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Our History
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Our History
World-class employee support delivered around the corner, around the clock, and around the globe. Workplace Options is a leader in customized work-life and employee support benefits to EAPs, individual companies, government employees, universities, hospitals and other organizations, all over the world.
Great Beginnings
Founded in Raleigh, NC in 1982, we began our company by providing work-life consulting and training to corporations – including work-life needs assessments, policy development, implementation, and corporate on-site child care center design and development. Then in 1997, we launched a new business model that focused exclusively on providing resource and referral solutions to EAP and third-party organizations. That change allowed Workplace Options to better leverage its expertise in dependent care and convenience referrals and to partner directly with clients to develop and deliver innovative work-life products and services.
Domestic Growth
In May 2005, Workplace Options established a partnership with Accor Services North America, the parent company of Work-Life Benefits, to provide management and operational support to that organization. The subsequent merging of Workplace Options and Work-Life Benefits created an even stronger and deeper network of innovative and affordable work-life products and services. This allowed us to leverage our two technology and service infrastructures to expand capacity and implement cutting-edge technologies. Workplace Options grew to become the largest provider of work-life services in the country and expanded our world class services to third party providers and directly to businesses and other organizations.
Global Expansion
Workplace Options partnered with the broader Accor organization to create an international work-life and EAP network. Our first step in this direction was the acquisition in 2006 of UK-based Employee Advisory Resource. At the time, EAR had established itself as one of the leading providers of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and integrated work-life services, both in the UK, and across the globe.
Founded in 1982, EAR pioneered the provision of employee effectiveness services and held the distinction of being the UK’s first commercial employee assistance program. EAR’s roots reach further back however – to the internal employee assistance department of Control Data Corporation, which is a legacy that made EAR particularly sensitive to serving the unique needs of corporate clients. EAR’s reputation grew as it developed truly innovative, tailored work-life solutions for organizations and their employees.
Workplace Options embraces and upholds EAR’s commitment to a global strategy, and seeks to leverage shared quality, service and technology standards with a strong local presence. In addition to face-to-face and telephonic counseling, our blended company helps organizations further maximize the performance of their employees through a range of integrated services, such as critical incident support, occupational health and positive absence management services, stress management interventions and employee development programs.
Worldwide Employee Support
Currently, Workplace Options is the world’s largest provider of employee effectiveness services. We offer a variety of programs that improve an employee’s job performance. These include dependent care referrals, workplace wellness initiatives, legal and financial advice, emergency back‐up child and elder care, and clinical network management. Our work‐life services, EAP support products, wellness products, international EAP offerings, and training programs serve more than 31 million employees and their families in more than 20,000 organizations in 170 countries. We have offices in Raleigh, London, Toronto, and Dublin.
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