The business is among the first in the construction sector to offer the benefits of its Employee Assistance Programme for anyone in the business or supply chain experiencing worry, stress or anxiety caused by health, family, work, legal or other issues.

The firm said the move underscores the business’ aspiration to lead in improving the health and well-being of its workforce.

Costain hopes that other organisations follow suit in expanding their support for employees to their supply chain partners too.

The programme offers confidential advice to employees via a free 24/7 helpline.

It also provides additional emotional support through telephone or face-to-face counselling sessions.

All employees and supply chain are briefed on the support Costain makes available as part of their induction process.

Concerns about the health and well-being of employees and supply chain workers are embedded at the heart of Costain’s business strategy as part of its Costain Cares work.

Gavin Bye, Costain Group SHE director, said: “Costain has long been an industry leader on employee health and well-being issues and a natural next step was to extend our Employee Assistance Programme to our supply chain. We hope our decision will see other organisations across the industry following suit.

“We all experience many challenges throughout our lives which can lead to worry and stress so we felt help and support should be offered to our entire workforce, not just our own staff. Our Employee Assistance programme provides a superb confidential service to help us all through the difficult times that we can face in our lives.”

The Employee Assistance Programme also provides support for employees and supply chain workers experiencing issues with their physical health. Costain provides an online portal where staff can go for mini-health checks, personalised health risk assessments and access to fact sheets on a swathe of health topics.