EAPs are a great way to enhance employee well-being both in and out of work, but tendering to find the right provider is key in ensuring your organisation’s unique and specific well-being needs and requirements are met in full. As such, there are a few key points to note when beginning your EAP tender journey:
1. Understand what’s important to your organisation
As with most tendering opportunities, EAP tenders are scored according to their quality and commercial responses, with the percentage split highlighting key areas of importance. When compiling your tender, be sure to take note of what’s important to you within submission from both a quality and price perspective, then weight your questions and pricing accordingly.
2. Educate yourself on EAPs
Understanding what an EAPs are and the services they can provide is crucial in drafting your specification and tender documents. A good place to start is the EAPA Website. It hosts lots of useful resources, including their buyers guide and return on investment calculator, as well as a list of registered provider’s websites.
3. Remember your well-being agendas
A good EAP will always look to integrate with both internal and external well-being teams and policies. Providing any relevant internal policies, procedures, agendas or initiatives with your tender means that bidders can illustrate how they intend to work alongside or support existing teams, as well as how they propose to provide a seamless well-being service.
4. Examine your Deadlines
Considering your deadlines carefully can alter the quality and quantity of responses. Short submission deadlines are sometimes unavoidable, however, it is important to consider your submission requirements, such as number of questions, when working to a deadline. This too goes for clarification windows, as a short deadline may leave you with tenders that don’t meet your requirements due to limited opportunity to check.
5. If Anything is Unclear, Ask!
Ultimately, EAPs are an investment, so you want to be sure you know exactly what your chosen provider is offering within their service remit and annual cost. Just as a bidder’s clarifications are a chance to identify any potential grey areas, presentations or post submission clarifications are a great way to clarify any concerns or queries you may have regarding a bidder’s pricing, services or other element of their submission.
Each EAP is unique, offering a range of well-being solutions aimed at improving the overall well-being of your employees, so finding the right provider is key. By engaging with providers and understanding your requirements, you are guaranteed to receive the best quality of service for your organisation.
Find out more on YPO’s framework for occupational health and employee assistant programmes.
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