Integrating Employee Assistance Services with Organization Development and Health Risk Management: The State Government of Minnesota

Organizations of all sorts are struggling to cut costs, eliminate wastes, and create more productive work environments. In response, many Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) have emerged as integral, and even pivotal, to initiatives designed to integrate the various staff functions and external resources contributing to the achievement of these objectives. This article attempts to describe the action-research process of one organization in which the EAP is playing a central role in this integration of services. The organization is a large, public-sector employer (a state government with 52,000 employees). This integration process is part of several larger, ongoing initiatives aimed at improving productivity and efficiency and mitigating the costs associated with health problems and counterproductive behaviors.