Helping Employees Cope With Personal Problems
An employee assistance program is an arrangement intended to aid employees in coping with personal problems that can negatively affect job performance. It's usually considered an employee benefit, but it can work for the good of both company and employee. The presence of an EAP makes employees aware that the company cares about them beyond the needs of the moment and wants to maintain them as contributing employees.
An EAP provides information, assessment, advice and referral for employees who are experiencing personal problems that adversely affect them as individuals and as workers. An individual applying to or referred to an EAP receives confidential assessment customarily followed by referral to a source of professional help.
A few sizeable organizations have EAPs that are run completely in-house, but most businesses contract with external EAP providers for the following reasons:
- External assessment and referral avoids potential problems that can arise when employees must assess other employees.
- External administration helps preserve employee confidentiality.
- Many employees are more likely to fully discuss personal issues with persons who are not part of their everyday employment situation.
An EAP isn't likely to generate visible short-term improvements. Quick fixes are unlikely considering the kinds of problems most frequently addressed through an EAP:
- substance abuse
- compulsive gambling
- marital or other family difficulties
- financial problems
- behavioral issues, stress or "burnout"-related problems, and potential mental health issues.
Most EAPs provide one to three confidential sessions with a professional counselor to determine the appropriate referral path for an individual. After initial assessment, the employee's health insurance takes over, or an appropriate public assistance program or other external resource may apply.
An individual can enter an employee assistance program by way of:
- self-referral, applying to the EAP voluntarily
- suggestion by management or employee health service
- management's mandated referral, should an employee's apparent problem have the capacity to create risk for people or property
In serious instances the company can mandate referral to the EAP and require completion of a subsequent program (alcohol rehabilitation, for example) as a condition of continued employment. The nature of an employee's problem is none of the manager's business, but the effects on productivity and other people are always the manager's business.
The cost of an EAP to the company is usually based on employee count, some stated amount per year per full-time employee or full-time equivalent (FTE, the work-hour equivalent of a full-time employee) and usually amounts to very little overall cost. Usually the EAP will cost less for an entire year than the costs avoided by salvaging one employee who might otherwise have been lost.
To completely serve its intended purpose an EAP requires:
- full support by all levels of management
- adequate funding, often just a few dollars per employee per year
- efficient and confidential assessment and referral
- record-keeping that ensures employee confidentiality
- communication sufficient to ensure that all employees know how the program works and how it's accessed
An EAP can relieve a manager of a difficult situation involving an ordinarily good employee for whom the only remaining alternative would be termination. Managers may find there's considerable satisfaction in helping salvage an employee who might otherwise be lost.