Improving Employee Welfare at Work: Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

Whereas WHP programs focus on prevention, employee assistance programs (EAPs) focus on rehabilitation. An EAP is a system that provides confidential, professional care to employees whose job performance is or may become adversely affected by a variety of personal problems. Supervisors are taught to look for symptoms of declining work performance such as the following and then to refer employees to the EAP for professional help: predictable absenteeism patterns (for example, Mondays, Fridays, or days before or after holidays), unexcused or frequent absences, tardiness, and early departures; arguments with fellow employees; injuries caused to other employees through negligence, poor judgments and bad decisions; unusual on-the-job accidents; increased spoilage or broken equipment through negligence; involvement with the law; or a deteriorating personal appearance.³⁹

The Logic of EAPs

Today 87 percent of employers with more than 1,000 employees and 51 percent of those with 50–99 employees offer EAPs.⁴⁰ Modern EAPs are comprehensive management tools that address behavioral risks in the workplace by extending professional counseling and medical services to all “troubled” employees. A troubled employee is an individual who is confronted by unresolved personal or work-related problems. Such problems run the gamut from alcoholism, drug abuse, and high stress to marital, family, and financial problems. Although some of these may originate “outside” the work context, they most certainly will have spillover effects to the work context.