When comparing EAP providers, would it be better to check actual available appointment times rather than the number of counselors?
Hello, I am the person in charge of employee benefits and EAP operations at a logistics and distribution company.
My EAP contract ends next January, so I am preparing to receive proposals from a few companies at the end of the year.
When I looked back at the proposals I received last year, I noticed they were all written mainly with numbers, such as having hundreds of counselors or a number of counseling centers nationwide.
But after operating this year, I realized the staff's complaint wasn't that there weren't enough counselors, but that they couldn't book at their desired times.
Nearly half of our logistics center shift workers are on rotation, and many of them want to receive their orders in the evening after work or on weekends.
I've also heard a few stories about it taking over ten days from applying to the first consultation.
So this time, when I receive proposals, I'm thinking of asking for things like available time slots for evenings and weekends, or the average number of days it takes from application to the first consultation, rather than just the number of counselors.
I'm not sure if it is common practice to request this kind of data from companies, or if they are actually capable of providing it.
Also, if I do receive it, I am curious how many months of recent data I should receive it for to make a comparison.
I would appreciate it if you could share how other companies check appointment availability or wait times when comparing EAP providers.
- Dain Co., Ltd.Dain Co., Ltd.107 Answers1% Answer adoption rateSpecializes in Health Management, psychological counseling
- Unknown User2
- Unknown User1
Popular in HR & EAP Inquiries 🔥
- 01CommentsI think it would be a good idea to use the agency's video materials as the basis and show only our on-site photos separately. If we take them ourselves, we have to retake them every time we make corrections.62226.11.04
- 02coach AnswerHello. This is Nudge EAP. Try organizing your tasks by dividing them into work to be completed this year, remaining work to be implemented next year, and new work to start next year. This helps reduce instances of duplicating costs or omitting necessary items. For training, identify those who have not completed the course based on actual completion records rather than the application list. It is best to organize the personnel needed to make up for this year separately from those targeted for next year's training. For improvement items awaiting a quote, first confirm with the person in charge whether ordering and execution are possible within the year. If the amount has not been finalized, mark it as "Quote Under Verification" rather than entering 0, and manage safety measures immediately required in the field separately from budget reviews. In the report table, list the item classification, amount or verification status, supporting documents, person in charge, and scheduled date on the same line. For EAP performance data, separate the number of users from the number of counseling sessions, and do not include counseling information that could identify individuals. You can find materials for organizing remaining tasks and next year's costs in the post below. https://nudgeeap.com/community/mandatory-training/137579262 https://nudgeeap.com/community/eap/137579952142226.11.02
- 03CommentsI think it would be easier to compare quotes if you start by deciding whether to support only employees or include their families as well.42226.11.04
- 01coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ Rather than excluding all dispatched workers from vaccination support simply because they are dispatched employees, it is better to first check the criteria used to provide support to employees performing similar tasks at the same site. Article 21 of the Dispatched Workers Act prohibits discrimination against dispatched workers compared to employees performing the same or similar duties at the user employer, and discriminatory treatment includes matters regarding welfare benefits (Article 2, Clause 7 of the Dispatched Workers Act; Article 2, Clause 3 of the Fixed-Term Employment Act). However, this does not apply if the user employer employs four or fewer workers on a regular basis, and since judgments may vary depending on the employees being compared and the support conditions, it is difficult to conclude that "the same support must be provided to all dispatched workers unconditionally." - Eligibility: Please first organize the eligibility criteria and reasons for exclusion so that the user employer and the dispatching company can provide guidance based on the same standards. You should review company-mandated welfare support and statutory health checkups separately. - Costs: We were unable to find any criteria regarding the sharing of vaccination costs—such as which company must bear the full cost or split the ratio—within the scope of this review. After verifying the dispatch contract and welfare standards, ensure that both companies agree on the party responsible for the costs, the settlement method, and the application deadline before vaccination. - Lists and Consent Forms: It is advisable for the company to verify only the minimum information necessary for application and cost settlement, and to negotiate with the vaccination hospital to have them directly collect pre-examination forms, chronic illnesses, and medications. Since health information is sensitive data under Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act, requiring separate consent or a legal basis, do not hand over original vaccination-related documents to the dispatch agency. - Post-Vaccination Inquiries: Provide the contact information for the vaccination hospital and medical staff in advance, and designate a joint contact person for both the company and the dispatch agency. It is difficult to prematurely assume that one company bears full responsibility simply because an adverse reaction occurred, and in emergency situations, emergency response services such as 119 take priority. In practice, confusion is reduced if both companies and the hospital first agree on four points—eligibility, costs, where information is received, and post-vaccination contact information—and then provide the same notice to the employees. Reference: https://www.law.go.kr/법령/파견공로자보등에관한법률/제21조162226.10.29
- 02coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ There is no confirmed law mandating that a health manager must accompany a patient to the emergency room. According to Article 12, Paragraph 6 of the Enforcement Decree of the 119 Rescue and Emergency Medical Services Act, ambulance passengers are only permitted to be requested from guardians or others when necessary, and who rides in the ambulance is determined by the paramedics' instructions at the scene. It is appropriate to revise the wording, as there is currently a gap in service during nighttime shifts. - Accompanying: It is common practice for a colleague or supervisor who witnesses the collapse to go to the scene, while the health manager remains at the scene. What medical staff need is not a job title, but someone who can accurately convey 'when and during what work the patient collapsed, and what was done at the scene.' - Assignment by Shift: Please list the names of those responsible for treatment, calling 119, and accompanying, as well as their substitutes, for each day, night, and weekend shift. It is recommended to specify that the person who discovers the patient should call 119 immediately, without waiting for a report from the health manager (Article 5 of the Emergency Medical Services Act). ** - Contacting Family: HR handles this, and if you establish a procedure where the accompanying staff contacts HR first upon arrival at the hospital, you can reduce confusion where the company and the ambulance crew contact the family separately. - Chronic Conditions/Medications: Health information is considered sensitive information under Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act, so we must be cautious about sharing it without the individual's consent simply because the company knows it. If an employee with a chronic condition wishes, we recommend obtaining separate prior consent for "information that may be shared with medical staff in an emergency." - Post-Injury Reporting: The reporting obligation lies with the employer, and the health manager's role is to assist with the investigation of the cause and documentation. For serious accidents, you must submit the Industrial Accident Investigation Report (Article 73 of the Enforcement Rule) without delay (Article 54 of the Act), and if an employee is absent from work for three days or more due to an industrial accident, you must submit it within one month. However, if the illness is a personal condition unrelated to work, it may not be subject to statutory reporting, so you can focus on keeping internal records. Please also provide information on EAP counseling to colleagues who witnessed the collapse. I have summarized the role assignments by shift, companion cards, and an Excel spreadsheet for quickly checking reporting targets and deadlines in the posts below. https://nudgeeap.com/community/serious-accidents-act/137507346 https://nudgeeap.com/community/serious-accidents-act/137510596192226.10.28
- 03coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ Yes, the correct approach is to group reports by management type rather than by disease name. Health information is considered sensitive information under Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act, and Article 3 of the same Act stipulates that information should be processed anonymously if the purpose can be achieved even without anonymity. Article 132, Paragraph 3 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act also prohibits the use of health examination results for purposes other than the protection and maintenance of workers' health. If "1 person with hypertension" appears in a team of three, the individual can be identified even without a name, which effectively amounts to reporting personal health information. - Monthly Report: It is sufficient to include the number of personnel, consultations, and referrals by management type, such as continuous management, follow-up observation, or referral to external medical institutions. The Ministry of Employment and Labor's "Workplace Health Management Manual" also provides an example of aggregating records from the health management office by reason for visit. - Department Classification: There is no need to eliminate it entirely; you can simply group departments with fewer personnel into larger units like "Factory" or "Headquarters" to display them. There is no legal standard regarding the number of people below which records must be combined, so the company is free to determine this. However, I recommend documenting these standards, such as "combining departments with fewer than 10 people" and marking columns with fewer than 3 cases as '<3'." Since covering just one column allows one to subtract it from the total to determine the number, please cover those columns as well. - Numbers by Disease: If the goal is next year's health promotion plan, a company-wide annual tally is more appropriate than monthly figures by department. Group only items with sufficient case counts into disease groups and provide them separately as data for planning purposes. If you record only the management type in the monthly report, the standards will remain consistent even if the same requests are repeated. - Original Consultation Logs: It is appropriate to keep the original documents containing disease names and blood pressure readings separately from the reports so that only the health office can view them. Since there is no statutory retention period for consultation records themselves, you must establish internal standards. However, health examination results are retained for 5 years (Article 241 of the Enforcement Rules of the Occupational Safety and Health Act), so keeping the two records in different folders will prevent confusion. I have summarized the methods for sharing consultation logs, department head opinions, and management reports, as well as a monthly report Excel file where small cells are automatically hidden when a management type is entered, in the post below. https://nudgeeap.com/community/privacy-pension/137475052 https://nudgeeap.com/community/privacy-pension/137475098213326.10.27
- 01coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ Yes, the available time slots for evening and weekend appointments, as well as the time it takes from application to the first consultation, are materials you may request during the proposal stage. If your workplace has nearly half of its employees working shifts, I highly recommend obtaining this information. However, it is better to look at the number of counselors and centers together rather than excluding them. For evening and weekend appointments to open, there must be a sufficient number of counselors available during those times, and employees' ability to choose a counselor or a nearby center ultimately stems from the scale of the counselors and centers. Instead of just receiving the numbers, if you change your approach to asking "how that scale connects to the time, location, and method our employees prefer," comparisons will become much easier. - Time Slot: Number of counselors available during weekday evenings (e.g., after 6 PM) and weekends, operating days and hours - Region/Method: Centers near the logistics center where in-person consultations are available, and whether employees can choose between phone and video consultations - Waiting Period: Time taken from application to the first consultation (including the average and whether most were assigned within a few days), and the percentage of appointments made for the desired time slot - Options: Procedure for requesting a counselor change, and whether employees can select the counselor's gender or area of expertise Since these items can be aggregated if there are records of consultation applications and assignments, it is perfectly fine to request them. It is best to receive data based on operating performance over the past 6 months to 1 year, as this minimizes seasonal variations, making comparisons easier. Since aggregation standards may vary by company, please request the data in a consistent format and verify whether the data is based on all client companies or those of similar size and industry. I recommend requesting that waiting periods and usage status by time slot be included as the same item in the quarterly reports so that they can be checked even after the contract is signed. You should receive the data in an aggregate format that does not allow for individual identification. Please also refer to the previous inquiry post covering counselor assignment criteria, and the post summarizing the deliverables you should receive when outsourcing EAP. https://nudgeeap.com/community/inquiry/135899627 https://nudgeeap.com/community/eap/137430505294526.10.26
- 02coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ Yes, the correct approach is to group reports by management type rather than by disease name. Health information is considered sensitive information under Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act, and Article 3 of the same Act stipulates that information should be processed anonymously if the purpose can be achieved even without anonymity. Article 132, Paragraph 3 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act also prohibits the use of health examination results for purposes other than the protection and maintenance of workers' health. If "1 person with hypertension" appears in a team of three, the individual can be identified even without a name, which effectively amounts to reporting personal health information. - Monthly Report: It is sufficient to include the number of personnel, consultations, and referrals by management type, such as continuous management, follow-up observation, or referral to external medical institutions. The Ministry of Employment and Labor's "Workplace Health Management Manual" also provides an example of aggregating records from the health management office by reason for visit. - Department Classification: There is no need to eliminate it entirely; you can simply group departments with fewer personnel into larger units like "Factory" or "Headquarters" to display them. There is no legal standard regarding the number of people below which records must be combined, so the company is free to determine this. However, I recommend documenting these standards, such as "combining departments with fewer than 10 people" and marking columns with fewer than 3 cases as '<3'." Since covering just one column allows one to subtract it from the total to determine the number, please cover those columns as well. - Numbers by Disease: If the goal is next year's health promotion plan, a company-wide annual tally is more appropriate than monthly figures by department. Group only items with sufficient case counts into disease groups and provide them separately as data for planning purposes. If you record only the management type in the monthly report, the standards will remain consistent even if the same requests are repeated. - Original Consultation Logs: It is appropriate to keep the original documents containing disease names and blood pressure readings separately from the reports so that only the health office can view them. Since there is no statutory retention period for consultation records themselves, you must establish internal standards. However, health examination results are retained for 5 years (Article 241 of the Enforcement Rules of the Occupational Safety and Health Act), so keeping the two records in different folders will prevent confusion. I have summarized the methods for sharing consultation logs, department head opinions, and management reports, as well as a monthly report Excel file where small cells are automatically hidden when a management type is entered, in the post below. https://nudgeeap.com/community/privacy-pension/137475052 https://nudgeeap.com/community/privacy-pension/137475098213326.10.27
- 03coach AnswerHello, this is Nudge EAP ☺️ Rather than excluding all dispatched workers from vaccination support simply because they are dispatched employees, it is better to first check the criteria used to provide support to employees performing similar tasks at the same site. Article 21 of the Dispatched Workers Act prohibits discrimination against dispatched workers compared to employees performing the same or similar duties at the user employer, and discriminatory treatment includes matters regarding welfare benefits (Article 2, Clause 7 of the Dispatched Workers Act; Article 2, Clause 3 of the Fixed-Term Employment Act). However, this does not apply if the user employer employs four or fewer workers on a regular basis, and since judgments may vary depending on the employees being compared and the support conditions, it is difficult to conclude that "the same support must be provided to all dispatched workers unconditionally." - Eligibility: Please first organize the eligibility criteria and reasons for exclusion so that the user employer and the dispatching company can provide guidance based on the same standards. You should review company-mandated welfare support and statutory health checkups separately. - Costs: We were unable to find any criteria regarding the sharing of vaccination costs—such as which company must bear the full cost or split the ratio—within the scope of this review. After verifying the dispatch contract and welfare standards, ensure that both companies agree on the party responsible for the costs, the settlement method, and the application deadline before vaccination. - Lists and Consent Forms: It is advisable for the company to verify only the minimum information necessary for application and cost settlement, and to negotiate with the vaccination hospital to have them directly collect pre-examination forms, chronic illnesses, and medications. Since health information is sensitive data under Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act, requiring separate consent or a legal basis, do not hand over original vaccination-related documents to the dispatch agency. - Post-Vaccination Inquiries: Provide the contact information for the vaccination hospital and medical staff in advance, and designate a joint contact person for both the company and the dispatch agency. It is difficult to prematurely assume that one company bears full responsibility simply because an adverse reaction occurred, and in emergency situations, emergency response services such as 119 take priority. In practice, confusion is reduced if both companies and the hospital first agree on four points—eligibility, costs, where information is received, and post-vaccination contact information—and then provide the same notice to the employees. Reference: https://www.law.go.kr/법령/파견공로자보등에관한법률/제21조162226.10.29
- 04
- 05
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07
- 08
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07
- 08
- 09
- 10