Protecting the Bottom Line

The use of Employee Assistance Programmes in the UK has seen a marked upturn in the past year. Four main types of organisation use these programmes: those which already have them in the USA, and those concerned about safety, effects of rapid change, or staff retention. Motivation to introduce EAPs may be influenced by the decision to have a programme either positively (gain staff welfare benefit) or negatively (avoid losses through sickness, absenteeism, staff turnover) reinforced. The basic EAP concept is to prevent performance impairment by identifying and resolving employees′ personal problems at the earliest possible stage without risk to employee′s job. Five components of the system are detailed: policy decision and programme design: training and orientation of key staff: communication to all employees and families: counselling and referral service: programme evaluation. There are three main advantages of such a system: staff benefit, manager support, cost saving giving a low‐cost programme with one‐year payback with evidence of 4:1 savings‐to‐investment ratios.