The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), which was officially unveiled today, is a fully-supported confidential scheme that offers specialist advice, counselling and support services, as well as mediation and grants.
So far, 30 hospitality businesses, with more than 70,000 workers between them, have signed up to the scheme. Signatories include Premier Inn, Red Carnation Hotels, Ed’s Easy Diners, Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants, Calcot Manor and the Vineyard at Stockcross.
The EAP has been trialled since April 2013 and has already provided support to more 1,500 catering and hospitality workers.
Penny Moore, chief executive of Hospitality Action, said: “Having gathered such good support over the past 10 months, I am delighted to be able to ‘officially’ showcase our EAP to the wider industry.
“Personal issues and problems can have a major impact on the way people work, and this can potentially become a significant business cost, due to a decrease in productivity and an unbalanced working environment. Our experience shows that many small problems if ‘nipped in the bud’ can be prevented from escalating, and this is exactly what our EAP has been designed to address.
“We already have some fantastic companies on board with the scheme, and I look forward to seeing new signatories joining up in the coming weeks and months.”
Chair of Hospitality Action’s Board of Trustees William Baxter CBE said the scheme was a ‘practical and cost-effective’ way for employers to help their employees in time of personal crisis.
“I would urge everyone to take up this initiative,” he said.
Industry trials
Whitbread has been trialling the EAP with 4,000 employees across its brands and has now adopted the programme across the whole of its estate, with more than 40,000 employees.
Whitbread managing director Patrick Dempsey OBE said the company was ‘extremely happy’ with the service provided by the EAP, adding that it had experienced “a high level of employee usage with very positive feedback from management and staff regarding the service and advice given”.
Calcot Hotels has adopted the EAP for all three of its hotels and its outdoor catering business, accounting for around 400 employees.
“It provides our staff and managers with an invaluable support system for a wide range of challenging personal issues – many of which require more expertise than we can rightly expect our managers and HR team to have,” said Richard Ball, Calcot executive chairman.
“It also goes some way to showing proper duty of care in these very difficult areas that are never very far below the surface for many people in our industry.”
Video: Chef Heston Blumenthal, talks about the EAP
EAP services:
- Advice and help sheets
- Web chat and telephone help line, 24/7, 365 days a year
- Personal counselling
- Legal information and guidance
- Financial planning and debt advice
- Addiction support for alcohol, drugs, gambling or other addiction issues
- Hardship grants
- A confidential whistleblowing service
- Critical incident de-briefing
- Mediation
Hospitality Action is a registered charity, which provides benevolent support to those who work or have previously worked in the hospitality sector.
In 2013, the charity provided benevolent support to 1,696 people, 77% of whom were under the age of 60.