An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a system for identifying and treating a variety of medical or behavioral problems that might be responsible for an employees' poor job performance. Its main objective is to restore an employee to normal work behavior and productivity. It can help the employee to be a better producer for his employer as well as to function better as an individual.

The thrust of an EAP is to deal with and retain valued employees. It is a total approach in that it provides new tools for supervision and a resource for evaluation, diagnosis and treatment.

Rationale
Business and industry are suffering significant economic losses because of employees with problems. For example, studies done on employees who have problems with alcohol indicate that 25 percent of the salary of such employees is lost owing to sickness, absenteeism, accidents, poor judgment and, in general, deteriorating job performance.

When an emotional, marital, financial, alcohol/drug related, or any other personal problem affects one of your employees to the point where he or she demonstrates a decline in efficiency and performance, you have a serious personnel problem. When more than one employee develops a problem of the same intensity, then you have a growing business liability.

Separate studies by large corporations such as DuPont, Con Edison, as well as the Teamsters Union, show that employee problems result in higher medical benefit, excessive absenteeism, damaged customer and public relations, poor workmanship, a rising incidence of on-the-job accidents, and deteriorating group morale. This adds up to lost dollars - your company dollars.

People are the most important part of any organization. If people have problems, their organization suffers, too.

Timely Intervention
Early detection and prevention of serious health and behavior problems is the basic approach of an Employee Assistance Program.

Extensive research has shown that the work place provides the most effective and practical environment for the early detection and prompt referral of employees who display problems through poor performance on the job.

The idea is to use job performance measures to identify problem employees and then use the leverage of the job to get people to go for professional assistance.

Policy Development
We will help you write a comprehensive policy statement, or provide you with a model of an EAP policy which complies with the Drug Free Workplace Act.

Employee Orientation
Our EAP staff will orient employees about what an EAP is, why your company is sponsoring one, what counselors do, problem areas covered, how confidentiality is preserved, and how to make an appointment. Posters, inserts in pay envelopes and direct mailings to your employees residence will promote the program.

Supervisor Training
Training is important to clarify the supervisors responsibility for referring employees to the program. In most companies that have contracted for EAP services, employees make their own appointments, and the company is unaware of who is being seen. This is the preferred arrangement. In other cases, however, supervisors are responsible for referring employees to the program. Our EAP will include supervisory training on handling difficult situations and making a referral.

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment
Our EAP employs counselors who are trained in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of problems. They are all licensed in a recognized mental health discipline (psychiatry, clinical psychology, clinical social work), have extensive clinical experience, and carry their own professional liability insurance.

Referral
The majority of problems for which an employee may seek help, e.g., substance abuse, family problems, and mental health issues will be addressed by our EAP counselors. However, there may be problems that are less common and beyond the experience/expertise of our staff.

In those instances, our EAP will provide the troubled employee with reliable guidance to high quality, reasonably priced treatment options in the community.

Quality Assurance
To ensure the quality of our EAP, we will survey employees to ask about their satisfaction with our service. Our EAP will also invite former clients to focus sessions, similar to those commonly held in market and consumer research, to help evaluate our services.

Program Evaluation
Studies in the EAP field indicate that at least five percent of a company's work force will seek counseling in the program each year. A company can expect the services of a successful EAP to reduce the number of medical and psychiatric claims and the amount of sick leave taken by employees. Fewer accidents should be reported, the number of workers' compensation cases and grievances should diminish, and morale should improve. If requested, our EAP will collaborate with corporate personnel and benefits administrators to study health claims data, levels of job performance, and rates of absenteeism.

Cost
The cost of this program range from $1.00 to $3.00 per month, per employee. The counseling services provided by this program are available not only to the employee, but also dependents who are included in his/her health insurance plan.


For more information contact:
Employee Assistance Program
Western Pennsylvania
130 West North Street
New Castle, PA 16101

Toll Free 1-888-391-0500