Employee Assistance Programs | Market, Trends, Growth | Suppliers Analysis

Strategic Sourcing Guide to Employee Assistance Programs Procurement

Overview

Business practices within Employee Assistance Programs market are heavily influenced by changing trends across the category as well as within the broader Staff Health and Safety market. Even though global population is increasing, the availability of adequately trained talent pool is reducing in many geographies. Lack of skilled in-house manpower continues to be the largest factor for hiring of Employee Assistance Programs. Companies are designing processes where the internal talent can work on the most value-adding activities and all non-core activities can be handed over to a third-party.

New locations and vendors are emerging as cost effective suppliers of Employee Assistance Programs, offering an opportunity to widen the supplier base and gain further negotiation leverage with incumbent suppliers.

The market has undergone several structural changes including M&As and vertical integration efforts of suppliers. This has resulted in some issues such as erosion of previously established supplier relationships but has also opened new opportunities to onboard new suppliers with a wider range of offerings.

As a result, category managers need to closely monitor the Employee Assistance Programs procurement trends and identify changes required in their procurement environment for the category.

Employee Assistance Programs Procurement Best Practices

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Employee Assistance Programs. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

For example, Buyers must constantly communicate with service providers to provide them with better knowledge about buyer's goals and visions, which enables service providers to formulate customized plans and processes for the organization. Strategic partnerships with service providers enable buyers to have visibility into the latest technological innovations and cost-saving levers adopted in the market.

Besides shortlisting potential suppliers based on services offered and cost, they also need to be evaluated against several other critical parameters. Some examples of these parameters are compliance with laws and regulations, capability to protect personally identifiable information and technical standards adopted (e.g. user interface, user exchange standards, data exchange standards). RFPs soliciting the above information ensures competition among suppliers and facilitates efficient evaluation.

Large organizations are opting to streamline and centralize their personnel-related administration functions at the global level to realize efficiencies and consistency in the employee benefits and related policies.

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Risks in Employee Assistance Programs procurement

Employee Assistance Programs procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Employee Assistance Programs procurement. Some examples include:

Service providers often handle sensitive data of their customers. Though they employ security measures to protect such data (by deploying security software and limiting access), there is always a chance of intrusion by unauthorized users which can lead to significant financial and reputational losses for buyers
Suppliers may face a situation where they are unable to honor a contract in its entirety due to shortage of resources, finances or capabilities. While contractual terms safeguard buyers from the non-performance, their operations could still face massive disruptions due to suppliers' non-performance
Business interruptions/damage caused by human error, natural disasters, computer viruses, malicious attacks, computer denial of service attacks, fire, and other disasters which are beyond the control of suppliers can lead to financial or data losses within buyers' operations

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Who should read this report

The report is intended to serve as a one-stop reference guide for Employee Assistance Programs procurement strategy and offers a perfect blend of category basics with deep-dive category data and insights. Therefore, it is ideal for category beginners looking for “Employee Assistance Programs: Procurement Report 101” as well as for category experts actively tracking the global Employee Assistance Programs procurement market.

You may have just initiated your research to design a winning Employee Assistance Programs procurement strategy, or you may be a category expert looking for strategic insights and updated data.Either ways, the report has your requirements covered.

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Key questions on Employee Assistance Programs procurement answered by this report

Procurement decisions can prove to be costly in the absence of careful deliberation and evaluation of every available option. In fact, more than 90% of the decision makers we work with acknowledge that timely availability of up-to-date category intelligence can help them make better purchasing decisions. More than 80% of them believe that in-house category intelligence needs to be updated periodically to achieve full benefits. If you have read so far, we are quite sure you agree!!

The Employee Assistance Programs procurement report helps take more informed decisions by placing all the critical information and advice at the fingertips of a decision maker. It also specifically answers some of the key questions that we have been routinely asked during our industry outreach initiatives:

What is the spend potential in the Employee Assistance Programs market?
What is the correct price to pay for Employee Assistance Programs? What are the key trends and factors that influence current and future pricing?
Which selection criteria are the most important for Employee Assistance Programs Suppliers Market?
Who are the top Employee Assistance Programs suppliers? What are their cost structures?
Which negotiation levers can reduce Employee Assistance Programs procurement cost ?
What are supplier margins in Employee Assistance Programs market?
What are the best practices for Employee Assistance Programs procurement and what are the potential risks?

SpendEdge Insights has helped procurement professionals and sourcing teams manage multiple spend areas and achieve more than $2 billion in savings. Activate your free account today!

Employee Assistance Programs Category Insights: What is inside

The Employee Assistance Programs market report offers a complete picture of the supply market and analyzes the category from the perspective of both buyers and suppliers. Analysis of the category trends, procurement best practices, negotiation levers and overall category management strategy advisory are interspersed with in-depth data and commentary on spend outlook, pricing ecosystem and supplier landscape drilled down to a region-level coverage.

Data

A key highlight of this report is the in-depth outlook created on Employee Assistance Programs procurement spend and pricing trends. The report further delves deep into the aspects of cost structure, total cost of ownership and supplier margins for Employee Assistance Programs. A dedicated section to supplier profiles and evaluation helps decision makers cast a wider procurement net and identify gaps in existing relationships.

Insights

Along with specific category and supplier intelligence, the publication also includes curated insights on Employee Assistance Programs market trends, price influencers and inherent risks. These insights help the decision makers prepare for market shaping trends in advance and create alternative strategies for changes in the market conditions.

Advisory

Additionally, the report also advises on the best practices and strategies to manage the Employee Assistance Programs category efficiently. Negotiation levers and opportunities are explained in detail along with quantification of their potential. Benchmark KPIs for supplier and buyer performance management are also aggregated to better organize the category objectives. Other themes of advisory include ideal procurement organization structure, enablers to achieve KPIs or category objectives and ideal SLAs to have with suppliers.

Category Ecosystem

Buyer and supplier ecosystem
Competitiveness index
Buyer and supplier power
Threat of new entrants and substitutes

Global and Regional Sourcing Insights

Category spend
Spend growth
Dynamics
Opportunities

Pricing and Cost Analysis

Pricing outlook and data
Drivers of pricing
Cost structure and inputs cost
Total cost of ownership
Pricing models and margins

Cost Saving Opportunities & Negotiation Strategies

Buyer and supplier side levers
Quantified cost saving opportunities
Negotiation strategies and quantified outcome

Procurement Best Practices, Strategy and Enablers

Procurement excellence
Sustainability and innovation
KPIs and category enablers
Risk management and outsourcing

Vendor Analysis

RFx essentials and selection criteria
SLAs
Supplier evaluation metrics
Detailed supplier profiles

Our research is complex, but our reports are easy to digest. Quantitative analysis and exhaustive commentary is placed in an easy to read format that gives you an in-depth knowledge on the category without spending hours to figure out “what does it mean for my company?”

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Category Research Framework

SpendEdge presents a detailed picture of Employee Assistance Programs procurement solutions by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The analysts have presented the various facets of the market with a particular focus on identifying the key category influencers. The data thus presented is comprehensive, reliable, and the result of extensive research, both primary and secondary.