ABSTRACT
Realizing the mission of EAPs requires EAP practitioners and service providers to design programs that will best serve the needs of corporate clients, while taking into consideration the resources that will be required to deliver to their needs. On the other hand, corporate clients should conduct comprehensive organizational assessment if they want a clear understanding of the organizational needs and should plan accordingly in terms of budget allocation (Standards Committee of Employee Assistance Professionals Association of South Africa [EAPA-SA], 2010). This argument is based on the understanding that pricing models determine the actual price that EAP service providers charge for services offered to corporate clients. As the identification of pricing is a problem in the EAP field, this has encouraged employers to choose according to how little they have to pay. However, in the process, they lose sight of the program’s original mission, which is early identification and intervention to maximize employee productivity and effectiveness in the workplace (Lee, 2005). Although the argument raised by the authors seems to point to the shortcomings of corporate clients when contracting with EAP service providers, the question to be explored is that of how the EAP service providers have managed to reach the lowest bids and what informed the pricing models that were applied in the preparation of a submission for a bid.
