Employee Assistance Programs or EAPs are a common occurrence in the employee benefit arsenal. Allowing employees to whizz around a one-stop-shop of benefits ranging from private healthcare, to ride to work schemes, to extra holiday leaves, even to retail discounts and dining cards, EAPs are a favourite of HR professionals all over the world, but are they actually fit for purpose?
Recently I’ve been told by an HR Director at a large, global bank that on average an EAP only has a 6% engagement rate. When it’s a portal designed to benefit the individual employee and offer added value at no extra cost to them personally, why aren’t people actually using these EAPs? It’s because EAPs no longer know what they are.
If you go on your EAP you’ll find a whole host of different options to choose from, but how appealing are the offers themselves? How many people have actually used the cycle-to-work scheme? Do people really want private healthcare? Really, how many people don’t even go to the effort to check this portal?
That’s because there are a lot of benefits that people either don’t actually want or don’t think that they need. Employee mental health is something that’s been at the top of many agendas recently but when it comes to what’s on EAPs in this field, it’s one of two things. You’ve either got a meditation app such as Calm or Headspace, or a few introductory face to face therapy sessions. These are two extremes of the treatment spectrum and many employees won’t identify with either. You need to provide is either multiple solutions covering different treatment styles and strengths, or one solution that encompasses all of them and uses AI to tailor content and strength to the user, like Leafyard.
What makes us different?
We created Leafyard because we genuinely want people to feel better and it seems to be working. While EAPs only have a 6% engagement rate, the rate of uptake from employees amongst businesses using Leafyard is on average at least 25%. That’s huge. This shows that one in four of your employees needs help improving their mental health or mental fitness, but the majority of them don’t feel like your existing EAP mental health provisions are suitable for them.
Honestly, it’s no wonder that workplace mental health and burnout are on the rise if this is the level of existing provision. It’s time for something different. Take action with Leafyard.