What is an EAP and why does your company need one?

Image by ForestForTrees via Flickr

Employee Assistance Programmes, or EAP‘s, are becoming increasingly popular in the Irish workplace, and are helping organisations to comply with new health and safety legislation, improve productivity and retain their key staff. But what exactly are they, where did they originate and how do they benefit the average employee?

In a nutshell a modern EAP is an independent, confidential counselling and referral programme offered to employees by their employer. In very basic terms the service provides an independent channel of support to helps employees identify and address professional and personal issues before they start to impact on their performance at work.

International research shows that EAPs can be an effective way for organisations to combat some very serious workplace issues: issues like absenteeism, work related stress, low morale and drug and alcohol dependency. According to a report released earlier this year by Ireland’s Small Firms Association (SFA), absenteeism alone costs small Irish businesses nearly €800 million every year.

Figures from the UK and the USA show that a properly implemented EAP will typically deliver a 3:1 return on investment in its first year of operation, rising to a 5:1 to 7:1 return thereafter, according to John Connolly of Cork based company EAP Resources. Some companies experience even higher returns. United Airlines, for example, reported a staggering US$16 return for every US$1 it invested in its EAP.

As well as paying financial dividends, a properly implemented EAP can also help an employer to demonstrate that they’re delivering on the “duty of care” aspects of health and safety legislation under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, which expanded the scope of Irish health and safety legislation considerably.

But an EAP is much more than a way for an employer to satisfy legislative obligations and increase their profit margins; it’s also a way of nurturing and investing in their most valuable asset: the people who work for them. For employees, an EAP offers access to independent professional counselling services outside the normal company hierarchy: a place to turn to for confidential support and assistance when they’re having difficulties at work or at home.
Although EAPs are a relatively new concept here in Ireland, they’ve been around in the USA for quite a while, and date back as far as 1917. Many of the longest established EAPs in the US originated in the 1940s, when employers started to become concerned about alcohol related problems among white-collar workers. Gradually these programmes evolved to cover a whole range of work, financial, emotional, mental and personal issues.

EAPs experienced massive growth in the United States during the early 1970s, when the Occupational Programs Office of the Federal Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offered federal grants to help increase the number of programs nationwide.

Now, with the spotlight here turning on issues like absenteeism, the influence of drug and alcohol at work, workplace bullying and stress, ever increasing numbers of Irish employers are looking to EAPs to provide part of the solution.

Be Sociable, Share!

•