Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) Employee Assistance Programmes • What is an EAP? – Factors involved in EAP – Evaluation of EAPs –

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)

Employee Assistance Programmes

• What is an EAP?
– Factors involved in EAP
– Evaluation of EAPs
– Outcomes

• Employee Satisfaction and Self-efficacy

• EAP research issues

• Example of best practice

What is EAP?

• An employee assistance program (EAP) is a work-based
intervention program designed to assist employees in
resolving personal problems that may be adversely
affecting the employee’s performance.

• Programs are delivered at no cost to employees by
stand-alone EAP vendors or providers who are part of
comprehensive health insurance plans.

• Services are often delivered via phone, video-based
counseling, online chatting, e-mail interactions or face-
to-face.

EAP covers…

• Alchohol or substance abuses

• Child or elder care

• Relationship challenges

• Conflict at work

• Wellness matters

• Financial or legal problems

• Traumatic events like workplace violence.

Have you had any experience of EAP?

If yes, please share. If no, what is your impression
of EAPs?

Find some interesting facts about EAP in one country

• % of empolyees using EAP ?

• Utilization Rate ?

• ROI?

• Effectiveness (the impact) ?

• Reasons for accessing EAP

Effectiveness of EAPs

▪ Employee Support

▪ Provides resources for daily life issues, job performance

▪ Identifies and resolves workplace challenges before they result in
high medical and disability costs

▪ Promotes a healthy lifestyle

▪ Employer Support

▪ Provides resources/support during crisis

▪ Provides resources that complement HR department

▪ Reduces potential for litigation and supervisor mismanagement of
issues

What do Successful Outcomes look like?

Improving

Staff health and wellbeing

Staff engagement and satisfaction

Staff recruitment and retention

Productivity

Brand image

Customer satisfaction and loyalty

Reducing

Stress

Absence rates

Staff turnover

Recruitment costs

Health-related benefits costs

Liability cover and litigation costs

• Effective in helping employees deal with stressors, work

performance, reduce work-related accidents and reduce

healthcare costs (Ramanthan, 1992)

• Help with stressors that are a result of home and work

life (Highley and Copper, 1996)

Evaluation of EAPs

• Findings are often inconsistent – evaluations are of broader

counselling programmes with control groups

• EAP for a Canadian transport company found that 42% users

participated and users reported higher sickness before, during

and after the programme (Macdonald et al., 1997)

• No reduction in sickness absence, no increases in productivity

and staff turnover did not decrease (McClellan, 1989)

Evaluation of EAPs

Evaluation of EAP research
• Often conducted by internal providers with self interest in

demonstrating the programme’s effectiveness

• Limited longitudinal data collection

• Methodological inconsistencies e.g., evaluated as one part of a multi-

component intervention (Loo, 1994).

• Lack of control groups (French et al, 1995)

• Ethical issues of confidentiality and accessing employee information

(Csiernik, 1995)

• Few evaluations are ever conducted (e.g. Canadian review of EAPs

found only 16% had been evaluated)

• Limited cross cultural examples EAPs available in many workplaces

in affluent Western countries, but still rare in other parts of the world

(Yu, Lin & Hsu, 2009)

If you are HR manager who considers to introduce EAP to your
company, what are your major considerations?

Considerations

• Upper Management Support

• Company Culture

• Strategy and Position

• Legal Considearation

• Staff’s acceptance and usage

• Implementation obstacles

• You have received the green light to introduce EAP,
what issues you need to tackle?

• Draft the implementation plan to be presented to
management

Essential Ingredients?

Arthur (2000)

▪ Commitment and support from top management;

▪ A clear, written set of policies and procedures that outline the
purpose of the EAP and how it functions in the organisation;

▪ Close co-operation with local unions;

▪ Training of supervisors on their role in problem identification;

▪ Education of employees and promotion of EAP services to foster
widespread utilisation throughout the company;

▪ A continuum of care, including referral to community agencies
and follow-up of each case;

▪ An explicit policy on confidentiality of employee information;

▪ Maintenance of records for programme evaluation purposes.

Implementation

Company

• Policy and Coverage of EAP

• Selection of Counselor/Vendor

• In-house counselor or counselor at workplace

• Physical Space

EAP vendor

• Orientation to Counselor(s)

• Record Management

• Monioring and Evaluation

Staff

• Promotion Plan & Materials

Parcelforce Worldwide

The challenge: high absence and accident rates as well as low
employee satisfaction

The company introduced a workplace health and safety programme
which

• reduced sickness absence and accident rates and compensation
claims

• improved productivity and customer service

Example of Best Practice

Through its mental health strategy, Healthy Minds Matter, the
organisation constantly promotes campaigns and messages to raise
awareness, and decrease the stigma of mental illness. In early 2020, it
introduced around 50 volunteer health and wellbeing ambassadors at
its major business units, most of whom are front-line employees. “That
really gives us an opportunity to promote peer-to-peer support,” says
Williams. “Those ambassadors have access to all of our intranet sites
and various portals that information is available through, and they are
able to act as a signpost to anybody who wants to talk to them.”

Example of Best Practice

Potential Drawbacks of EAP

• Low utilization

• Poor communication

• Non-specific services

• Managment not covered

• Complicated access system

• Expense

• Non-confidentiality

• Poor reporting

• Effectiveness

Future directions

The UK Employee Assistance Programme Association recommend a number of improvements

UK EAPA:

• To improve their visibility

• Encourage EAP Providers to engage in research

• Ensure EAPs collect up-to-date data to aid future EAP research

• To develop a standardised measure of EAP use

EAP Providers:

• Appropriately train their account managers

• Recognise their role in EAP promotion

Organisations/HR Managers:

• Improve methods of EAP promotion including line management engagement

• Create a culture where EAPs are accepted reduce stigma

• Develop methods through which service confidentiality is explained

Resources

Arthur, A.R. (2000). Employee assistance programmes: the emperor’s new
clothes of stress management? British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. 28
(4), 549-559.

Joseph, B., Walker, A. & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2018). Evaluating the
effectiveness of employee assistance programmes: a systematic review.
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27 (1), 1-15.

Ming-Chu, Y., Chiu Chuan, L. & San-Yuan, H. (2009). Stressors and burnout:
the role of employee assistance programmes and self-efficacy. Social
Behaviour & Personality: An International Journal, 37 (3), 365-378.