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WHY USE AN EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (EAP) ?
Do you have employees with alcohol or drug problems? Are personal problems affecting their job performance? Would you enjoy a reduction in worker's compensation claims? Would you like to see a decrease in utilization of sick time, or reduce the risk of workplace violence?
More and more companies have recognized that Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) provide a cost-effective way to help managers and employees address personal problems that affect job performance.
According to workplace productivity studies conducted over the past decade:
- Ninety percent of all job performance problems are directly related to personal problems
- One in ten employees experience problems with alcohol or drugs
- An employee with depression costs four hours of work per week
Employee Assistance Programs are your organization's best resource for enhancing employee and workplace effectiveness through prevention, identification and resolution of personal and productivity issues. Use of EAP's by progressive companies has tripled over the past decade. Over 82% of companies with 500+ employees have an EAP, and 62% of business owners with just 25 or more employees utilize an EAP for their workplace.
The positive economic impact of a high-performance EAP to the business and the community is significant. Recent analyses have estimated a return of 15 dollars for each dollar spent on an EAP, based in part on savings just from intervening with employees with substance abuse problems.
In fact, EAP's are the single most effective mechanism for recovering the job performance and career of employees who develop substance abuse drug problems, providing a 70% return to effective work performance.
EAP's offer additional benefits to smart companies:
- HR research reports that 13.9 hours of work loss is AVOIDED per individual accessing EAP services. In 2002 a Tucson-based program- Brooks Employee Assistance Programs - saved one company a total of 1904 work hours (that's 238 work days).
- General Motor's EAP saves the company $37 million per year in lost productivity - $3700 for each of the 10,000 covered employees.
- R.R. Donnelly & Sons initial investment in EAP services generated a return of $1.61 for each $1.00 invested in the first year.
- Virginia Power realized a 23 percent drop in medical claims over a four-year period for individuals who accessed the EAP compared with those who accessed behavioral health benefits on their own.
- NRC Corporation encouraged employees to access EAP before seeking mental health treatment. After one year, 80% of cases were resolved without using healthcare benefits.
- An EAP eliminates the need for supervisors to try to diagnose employee personal problems.
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