A set of data encompassing a relatively stable population of more than 100,000 employees across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America has been recently studied to evaluate global trends in the use of its Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). The data represented all EAP inquiries made by this group from 2012-2014.

The number of cases dealing with personal emotional health issues remained relatively constant across all three years. Instances of employee stress, anxiety, and depression, though, each rose at an alarming rate. Some of the findings of the analysis:

• About 4 out of every 10 cases of employees using an EAP in the three year period were related to personal emotional health issues (42 percent in 2012; 38 percent in 2013; 42 percent in 2014)
• The number of cases dealing with employee depression increased 58 percent between 2012 and 2014.
• The number of cases dealing with employee anxiety increased 74 percent.
• The number of cases dealing with employee stress increased 28 percent.
• Employee depression, stress and anxiety combined to account for account for 82.6 percent of all emotional health cases in 2014 compared to just 2 percent in 2012.

Other outcomes of the analysis

The number of employees seeking financial assistance from their EAP increased slightly in the three year period. Just more than 4 percent (4.1) all cases dealt with financial assistance inquires in 2012 compared with slightly more than 6 percent (6.1) in 2014.

Employees seeking legal referrals were also on the rise – they accounted for 10.4 percent of all cases in 2012 compared with 14.8 percent in 2014.

More about the examined employee population

The employee population analyzed for this effort represented employees from five different organizations. Each employer had employees in at least 4 of the 5 regions (Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America) access EAP services every year from 2012-2014, and the aggregate utilization rate for employees in each relevant region was between 3 and 9 percent.

The analysis was conducted by Workplace Options, the world’s largest integrated employee support services and work-life provider. For more information about Workplace Options, visit www.workplaceoptions.com.