Aviva has broadened its eligibility criteria so all employees within an organisation that has an Aviva group income protection (GIP) policy will have access to its Employee Assistance programme (EAP).
The EAP service, provided by Capita Health and Wellbeing, will be available to all staff, not just those employees who are covered on the GIP policy.
Any employees with personal or professional concerns are now able to access more face-to-face counselling sessions as standard on their employer's cover.
Aviva has also increased the number of face-to-face professional counselling sessions available as standard for all employees whose company has a GIP plan, to support them with difficulties in their lives and aid absence from work.
Six sessions rather than four are available alongside unlimited 24 hour telephone access to qualified advisers.
Steve Bridger, head of group risk at Aviva Health, said: "There is compelling evidence that EAP services make a significant difference to employees who need some support in managing life's ups and downs. This in turn is demonstrably helping them cope with their work and prevent absence. We believe these services should be available to as many people as possible and we're delighted to extend our free EAP offer to all employees who work directly for our GIP clients.
"The EAP counselling services are used alongside Aviva's own in-house clinical rehabilitation expertise and last year, where we actively intervened early, we were able to return 87% of employees back to work."
The new level of EAP benefits apply with immediate effect to both existing policyholders of Aviva's current GIP and any new clients that choose Aviva as their GIP provider.
