In the current economic environment, there’s a good chance you have more employees than you think who are having problems paying back student loans, making rent or high mortgage payments, dealing with medical expenses or carrying additional expenses due to unemployed family members. As stress loads mount, employee productivity declines, absenteeism rises and the probability of on-the-job injuries increases.

As an employer, you may already have the tools in place to help employees deal with financial hardships. If your company provides group disability coverage as a core benefit, the plan more than likely includes an employee assistance program (EAP).

EAP Serves as In-house Counseling Center

EAPs provide counseling referrals and services to employees on a confidential basis. When employees or their family members call the EAP, they are referred to counseling and treatment professionals within the local community.

Programs can include alcohol, tobacco and drug treatment programs, anger management, stress management, financial management, conflict resolution, post-traumatic incident counseling and individualized counseling to address particular needs of the employee or her family members. These counseling services are provided at no cost to the employee; however, treatment is typically problem-focused and short-term. If longer or more intensive services are required, the cost for additional treatment may be covered by the employer’s health plan.

The depth and breadth of EAP programs can vary greatly. Some EAP programs are centralized referral services that help callers locate resources, from finding a local psychologist specializing in adolescent cases to identifying qualified nursing homes for aging parents in a distant city. Some EAP programs provide telephonic counseling sessions, while the most comprehensive EAP programs provide 6-12 face-to-face counseling sessions.

From Bare Bones to Full Service

Historically, EAP programs embedded in group insurance programs were narrow in scope, offering a basic referral service or focusing on selected issues such as substance abuse or depression with counseling limited to telephonic sessions. As competition increased and more insurers packaged EAP services with their products, the depth and breadth of these counseling services expanded.

Today, many “packaged” EAP programs now include counseling for a broader range of needs, including family issues, work-related stress, work-conflict, work-related trauma. One of the more recent EAP expansions is in the area of financial counseling where employees can obtain objective advice on budgeting, cash management, tax planning, investments, insurance and retirement.

Many disability insurers use broad EAP offerings as a “loss leader” in hopes of introducing higher margin products; others simply factor in the EAP cost into their disability rates. By spreading the cost of EAP services over thousands of group policies, the additional cost to individual employers for this valuable benefit is relatively nominal, especially when compared to purchasing EAP services on a stand-alone basis.

Take Advantage of Hidden Resources

If you currently provide group disability or life insurance, ask your employee benefits consultant for a summary of the EAP offerings included in your coverages. Also ask for any available employee education materials regarding EAP services then use this material to communicate the value and availability of EAP services to your employees.

Investigate Options

For employers not offering group disability coverage or whose existing disability program does not include an EAP component, you may want to consider restructuring your benefits package. Besides the intrinsic value EAPs provide to employees and their families in times of need, adding an EAP program can help your organization recruit and retain employees as more than 74% of the nation’s large employers offer EAP services as a component of their core employee benefits package.

Adding a free-standing EAP service to your benefits program is another option, but one usually reserved for larger employers. When contracting directly with an EAP, services can be customized to fit specific objectives and budgets. Depending on the level of benefits provided, retainer costs for EAP services vary from less than one dollar per employee per month to more than $3.50 per employee per month. In addition to the retainer fee, the employer normally pays all costs for the actual counseling services provided to employees and their families, thus exposing the employer to an unknown expense level each year.

Conclusion

Numerous studies have shown EAP services provide an excellent return on investment in terms of increased productivity, fewer work-related injuries and less absenteeism. Some even advocate that the use of EAPs helps minimize healthcare costs through lower prescription costs. If you offer EAP services as part of your benefits package, make sure your employees and their families know it exists. Chances are more than a few of your employees are in need of such services today.