EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

An employee assistance program (EAP) is an employee benefit program that assists employees with personal problems and/or work-related problems that may impact their job performance, health, mental and emotional well-being. EAPs generally offered under confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services for employees.

EAP counselors may also work in a consultative role with managers and supervisors to address employee and organizational challenges and needs. Many corporations, academic institution and/or government agencies are active in helping organizations prevent and cope with workplace violence, trauma, and other emergency response situations.

There is a variety of support programs offered for employees. Even though EAPs are mainly aimed at work-related issues, there are a variety of programs that can assist with problems outside of the workplace. EAPs have grown in popularity over the years, and are more desirable economically and socially.

OBJECTIVE:

Help employees in identifying and resolving personal concerns, including, but not limited to, health, marital, family, financial, alcohol, drug, legal, emotional, stress, or other personal issues that may affect job performance. To identify the errors and support solution base approach for a balanced work life.

What are Employee Assistance Programs or EAPs?

Employee Assistance Programs are those which help employees to deal with their personal problems and professional issues which negatively impact their job. It is a counselling and consulting program where employees put forward the problems they are facing.

And in return the right set of solutions are provided by experts. Not only does it help employees psychologically but it also helps them improve their engagement levels in the long run.

Assistance can be of various forms like financial help, work relationships, performance booster, mental health issues, help with substance abuse, child and elder care, and the list can go on depending on what the organization decides to include in EAPs.

Why Employee Assistance Programs?

Supporting your employees is always a crucial part if you want to build an influential company culture. And you can enhance your efforts if you can implement EAPs in your organization. The main features of an ideal EAPs are listed below-

Accessibility- EAPs can be accessed online and onsite. These programs provide an online platform where employees can log in and get access to various podcasts, videos and interactive programs according to their needs. It doesn’t limit to virtual display of service offering, but its recommended best done in person at site.
This would engage interest and develop more interest in focusing towards organizational goals and increases employee loyalty towards employers. The EAPs can be a right program for those corporates who cares for their employees and their wellbeing.
Availability- These programs are available to employees 24×7 and their immediate family members who are eligible for the program. Employees can talk with experts through texts, emails almost instantly and get help whenever they want.
EAP service providers would offer / appoint a dedicated team to ensure a systematic and connected service delivery is provided with limited possible time to ensure faster recovery and improve.
Confidential- One of the most essential and crucial elements of these programs is that it keeps your employees anonymous. No person will be able to breach any information about others which is always a driving factor of any program.

EAPs are designed for a specific purpose is to reach employee wellbeing in a holistic and secured way, at no point the information related to employee or his / her family would be shared with anyone. It ensures a high confidentiality towards their information.

Secure- Anonymity is what people want, and this program makes it sure that everyone stays anonymous. This increases the credibility of the program and employees are more driven towards using such programs.

Implementation of Employee Assistance Programs

Employee Assistance Programs are quite complicated if you do not have the root knowledge of how it works. And implementation is even harder if there a lack of systematic approach. We will discuss a few points on how an organization can successfully implement an EAP smoothly.

1. Plan the Structure

A rigid and firm foundation of any building is their stronghold and in the very same way, a proper structure for your EAP will prove to be vital. Before setting out to implement an EAP formulate a working and easy way to understand design of how the program needs to be. Set targets and goals which you want to achieve with EAPs in the organization.
Once everything is set with a clear sight of the objectives, you will find it much easier to onboard EAPs without any hassle. And the organization will be able to gradually maximize the effectiveness of the program by bringing necessary changes with a planned structure.
Furthermore, the management will have a thorough idea about how the program will properly work when they stick with the prompt and firm action plan.

2. Mind the Budget

Employee Assistance Programs are available for any business size. Be it the big corporations or small businesses. But the major difference comes when the budget plays its role in adopting the program.
Big corporations might go for lucrative EAPs but that option gets diminished for small businesses. Which is why budgeting and carefully adopting EAPs under the budget is very crucial. Because as an organization, you might want to provide all the necessary assistance to your employees without burning in the company’s yearly budget.

3. Select the right resource

One of the most important factors while implementing an EAP is selecting the right people which will suit your organization. There are numerous vendors in the market but which one will fit best for the organization depends on what you need.
While choosing the vendor you can look out for certain parameters like-
• Years of service, experience, and genuine testimonials.
• Cost of the services within your budget.
• Scope of services covered by the EAP.
• Geographical accessibility.
• Availability of services 24×7.
• Good customer service and satisfaction levels.
The parameters can differ according to organizational needs. But do shortlist all the basic necessities so that the EAP vendor covers all your areas of interest.

4. Flexibility

The flexibility of a program makes them more successful and sustainable in the long run.
What does flexibility signify when implementing an EAP?
Well, the answer is simple. You cannot expect a program to run with the solutions you initially started from. Modernization and changes will be constantly made to make the program more effective. Now with a program that uses the outdated services will prove out to be a liability.
However, EAP allows flexibility then you can make periodic changes and include services with the changing trend. Making an EAP program much effective and helpful to the organization in the long run.

5. Introduction and Employees understanding of the Program

The implementation of EAP will not be complete if you miss out on the process of formally introducing it to your employees. Once employees get the overall framework of what an EAP consists of, make them understand the benefits it can bring in their lives.
Make sure to conduct an FAQ session where employees can raise questions and doubts about EAP. Have an expert panel ready to answer any questions so that employees can fully understand EAPs and make full use of it for their own benefits.
The more benefits they will receive, the better will be their satisfaction levels which will eventually help the company’s bottom line with enhanced productivity and engagement. EAPs are specially designed to reach employee behavioral aspects to ensure they receive right counseling for their issues.

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Benefits of Employee Assistance Programs

Reduced Absenteeism

The well-being of employees should always be a prime focus of organizations. However, if that is something an organization is missing out, then your employees will feel less valued and will try to skip work. No organization wants a situation which will create future problems.

To reduce absenteeism, organizations can implement Employee Assistance Programs where employees can raise their concern. This will not only help automate the process, but it will also help the organization in pinpointing every employee’s concern. Thus, helping them out in every step whenever needed and maintaining their well-being.

Increased Productivity

Distraction from personal or professional problems is the primary productivity destroyers of your employees. They become less motivated and creative at work which delays the flow of work.

However, to increase the productivity of employees, an organization can opt for EAPs. These programs help an employee in taking care of all the difficulties they tend to face personally and professionally.

Positive work environment

A working environment where employees are stressed is not a healthy environment. Productivity drops and employees tend to leave organizations with such environments, which is never a good sign for any organization.

On the contrary, if your organization has a working environment where employees are less stressed, then they are more bound to be loyal and have better concentration. There are numerous factors to this and one such factor is the implementation of Employee Assistance Programs. These programs assist a troubling employee by providing support with the issues that they are facing.

Less turnover

Turnover has always posed a significant threat to organizations in the corporate world. It costs the company a considerable amount of money which impacts the revenue and market presence in the long run.

However, turnover can be reduced if an organization can seriously heed the problems faced by employees. This is where EAPs come into place to make things easier for organizations. Not only it helps to point out the issues faced by employees but it also provides the necessary solutions. This makes job easier for both the employers and employees. Thus, resulting in reduced turnovers as employees will feel valued that the organization is taking the essential steps to deal with the problems.

Improves Morale

You might have employees in your organization who performed well and all of a sudden, their morale and quality of work dropped. If they are struggling to lift up their confidence and morale, then your employees might be facing some significant hurdles in their life.

In such circumstances, EAPs play a significant role in clarifying the problems that your employees might be facing. Once you get a better understanding of their issues with the help of EAPs, you will be able to assist them in solving it. This not only improves your employees’ morale, but it also increases their working capabilities.

CLINICAL SERVICES OFFERED AT OPENMINDS

PSYCHIATRY
PSYCHOLOGY
ASSESSMENTS
FUNCTIONAL NUTRICIAN
SPEECH THERAPY

We offer continuous developmental Seminars / Workshops, Session’s activity & Interactive base:

Workshops:

Corporate Wellness Program

Employee Retention Management

Team Management

Time Management

Behavioral Issues

Couple Therapy

Psychological Assessment

Stress Management

Perfectionism

Conflict Resolution & Problem-Solving Approach

For clinical session which perhaps would be an extended approach from EAP sessions, some individuals would require personalize consultations. Some of those who are identified by the functional managers / heads can recommend clinical face-to-face sessions with an experienced Psychologist / Psychiatrist.

A client specific approach is offered with highly trained and experienced at various level of difficulties and concerns such as:

Stress Related Problems

Depression

Anxiety

Individual therapy

Psychological counselling

Therapeutic support groups

Marital Counselling

Family Counselling

Post-traumatic stress

Pain management

Adjustment disorders

Trauma and Crisis counselling

Counselling for Phobias

Children and Adolescents with learning, emotional, and behavior difficulties

Workplace, professional issues and personal development issues on request

Relationship counselling

Work Related Stress

Critical Incident Stress

Contact us to know more:

Speak to our EAP manager to set your EAP for your employees / group. Write us at business@openmindscenter.com or you can contact +971 522 620 763.

EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM