Ultimate guide to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) software

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are designed to help employees manage the challenges that affect their job performance by providing them with services like legal advice, mental health counseling, and conflict-resolution training. These service providers often rely on Employee Assistance Program software to streamline their operations and more effectively address problems in the workplace. 

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your current software or are starting from scratch, this guide will help you narrow down your options and find the best possible EAP software for your public services organization.

What is Employee Assistance Program (EAP) software?

EAP software is a case management solution that allows your organization to track and store client information, such as meeting notes and appointment scheduling, in one central location. It also helps you deliver services to clients more efficiently, helping to improve their wellness and your productivity. 

What are the benefits of EAP software?

Investing in Employee Assistance Program software can help your organization by allowing you to: 

• Improve the service experience. Centralized web-based intake, referral, and scheduling capabilities allow you to provide your EAP clients with streamlined professional service that reduces wait times and unnecessary communications.
• Expand your operations. With the complete data set that EAP software helps you collect and manage, your company can produce detailed information and effectively promote your services in a crowded marketplace.
• Manage billing. Invoice clients and funders while keeping track of funds in real time and use automated workflows to prompt staff to modify client coverage or warn them when coverage is due to expire.

By taking your EAP operations online, you eliminate the need for paper forms, which helps to speed up data entry and improve accuracy.

6 essential EAP software features

Consider how these EAP software features can help your team improve their workflow and ensure employees receive the best possible service.

1. Security 

Whether the EAP services you’re tracking are internal or external, data security should be a priority. All software providers that you consider should be ISO 27001 certified. This certification verifies that a company’s business operations have been independently approved and follow the global standard for managing data securely. Simply put, you can trust software providers with ISO 27001 certification, like Bonterra Program Management (formerly Social Solutions), to keep your data safe.

It’s also important to choose a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution rather than hosting and managing your own servers. SaaS solutions are less expensive, require far less maintenance, and are more secure than on-site hosting. By choosing an EAP software solution that employs a SaaS model and is ISO 27001 certified, you can rest assured that your data is protected.

2. Billing 

Comprehensive billing capabilities are necessary to create a reliable and up-to-date database. Choose a solution that allows users to track each client’s coverage, including session limits and which services are covered, as well as contracted rates for each service. 

By allowing clients to add services to each appointment, your team can track usage and coverage balance in real-time. It’s also possible to set up multiple policies per employer and track usage by department, giving service providers an in-depth view of services used across the organization.

3. Flexible reporting

The data you enter into your customer management system belongs to your organization, so you should be able to analyze and visualize it through reporting tools. The right EAP software will allow your employees to gain a deeper understanding of overall service usage and delivery statistics. These can then be broken down by service (i.e. counseling or dispute resolution), department, units of service (i.e. 60-minute counseling sessions), presenting issues, issue resolution, employee demographics, and more.

Your software should also be capable of exporting data to applications such as Excel or Crystal Reports via an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface, where it can be organized according to your needs.

4. Form creation

Most EAP software options have the ability to create custom forms and documents. Take that a step further by searching for a software solution with smart technology. Smart forms, in particular, are a powerful tool that allows you to create an unlimited number of templates for forms, surveys, assessments, and letters. With smart forms, you can also auto-populate data, create conditional questions that reveal or hide sections based on user responses, and receive flags or alerts triggered by responses.

Smart forms are also accessible to clients. They can fill out these forms at their convenience on their computer or mobile device. The finished forms will then be automatically saved to their file in your system, making them much easier to locate later.

5. Intake

EAP professionals spend most of their time completing client intake forms, which can impact their bandwidth to build relationships and provide exceptional service. To avoid this problem, choose an EAP software that allows for quick and easy client intake.

Find a solution that includes a configurable, user-friendly intake form with the option to track custom demographics, presenting issues, emergency contact information, and more. Clients should also be able to securely self-register in the system, allowing your organization to streamline the intake process and add multiple clients at once by bulk uploading them in CSV format.  

6. Automated workflows

An effective automated workflow takes out as much of the manual work as possible, creating a simple and seamless “flow” between actions. These actions can include a new client being added to the system or a document being signed. Once one action is completed, it triggers another action, like sending an email or text notification to the client.

For example, let’s say that your employees regularly forget to complete session notes after meeting with clients. To fix this, you could configure your EAP software to automatically send an email to staff once attendance for a session has been marked, reminding them to log their notes. 

How to choose your EAP software solution

As you search the market for EAP software, create a checklist of each provider’s features and benefits to ensure you have all the information you need to make an informed decision. Then, work with your team to implement the software into your day-to-day operations. By doing so, you should see increased efficiency and improved client satisfaction.