World Mental Health Day on 10 October brought the usual round of webinars and awareness posts. The harder question comes after it: is the employee assistance programme (EAP) you pay for actually helping the people who need it? Most EAP reports answer with one number, utilisation. That number hides more than it shows. This guide sets out five metrics that tell you whether your EAP works, using ekincare's counselling data from 2023 to April 2026, and what to ask your vendor before you renew.

The short answer

  • Track the ghost rate, not just utilisation. In ekincare's data, 26.6% of employees who book a counselling session never attend one.
  • Know your clinical share. 35% of sessions now concern anxiety, depression, mood or behavioural issues. Your EAP is doing primary mental healthcare, and its network needs clinical psychologists, not only general counsellors.
  • Plan for continuity. 58% of employees attend one session only, while 12% need five or more. A single-session model fails the people with the greatest need.
  • Design by cohort. Sessions among employees aged 20 to 25 grew 203% from 2023 to 2026, against 18% for those aged 31 to 35.
  • Watch where demand is rising. BFSI sessions grew 408% between 2023 and 2025, healthcare and pharma 122%, and IT and software 11%.

Why utilisation is the wrong headline number

For years, the question CHROs asked about their EAP was how to get employees to use it. That question is fading. Counselling sessions across ekincare's corporate clients grew 44% between 2023 and 2025, with a 34% jump in 2025 alone, and the first four months of 2026 were on track to match or exceed 2025.

When usage rises, a utilisation figure starts to look like success. It does not tell you three things that matter more:

  • How many employees asked for help and never got it
  • Whether the people with serious needs got enough care
  • Whether the programme fits the people who actually use it

No Indian law currently requires an employer to offer an EAP. That makes it a choice, and a budget line, which is why it is worth measuring properly. The five metrics below answer those three questions.

The 5 metrics that show whether your EAP works

1. Ghost rate: who booked but never came

What it is: the share of employees who book a counselling session and never attend.

What our data shows: 26.6% of employees who booked a session never attended one. That is more than one in four people who reached the point of asking for help and then stepped back. A programme can report high utilisation while a quarter of its most hesitant users get nothing.

Ask your vendor: "What was our ghost rate last quarter, and what do you do when someone misses a first session?"

The full From Silence to Signal report breaks the ghost rate down by consultation mode and by first-time versus returning users, which shows where the drop-off is worst.

2. Clinical share: how serious the need is

What it is: the share of sessions that concern clinical issues rather than everyday stress.

What our data shows: 35% of sessions concern anxiety, depression, mood disturbance or behavioural issues. Anxiety and depression alone account for 11.7% of sessions. This is not "wellness" in the light sense of the word. It is primary mental healthcare delivered through an employer benefit.

Ask your vendor: "What share of our sessions are clinical, and how are those cases routed to clinical psychologists or psychiatrists?"

3. Continuity: whether people get enough care

What it is: how many sessions each employee completes.

What our data shows: 58% of employees who attended completed only one session. That is fine for a one-off workplace conflict. But 12% sustained five or more sessions, and their reasons were grief, divorce, mood disorders, personality issues and emotional abuse. These are not problems a single 50-minute slot can solve.

Ask your vendor: "How many sessions does our plan allow per employee, and what happens when someone needs more?"

4. Demand by age: who is actually using it

What it is: session growth broken down by age group.

What our data shows: sessions among employees aged 20 to 25 grew 203% from 2023 to 2026. The 26 to 30 group grew 27%, and the 31 to 35 group grew 18%. Gen Z is the first Indian workforce cohort for whom counselling is a routine tool. Employees past 35 bring the most clinical concerns: 44% of their sessions are about anxiety, depression or mood.

Ask your vendor: "Can you show our usage and top concerns by age band?" A programme built for the average 31-year-old misses both ends of your workforce.

5. Demand by team or sector: where pressure is building

What it is: session growth broken down by business unit or sector.

What our data shows: BFSI sessions grew 408% between 2023 and 2025, the fastest of any sector. Healthcare and pharma grew 122% and now account for 18% of all sessions. IT and software, long the leader, grew 11%. Demand rises where targets, regulation and client pressure combine.

Ask your vendor: "Which teams or locations show the fastest growth, and is counsellor capacity keeping up?"

Where your EAP fits with insurance and OPD

An EAP is the front door. What happens after the counselling session decides whether the employee actually gets better.

  • Insurance covers mental illness, mostly in hospital. Section 21(4) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 requires insurers to cover mental illness on the same basis as physical illness, and IRDAI directed all health insurers to comply in 2022. But group health insurance is built around hospitalisation, while most mental healthcare happens outside hospital: therapy, psychiatrist consultations and long-term medicines.
  • That gap sits in OPD. When a counsellor refers an employee to a psychiatrist, the consultation and the prescription are outpatient costs. If your benefits cover them through cashless OPD, the referral turns into treatment. If they don't, many employees stop at the referral.
  • Connect the steps. The strongest programmes link counselling, psychiatric consultation, diagnostics and pharmacy in one benefit, so a clinical case moves from the first session to treatment without the employee having to start again elsewhere.

Privacy is part of the product

Employees ghost sessions partly because they fear being seen. Every design choice that makes the EAP feel safer reduces the ghost rate.

  • Counselling records are personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Its core obligations, including notice and consent, security safeguards and retention limits, take effect on 13 May 2027. Check now that your vendor's consent and data-handling meet them.
  • Ask for reporting that is aggregated and anonymised. HR should see ghost rates, clinical share and trends, never an individual's sessions.
  • Say this clearly in every EAP communication. Employees who believe their manager cannot see their sessions are more likely to show up.

Before you renew: a checklist for your 2027 EAP contract

Many companies set next year's benefits budget between October and January. Use this list before you sign.

  • Make the ghost rate a reported metric, every quarter, alongside utilisation.
  • Ask for clinical share and session continuity in every quarterly review.
  • Confirm that clinical cases are routed to clinical psychologists or psychiatrists, not only general counsellors.
  • Check how many sessions each employee can use, and what happens beyond that limit.
  • Ask for usage broken down by age band, location and business unit, anonymised.
  • Make sure psychiatrist consultations and medicines are covered, through OPD or another route.
  • Review the vendor's consent and data-handling against the DPDP Act before May 2027.
  • Write the privacy promise into your EAP communication: no individual session data reaches HR or managers.

ekincare's corporate mental wellness programme reports these metrics and connects counselling to cashless OPD across 90,000+ providers, so a clinical case moves from the first session to treatment. Talk to us about your EAP review.

Frequently asked questions

How do you measure EAP effectiveness? Look beyond utilisation. Track the ghost rate (bookings that never become sessions), the clinical share of sessions, how many sessions each employee completes, and how demand varies by age and team. Together these show whether employees who need help are getting enough of it.

What is a good EAP utilisation rate? Utilisation alone cannot tell you whether an EAP works. A programme can show high utilisation while more than a quarter of the employees who book never attend. In ekincare's data, 26.6% of employees who booked a session never attended one. Read utilisation alongside the ghost rate.

What is an EAP ghost rate? The share of employees who book a counselling session but never attend. It is a direct measure of how safe and easy the programme feels to use.

Is an EAP mandatory in India? No Indian law currently requires employers to offer an EAP. It is a voluntary benefit, which is why measuring its value matters.

Does health insurance cover mental illness in India? Yes. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 requires insurers to cover mental illness on the same basis as physical illness, and IRDAI directed all health insurers to comply in October 2022. Group policies mainly cover hospitalisation, so outpatient care such as psychiatrist consultations and medicines often needs OPD cover.

How many counselling sessions should an EAP offer? Enough for the employees with the greatest need. In ekincare's data, 58% of employees used one session, but 12% needed five or more, mostly for grief, divorce and mood disorders. Plans that cap sessions too low cut off the people most likely to need time off work.

Sources

This article is general information, not medical or legal advice.

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Jehi Jha
13 Oct 2026 8 min read
Marketing Manager