he said.
“Some of those we know will be shaky because usage needs to remain to have that ROI.”
And he noted that as working patterns and locations evolve within many workforces, organisations will start to demand an ROI on wellbeing, wanting to know that people are remaining engaged with offerings no matter where they are working from.
‘Wellbeing is a good investment’
Encouragingly though, results from the WBN 2022 wellbeing report showed organisations still looked very positively on supporting employee health and wellbeing, even if there had been a dip in importance within organisations and mobility operations.
“Management objections to investing in wellbeing have gone down – that’s a great trend and it was seen as business as usual,” Fergusson continued.
“Boards, chief financial officers and managing directors recognise that wellbeing is a good investment.
“It was not unexpected that wellbeing was going to be less important as we come out of the pandemic. Looking at other priorities that HR and global mobility operations have, such as trying to get people back into the office, it was almost certain to be the casualty.
“So I’m not surprised about that, it was going to slip down the agenda.”
Employee experience is critical
For advisers looking to utilise these insights and support organisations in developing their wellbeing policies, Fergusson emphasised that clear communication was vital.
WBN has formed its own wellbeing group from experienced organisational leaders around the world which has produced a strategy document covering four health areas: physical, social, financial and mental.
Having identified services relevant to support those four elements, the body is forming a hub of global providers of those services.
Its member brokers will then be able to access that knowledge base and find a solution for their clients.
And when putting these solutions in place, finding the right element to focus on and creating a suitable employee experience are critical.
“It has to be because if you set all this up, spend a lot of money on it and nobody uses it, it’s not an awful lot of value, so at the centre of it all has to be employee experience,” Fergusson added.