Employee Assistance Professionals Research Articles

Employee Assistance Programs: A Meta‐Analysis

According to the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association (2011), employee assistance programs (EAPs) are integrated programs in which various methods are used to provide organizations and their employees with different services. However, despite the increasing implementation of EAPs, quantitative meta‐analyses on EAPs have yet to be conducted. Thus, following Rosenthal's (1991) recommendations for meta‐analysis, we performed a meta‐analysis of 14 quantitative studies on EAPs in Taiwan. Results indicated that EAPs are negatively correlated with work stress and positively correlated with organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and social support. This study also offers prescriptions for the organizational conduct of EAPs with respect to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, social support, and work stress.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

The American Association of Suicidology, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and United Suicide Survivors International announced Oct. 11, on World Mental Health Day, their collaboration and release of the first “National Guidelines for Workplace Suicide Prevention.” These guidelines — built by listening to the expertise of diverse groups like HR, employment law, employee assistance professionals, labor and safety leaders, and many people who had experienced a suicide crisis while they were employed — will help employers and workplaces become proactively involved in suicide prevention in the workplace, a joint news release stated. “Across the United States, workplaces are taking a closer look at mental health promotion and suicide prevention, shifting their role and perspective on suicide from ‘not our business,’ to a mindset that says ‘we can do better,’” Sally Spencer‐Thomas, Psy.D., president of United Suicide Survivors International and co‐chair for the Workplace Suicide Prevention and Postvention Committee of the American Association of Suicidology, said. Guidelines include recommendations for easily deployed tools, trainings and resources for both short‐term action and comprehensive and sustained strategy.

The role of spirituality in the practice of employee assistance programs: A South African experience

A quantitative study was carried out through an online survey (using Qualtrics) among South African Employee Assistance Program (EAP) practitioners/professionals in respect of their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding spirituality when rendering EAP services. The survey link was distributed to a list of 232 EAP practitioners/professionals as was obtained from the Employee Assistance Professionals Association of South Africa and to an additional 25 email addresses by using snowball sampling totaling 257 respondents. A total of 57 completed responses were received (22% response rate). The respondents indicated positive attitudes toward spirituality and reported that they frequently deal with spiritual matters in practice. However, respondents indicated uncertainty about their own knowledge of levels of spirituality and whether their training was adequate to guide them in good ethical practice.

Pružanje pomoći zaposlenima putem multifunkcionalnih programa učenja

The paper presents and examines employee assistance programmes (EAP) as a means of strategic intervention and supportive mechanism which provides assistance to individuals and organizations through various types of informative, advisory, educational and evaluation services and interventions, for the purposes of resolving issues that influence productivity, e.g. issues having to do with health, family, finances, emotional life, as well as issues related to requests, relations and equity at the work place, harassment, abuse, stress, etc. As this programme mostly prevalent in the US and Western Europe, this paper will present various associations, such as the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), the Employee Assistance European Forum (EAEF), which offer various forms of assistance to employees, as well as accredited programmes for the training of experts providing assistance to employees, establishing standards and using defined protocols for monitoring the effectiveness of the provided services. Furthermore, this paper presents reasons supported by studies for the implementation of the EAP programming organizations. Particular attention is given to the location of providing educational activities and their participants, for the purposes of considering the provision of assistance to employees as a 'new' kind of task that andragologists may want to be tasked with.

Identifying Research Direction for Mental Health of North Korean Refugees Using Delphi Technique

Jin-Won Noh, PhD, Hyun-Ah Kim, PhD, Yoojung Kim, DSW, Hyunchun Park, MPH, and Jong-Min Woo, MD, MPH, PhD Department of Healthcare Management, Eulji University, Seongnam, Korea 2 Department of Health Sciences, Global Health, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands Department of Counselling Psychology, Seoul Cyber University, Seoul, Korea Department of Social Welfare, Gachon University, Seongnam, Korea Korea Employee Assistance Professionals Association, Seoul, Korea

THE APPROPRIATENESS AND NECESSITY OF SHORT-TERM THERAPY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

The existence of work-related problems such as job stress experienced by employees in the workplace and personal problems such as marital problems, interpersonal problems and emotional stress underlines the importance of psychotherapy by employee assistance professionals. Googins as quoted by Sprang (1992:57) emphasises the fact that there is a need for Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) service delivery to be cost effective in order to be beneficial to both employee and employer.

Employee Assistance Programs for the New Millennium: Emergence of the Comprehensive Model

This article reviews the historical evolution of employee assistance programs (EAPs) in the United States over the past 40 years, and concludes that the future of employee assistance lies with its adoption of a Comprehensive Service Program model. To be successful, EAP providers also will need to move away from their current “commodity focus” and “return on investment [ROI] paradigm.” Instead, they must begin to identify the critical functions EAPs perform for work organizations that make them indispensable strategic partners in employers’ universal pursuit of productivity and innovation. To achieve this goal, the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) and Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA) must focus on developing a uniform university-based EAP curriculum; moving assertively toward universal state licensure; and actively promoting an evidence-informed, program-based research agenda.

The Organizational Impact of Impaired Health Care Executives or Physicians: A Review and Recommendations

The negative impact of an impaired health care executive or physician on an organization can be significant. This article reviews the literature on impaired health care executives and physicians. Case studies are provided, and recommendations are made for boards of directors, senior management, executive coaches, and employee assistance professionals to consider when faced with impaired leaders or professionals.

Risk of compassion fatigue and burnout and potential for compassion satisfaction among employee assistance professionals: Protecting the workforce.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) professionals provide a majority of the mental health services to adults within the workplace. With increased traumatic events at work, including workplace violenc...

Descriptive Study of External Employee Assistance Program Providers (EAP) in Japan

The mental health problems of employees have become a major occupational health issue in Japan. External employee assistance program providers (EAP) have become important in mental health care for workers, but their activities are poorly documented. This descriptive study was undertaken to clarify the status and future tasks of EAP in Japan. The subjects were all EAP (n=27) registered in the Japanese Chapter of Employee Assistance Professionals Association. The questionnaire survey was conducted in January 2007. We received 13 replies, a response rate of 54.2%. Most EAP provided seminars, stress checks, stress management, counseling, and support for a return to work. The number of EAP contracted with small-scale enterprises was small. EAP communicated infrequently with companies. To promote the use of EAP, their advertising, education and training of staff, accumulation of scientific evidence, development of an official certification system for staff, and improvement of contents of EAP services were cited.

Barriers to Workplace Stress Interventions in Employee Assistance Practice: EAP Perspectives

Occupational health literature links stressful working conditions with cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, injuries, and psychological distress. We conducted individual interviews with employee assistance professionals (EAPs) to understand opportunities and barriers for EAPs to address job stress through organization level interventions. EAPs described their primary role as assisting individual employees versus designing company wide interventions. The most salient barriers to organization level interventions cited were lack of access to company management and (for contracted EAPs) perceptions of contract vulnerability. Education about workplace stress interventions may be most effectively directed at EAPs who are already integrated with company level work groups.

Getting to Know You: Occupational Health Researchers Investigate Employee Assistance Professionals' Approaches to Workplace Stress

Workplace stress is strongly associated with health problems, including cardiovascular disease. The occupational health field is developing partnerships with a variety of health professions to prevent and address job stress at the organizational level. A review of literature for and about employee assistance professionals was conducted to explore their perspectives on these issues. Results show high awareness regarding the health effects of job stress and a wide range of approaches to address this problem. EAPs appear to be a potential strong partner in efforts to prevent workplace stress, but face obstacles to intervening at the level of the work environment.

Fathers in the Workplace

Work/family balance programs that assist employees have received great attention by employers and researchers. These programs are typically offered by employers to assist employees with effective handling of familial responsibilities while remaining productive at work. Historically, these policies have been catered to working mothers and have fallen short of addressing the unique needs of fathers in the workplace. Developing policies that are specific to fathers can prove beneficial to companies by promoting increased productivity and greater loyalty. An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can assist companies with developing programs that provide assistance to employees on various levels. The EAP core technology functions promoted by the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) provide an excellent structure for exploring how EA professionals can be an integral part in any work/family balance program.

A Family Systems‐Based Model of Organizational Intervention

Employee assistance professionals are expected to be proficient at intervening in organizations and creating meaningful behavioral change in interpersonal functioning. Because of their training in family systems theories and concepts, marriage and family therapists (MFTs) are well suited to serve organizations as "systems consultants." Unfortunately, the authors were unable to identify any family systems-based models for organizational intervention that have been empirically tested and supported. In this article, the authors present a family systems-based model of intervention that they developed while working in an employee assistance program (EAP). They also present research that was used to refine the model and to provide initial support for its effectiveness.

Academic and Corporate Cultures Contrasted

SUMMARY The purpose of this article is to acquaint employee assistance professionals with some of the cultural differences between academic institutions and corporate employers. The authors will describe how these differences affect the provision of employee assistance services. Four key differences are identified. The first is exemplified in the respective mission statements adopted by academic institutions and business corporations. A second difference is that educational institutions are far more accepting of diversity of thought and more likely to respond to or investigate complaints. In contrast, corporate culture often dictates that the hierarchy not be challenged. The third is in the area of decision making. In academic settings decision making is most often done by a committee consensus process. Consequently, it is very slow. In a corporate setting decisions are made by a few key people. As a result, changes suggested by employee assistance practitioners are more likely to be more challenging to implement in academic settings than in corporations. The final difference between the two cultures is that a large segment of the academic work force is minimally supervised. Relative to corporate America, this segment is not held as accountable for its performance or conduct. Traditionally, employee assistance professionals advise supervisors to use “consequences” as tools to motivate behavior change. However, such advice is nearly meaningless when targeted to this quarter to a third of an academic institution's employee population. Some alternative motivational techniques are outlined.

History and Evolution of the International Association of Employee Assistance Professionals in Education (IAEAPE)

SUMMARY This article provides an historical overview of the evolution of the International Association of Employee Assistance Professionals in Education (IAEAPE). The IAEAPE was developed in parallel with the introduction of employee assistance programs in higher education.

Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, and Burnout

Summary Over the past several decades the mental health field has become increasingly concerned about potential negative effects in professionals of providing crisis intervention and traumatic stress services to individuals and groups. The employee assistance (EA) field has not received adequate attention with regard to the study of these negative effects, such as compassion fatigue. This paper highlights results from a national research study of members of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) who were assessed for risk for compassion fatigue and burnout, as well as potential for compassion satisfaction. Additionally, coping methods for dealing with work-related stress resulting from the provision of workplace crisis intervention services were measured. Findings indicate that EA professionals who provide clinical services and/or crisis intervention services in the workplace are at low risk for burnout, moderate risk for compassion fatigue, and have high potential for compassion satisfaction. Implications for the EA field, in terms of training and practice, are discussed.

Case Studies of Federal Occupational Health's EAP Responses to Natural Disasters

Summary Employee assistance professionals have increasingly been called upon to address the emotional and mental health needs of customer organizations and their employees in response to large-scale natural or man-made disasters. In doing so, employee assistance program (EAP) professionals must use a repertoire of responses that encompasses a broad range of interventions, generally anchored in an understanding of and focus on the organization and its culture, mission, management and labor concerns, and other critical characteristics. The EAP's fallback response to a crisis affecting the workplace is often a critical incident stress debriefing or close variant of it. However, EAPs can best serve their customers at all levels with interventions attuned to an understanding of the workplace culture gained through a consultative relationship with management, while factoring in the nature of the disaster, the length of time and characteristics of the disaster's aftermath, and the nuances of the employees' physical and emotional needs throughout the entire disaster response and recovery process. This article highlights these issues through the presentation of two case studies, gained from the hurricane response activities of the Federal Occupational Health (FOH) EAP. FOH, a service unit within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Program Support Center, has 60 years of experience working in partnership with its federal agency customers to deliver comprehensive occupational health services to improve the health, safety, and productivity of the federal workforce. FOH's EAP contracts with vendor organizations to provide direct employee assistance, work/life, and related services to more than 1.3 million federal employees. The first case study describes (from the first person perspective) an on-site, multi-focused EAP intervention at a federal facility. The second case study describes management consultation with the U.S. Postal Service in response to major hurricane activity.

Enhancing Teams in the Workplace

Abstract This article explores the literature on team-building, including its application to employee assistance programs and the relevant theories discussed within the field. In addition, the paper applies family systems theory, particularly experiential family therapy and structural family therapy, to team enhancing. The authors outline a model for team-enhancing that employee assistance professionals can use directly with the organizations they serve. The team-enhancing model consists of three phases: (1) Initial Contact and Assessment; (2) Team Assembly; and (3) Accountability and Follow-Up. The first phase is brief, with no sub-stages. Phase two consists of four stages. The third phase incorporates an accountability stage that offers the option of convening future team assemblies (i.e., meetings) to continue the team-enhancing process.

The Future of Credentialing and Accreditation in Employee Assistance Programs

Abstract This article, written by the current presidents of the Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA) and the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, examines future issues facing employee assistance programs and discusses the value and relevance of both program accreditation and individual practitioner certification.