20 Years of EAP in Korea: Now the Standard Infrastructure for Organizational Welfare

The Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which supports workers' psychological stability and emotional health within organizations, marks over 20 years since its introduction in South Korea. With the convergence of legal foundations, institutional support, and expansion across both private and public sectors, EAP has evolved from being an optional welfare program for select companies to becoming the standard infrastructure for organizational welfare.

According to Dain on September 17, EAP is a system that provides confidential professional counseling, coaching, and referral services to address employees' emotional and psychological issues, while offering organizations a structured solution that includes diagnosis, intervention, and follow-up reports.

The institutional foundation for EAP's adoption in South Korea was established in 2010 when the revision of the Framework Act on Workers’ Welfare officially recognized EAP as a voluntary welfare program for companies. That same year, the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service began offering free EAP services to small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 300 employees, and has since continuously expanded its counseling, education, and referral programs.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a heightened focus on mental health issues such as depression and anxiety at the individual level. At the organizational level, the need for practical interventions like workplace bullying prevention and burnout management has grown, resulting in a sharp increase in demand for EAP services.

Dain reports that, since the onset of COVID-19, the average annual number of counseling sessions has increased by approximately 32.7%. Furthermore, analysis of pre- and post-assessment data from employees who received counseling services in the first half of 2025 shows that their average psychological risk level decreased by 33.5%.

Amid these changes, domestic EAP specialists such as Dain are expanding and evolving their service areas. In particular, Dain accelerated its digital expansion strategy after being incorporated into Nudge Healthcare, which operates the health management app Cashwalk, in 2024. Through the acquisition of the B2C psychological counseling platform Trost and integration with the Cashwalk health management app, Dain now provides comprehensive mental and lifestyle care services.

The newly launched B2B-exclusive integrated platform, Nudge EAP, offers a wide range of features, including not only offline counseling but also online remote counseling and health challenges. Leveraging a network of over 1,400 counseling centers and more than 4,300 professionals nationwide, the platform proposes industry-specific programs and organizational culture improvement solutions.

There is also a growing trend toward strengthening expert advisory systems. Recently, Dain appointed Dr. Choi Wonjung, a psychiatrist, as a medical advisor to enhance the professionalism of business proposals, improve crisis response and psychiatric referral for counselors, and provide specialist lectures to client companies, thereby advancing service sophistication.

A Dain representative stated, "EAP is a system that enhances both employees' resilience and engagement, thereby improving organizational productivity and health. Based on 20 years of accumulated counseling programs and expertise, we currently provide services to over 2,900 companies and more than 1.2 million employees." The representative added, "We will continue to take the lead in creating an environment where mental health becomes a competitive advantage for every workplace in South Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.