Donna’s husband has just been terminated from his job. Frustrated with his unemployment, he starts coming home late and goes into a stupor. He often beats Donna whenever she reminds him to get sober. Due to this personal issue, Donna is unable to perform well in her job and failing to meet deadlines on time. Some colleagues even catch her sobbing in the restroom.

In Donna’s case, Employee Assistance Program is crucially needed.

What is Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?

Referring to the example above, EAP is an employer-sponsored program that offers services to help people like Donna deal with their personal problems. EAP focuses on solving and helping employees whenever personal problems that hinder them from fully functioning at work occurs.

Why should employers provide the program?

Employee’s mental health is vital to support their performance and productivity at work. Once their mental wellbeing is disturbed by either personal or professional issues, an employee will find it hard to function normally in day-to-day business. For example, an employee might miss a meeting schedule, unable to concentrate, and prone to get into an accident in the workplace.

See also: Want to Improve Your Employees’ Wellness? Here are Some Ideas

By the presence of EAP, both employer and employee can benefit from the assistance program. Employers will benefit in terms of reduced company costs for medical treatment, turnover, or absenteeism, such that they can maximise the return on investment.

Meanwhile, EAP for employees can help increase morale and wellbeing which eventually affect their workplace harmony. When the employee comes back to work normally, their productivity and performance would increase drastically – from what once annoyed and unmotivated to a happy and engaged employee. Employees will also feel appreciated and belonged to the organisation which then will increase their loyalty.

What does EAP cover?

Generally, EAP can vary from employers to employers but they have common elements to cover, such as follows:

• Crisis intervention
• Childcare
• Eldercare
• Smoking cessation
• Stress management
• Alcohol or substance abuse
• Divorce/marital problems
• Eating disorder
• Psychology or psychiatric problems
• Financial problems
• Other legal problems

How does EAP work?

EAP will help troubled staff deal with their problems and issues. These problems will be kept very confidential to the counsellor only. It means that while the employer pays for the service, they will not have insight into an employee’s specific use of the service. Moreover, the assistance provider will invite professional counsellor to discuss the aforementioned topics covered.

If you are wondering how much EAP cost, here is the list for you based on Your Employee Rights. This list is an approximate cost of EAP, the price can be different in each country or region.

• Company with 1 – 25 employees pays US$50 per employee per year
• Company with 25 – 100 employees pays US$36.70 per employee per year
• Company with 101 – 250 employees pays US$32.70 per employee per year

Available EAP in Asia

Further, here is two trusted employee assistance programs across Asia.

ICAS International  with features as follows:

• Counselling services for emotional support, 24/7, 365 days a year
• Life Management services for practical and legal issues
• Online wellbeing services for access to EAP resources
• Critical incident management for immediate solutions to organisations recovering from a crisis

GPC Asia Pacific with the following features:

• Confidential, short-term support
• Professional counselling
• Access to a psychologist, social workers, management coaches, and other specialists
• Phone or face-to-face sessions
• 24/7 availability

Read also: Motivate Your Employees with Self-Improvement Program