EAP: The Failed Experiment

Jamie Humphrey
Apr 7
2 min read

written by Jamie Humphrey, Founder of ReechUs

Before writing this, I asked 10 friends, all with over a decade of corporate experience, if they had access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

Five stared at me blankly, four shrugged and said, “No idea, mate,” and one asked, “Like a plan for when the fire alarm goes off?” And that’s the issue.

The UK’s most common form of company mental health support is about as well known as the cast of Sharknado.

EAPs were once sold as the answer: a confidential place to get help with personal or work issues. But over time they’ve become corporate wallpaper, there to tick a box rather than support a person. In today’s workplace, where stress and burnout are through the roof, they’ve proved to be… inadequate.

From promise to product

Back in the mid-20th century, EAPs were built to tackle substance misuse. By the 1980s, they expanded into mental health, family and financial support. They were often run in-house, so people trusted them and knew how to use them. But then outsourcing took over. What started as personal support became a stripped-back, one-size-fits-all product, built for cost-cutting. Today, around two-thirds of UK employers include an EAP in their wellbeing plans. Yet usage is shockingly low: only about 5% of staff with access ever pick up the phone. Even when they do, around 60% of calls end in redirection to self-help links.

Why so little engagement?

Many employees don’t even know their EAP exists. Others don’t trust it, worried it’s not really confidential, or that six short sessions won’t cut it if you’re in crisis. Meanwhile, providers and employers alike are incentivised to keep usage down, because higher use means higher costs.

The illusion of support

In 2023/24, UK workers lost 16.4 million working days to stress, depression and anxiety. That’s nearly half of all work-related ill health. Against numbers like that, a helpline hardly scratches the surface. Until companies outsource responsibly and start building visible, meaningful systems, EAPs will stay what they are now - a failed experiment hiding in plain sight.