|
What is Employee Assistance Programme For The Corporations?
It is a strategic intervention designed to produce organisational benefit through a system led approach to people management.It is not an expense but an investment.It helps reduce the employee turnover and costs, saving organisations money, and supporting a motivated, loyal workforce.
ORIGIN OF EAP
A common misconception is that emotional problems are too personal to be considered by the management, but industry in developed countries recognised the fact that emotional problems of employees are carried over to the workplace. When this continues or is repeated frequently, it affects the industry in terms of increased absenteeism, low job efficiency, loss of concentration, high accident rate, poor interpersonal relationship/ interaction, and high reimbursement of medical bills. So the losses to the industry are massive in terms of both the work hours as well as the finances. Having recognised that emotional problems of the employees affect the industry, the dilemma was either to tolerate the resulting poor performance or to encourage such employees to seek professional help for their problems. Obviously the industries chose the latter option.
It not only made the professional help available, free of cost, but also encouraged the employees to seek help.The identity of the employees seeking such help is not sought for by the management thereby assuring the employees that there is total confidentiality. Today there are over 22,000 programmes in place covering 45% of all US workers, including 80% of the Fortune 500 companies. Even in UK, in the last 10 years, the number of companies having EAP has grown from 10 to 700. The percentage of workers getting EAP services has grown from 2.7% to 6%
Relevance of EAP services in the Indian context
Progressive industrial houses now do recognise the importance of their human resources because they concede that Efficiency and Productivity come not from the machine/ gadgets alone but from human beings. So the EAP services become equally relevant here to reduce problems in the workforce and to retain valued employees. Establishing EAP services in the industry will not only help the employees, but it also makes good financial sense because quality workmanship and higher employee morale will result in higher customer satisfaction and hence higher profits.
Advantages of EAP
Unlike the other HRD Exercises like Workshops on Stress Management, Crisis Management and Communication Skills etc. which are one-time isolated efforts, EAP provides ongoing training in skills,coaching, efficient monitoring and long-term care.
Establishing EAP
Organisations desirous of establishing their EAP can do so by taking the following steps:
Step 1: Develop a written policy stating that "the emotional well being of the employees is as important to the management as is their physical well-being. So seeking professional help for emotional problems is as legitimate as seeking medical help for physical problems".This policy is communicated very clearly to all the employees.
Step 2: Contracting the services of EAP professionals for the following purposes:
- Designing and conducting training programmes for the employees to sharpen and enhance their skills for coping with stress and for better communication and team-work;
- Providing confidential counselling services to the employees who are either self-referred or have been referred by the supervisors. Counselling can be provided either at workplace or, at the office of the EAP professional;
- Training the supervisory cadre to identify Employees with emotional problems on the basis of impaired job performance:
- Identifying other resources for help in case of more advanced psychological disorders or alcohol problems.
Step3: At the end of one year make a critical appraisal of the services provided by the EAP professionals and gauge the extent of utilisation of these services and the impact it has made before renewing the contract.
By establishing it's E.A.P., the industry sends a clear signal that it deals with the human problems in ethical and humane way.
What is Employee Assistance Programme for the Employees?
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a free, confidential counselling and referral service designed to help employees and their immediate family members resolve personal, emotional and behavioral problems/issues that may be interfering with their work or home life. The overall objective is to improve employee well- being and enhance their work/life balance.
|
