Learn more about the effectiveness of EAPs.
What Do Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) Do in the Workplace?
EAPs provide needs assessment, help, counseling, and referrals for employees and their family members when they are faced with mental health or emotional issues. EAPs are available to assist the employee when he or she needs help dealing with life events, workplace issues, and other personal problems and challenges. EAPs most frequently assist employees to deal with issues in these areas:
AlcoholismDrug abuseMarital difficultiesFinancial problemsEmotional problemsLegal problems
Why Do an Increasing Number of Employers Offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)?
From an employer’s standpoint, an EAP helps the employee deal with issues that might otherwise adversely impact the employee’s health and wellness, or work performance. “According to Watson Wyatt, factors such as mental health conditions, sleep problems, stigma, and substance use and abuse affect business performance by reducing productivity and increasing both planned and unplanned absences. An EAP gives employers a referral option when managers and human resources staff are helping an employee deal with life and work issues that are beyond the training and scope of these workplace helpers. Managers and human resources staff are generally not trained to provide therapy or counseling to employees and an EAP gives them a way to help an employee without turning away an employee in need.
Are Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) Effective?
Research exists that demonstrates that EAPs are effective, although, the evidence is controversial. HR professionals experience both positive and negative word-of-mouth feedback from employees who have accessed their organizations’ EAP. The most controversial finding is that employees may not consider an EAP a confidential service even though they are. This is especially true depending upon the service providers, of the EAPs that are provided by employers in the public sector. These EAPs may be departments within the larger organizations and employees regard them with often warranted suspicion and skepticism. Employees are suspicious that anything they tell a counselor in an in-house EAP will go directly to the ear of related HR staff. They fear that the information will then affect their career.
Evidence of EAP Effectiveness
Generally speaking, EAPs are effective. Studies have found that EAPs improve:
AbsenteeismJob performancePresenteeismDepressSubstance use
In fact, one study noted that employee satisfaction about EAPs is “often over 90%.” Furthermore, a 2016 study from the Employee Assistance Research Foundation indicated that “employees receiving EAP services showed improved work functioning (reduced absenteeism and presenteeism) significantly more than well-matched comparison group of employees not receiving EAP services.” However, EAPs do give the employer an option when dealing with troubled staff members whom they are ill-equipped, and not in the business, to serve. Consequently, the popularity of EAPs will continue to rise and the hope is that unbiased research going forward demonstrates that EAPs do, in fact, serve the best interests of employers and employees. Not just a panacea for the masses, HR professionals would like to know that EAPs actually work—or not.
