Employee Assistance Programs
This being the day of the great downsize many managers are hurrying to
make the cut's and in doing so closely examining their Employee-Assistance
Programs for effectiveness. What are they? How do they help? How do they work?
Are they worth the hassle?
What are they?
By definition employee-assistance programs (EAP's) give a business the
means for identifying employees whose job performance is negatively affected by
personal problems. EAP's should arrange for structured assistance to solve
those problems with the goal of reestablishing the employee's job performance.
Three ways they help the employer and the employee:
First, EAP's should help in identifying a troubled worker. The two
largest problems in the workplace today are drug/alcohol abuse and the stressful
effects of downsizing. Many researchers today believe that drug/alcohol abuse
is responsible for most modern-day EAP's.
According to The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, 25
percent of all hospitalized patients have alcohol related problems. Alcohol is
involved in 47 percent of all industrial accidents and half of all auto
fatalities. The cost totals 86 billion dollars per year due to decreased
productivity, treatment programs, accidents, crime and law enforcement.
Although it is most costly at the top alcoholism/drug abuse affects
employees at every level of an organization. One company found that in the
pervious five years each worker with an alcohol/drug related problem missed 113
days of work and filed $23,000 more in medical cla ...