ABSTRACT
Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are programmatic efforts undertaken by work organizations to help individuals, and their families, who are adversely affected by stressful events in their work and personal lives. The rationale for these programs is to assist individuals to deal with the dysfunctional consequences of organizational and personal life stressors so they can maintain their health and psychological well-being in addition to performing adequately in their work roles. In a Fisher Vista survey (2001), 96% of Fortune 500 companies indicated that they had an EAP in force. Work organizations generally vary in the nature of services that they provide to their employees, such variations being a function of the established practices and historical traditions found in the industry. For example, larger organizations have more resources to provide a diversity of services designed to assist employees in coping with chronic (i.e., persistent) and episodic (i.e., periodic) encounters with stressful experiences in the domain of work and personal life. Organizations with limited resources are generally not able to provide well-designed EAPs for their employees despite the relevance of such programs in enhancing employee and organizational health. It is often the case that an organization’s mission, resources, structure, and other bureaucratic mechanisms, coupled with the specific needs of the workforce, determine the amount of responsibility assumed by the EAP. The primary objectives of EAPs are as follows:
To promote and maintain the mental health and, to a lesser extent, the physical health of the workforce in the organization
To retain valued employees with skills and experience and lessen adverse consequences of turnover and job burnout
To promote the organizational health and well-being with a constant vigilance for improving organizational effectiveness.
