Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are widely used by workplaces both throughout Australia and globally, to support and promote employee wellness and mental health. By addressing both personal and workplace issues, we can use EAPs to simultaneously address employee wellness and work performance. 

Research conducted by Heads Up, the University of Maryland, and Deakin University, has shown that the benefits of an effective EAP can include:

  • Reduced absenteeism

  • Increased productivity, workplace engagement and employee functioning

  • Increased life satisfaction

  • Help employees with mental ill-health to both stay at work and return after an absence

  • Assist employees in addressing stress and issues before they become overwhelmed.

[1][2][3]

 

EAPs can be a great way of supporting the mental health of employees and improving overall organisational wellness. However, in order to realise these benefits, it is critical that you consider and evaluate how an EAP can serve the specific needs of your organisation and recognise that it is only one important element of an integrated approach.  

This was evident in a report by the Australian Human Resources Institute, which showed that EAPs were the most common form of mental health and wellness support offered by employers, but were also perceived as being the least effective wellness support program. [5]

 

Use the following checklist to evaluate your current EAP provider and to apply a continuous improvement lens. 

 
 
iStock-639812432.jpg

Resources:

For anyone in your organisation, that you believe is struggling but reticent to connect in with EAP based on fear of confidentiality, there are also extremely good external agencies such as those below: 

 
 

Where to next?

 

Sources:

  1. Heads Up, Beyond Blue 2015, The Value of Employee Assistance Program, viewed 9 December 2020, https://www.headsup.org.au/training-and-resources/news/2015/07/30/the-value-of-an-employee-assistance-program.

  2. Attridge, M, Sharar, D, DeLapp, G & Veder, B 2018, ‘EAP Works: Global Results from 24,363 Counseling Cases with Pre-Post Data on the Workplace Outcome Suite (WOS)’, International Journal of Health and Productivity, vol. 10, no.2, pp.7-27. 

  3. Joseph, B, Walker, A & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M 2017, ‘Evaluating the effectiveness of employee assistance programmes: a systematic review’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, vol. 27, no.1, pp. 1-15. 

  4. The Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australasia (EAPAA) 2009, What is an Employee Assistance Program? Viewed 9 December 2020, https://www.eapaa.org.au/site/.

  5. Kern, P, McQuaid, M, Williams, P & Jacobs, D 2020, The Wellbeing Lab 2020 Workplace Report: the state of wellbeing in Australian workplaces, The Australian HR Institute, viewed 9 December 2020, ‘https://www.ahri.com.au/media/4655/wellbeinglab_workplacesurvey2020.pdf.

  6. The Australian Productivity Commission, (2020), Mental Health, Canberra, Report no.95,  https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/mental-health/report.

  7. Compton, RL & McManus, JG 2015, ‘Employee Assistance Programs in Australia: Evaluating Success’,Journal of Workplace Behavioural Health, vol.30, no.1-2, pp.32-45.