Employee assistance programs: a review of the management of stress and wellbeing through workplace counselling and consulting

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide counselling and consulting services that focus on the prevention and/or remediation of personal problems experienced by employees, or members of their families. EAPs are currently considered one of the main vehicles for occupational stress management and are rapidly evolving into providers of holistic wellbeing programs in the workplace. This form of service delivery has, however, been criticised for focusing interventions at the individual rather than at the organisational level. This review examines the history and development of Australian EAPs, discusses issues unique to the delivery of psychological services in a workplace environment, and considers evidence for the effectiveness of EAPs. While research evidence is not fully supportive of the effectiveness of EAPs, data suggests that these programs do impact positively on employee mental health, and are perceived by employees as a desirable workplace resource.

[1]  D. Walsh,et al.  Employee assistance programs. , 1982, The Milbank Memorial Fund quarterly. Health and society.

[2]  P. Roman.  Employee Assistance Programs in Australia and the United States: Comparisons of Origin, Structure, and the Role of Behavioral Science Research , 1983, The Journal of applied behavioral science.

[3]  Mary Anne Devanna,et al.  Strategic Human Resource Management , 1984 .

[4]  A. Terry.  Employee Assistance Programs in Australia:: An Update , 1988 .

[5]  K. Mcclellan.  Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Ohio EAP , 1990 .

[6]  Cary L. Cooper,et al.  The impact of stress counselling at work. , 1991 .

[7]  Cary L. Cooper,et al.  Healthy Mind; Healthy Organization— A Proactive Approach to Occupational Stress , 1994 .

[8]  P. Dewe.  EAPs and Stress Management: From Theory to Practice to Comprehensiveness , 1994 .

[9]  R. Loo.  The evaluation of stress management services by Canadian organizations , 1994 .

[10]  L. Murphy.  Managing job stress , 1995 .

[11]  Rick Csiernik,et al.  A review of research methods used to examine employee assistance program delivery options , 1995 .

[12]  D. Pearson,et al.  Assessing Satisfaction and Non-Response Bias in an HMO-Sponsored Employee Assistance Program , 1995 .

[13]  M. Leiter,et al.  The Role of Employee Assistance Counselors in Addressing Organizational Problems , 1996 .

[14]  D. E. Broadbent.  Counselling psychology in the workplace : strategy or sticking plaster ? , 1996 .

[15]  R. Csiernik.  Wellness, Work and Employee Assistance Programming , 1996 .

[16]  John M. Berridge,et al.  Review article: New roles for employee assistance programmes in the 1990s: occupational social work is back and different , 1996 .

[17]  Debra Blaze-Temple Mph,et al.  Process Evaluation of an Australian EAP , 1997 .

[18]  A. Greenwood.  Stress and the EAP Counsellor , 1997 .

[19]  Burgess Km,et al.  Employee assistance programs: a worldwide perspective. , 1997 .

[20]  M. Carroll.  Counselling in Organizations: An Overview , 1997 .

[21]  S. Macdonald,et al.  Evaluation of an employee assistance program at a transportation company , 1997 .

[22]  D. Masi.  Evaluating Employee Assistance Programs , 1997 .

[23]  P. Howat,et al.  Cost Benefit of an Australian EAP , 1997 .

[24]  S. Goss,et al.  Applied Pluralism in the Evaluation of Employee Counselling. , 1997 .

[25]  C. Cooper,et al.  Evaluating and Auditing Workplace Counselling Programmes , 1997 .

[26]  K. Harlow.  Employee Attitudes Toward an Internal Employee Assistance Program , 1998 .

[27]  Nanette Santoro,et al.  Where Are We Going , 1999 .

[28]  John M. Berridge.  Employee Assistance Programmes and Stress Counselling: At a Crossroads? , 1999 .

[29]  A. Arthur.  Employee assistance programmes: The emperor's new clothes of stress management? , 2000 .

[30]  P. Herlihy.  Employee Assistance and Work/Family Programs , 2000 .

[31]  Nan Van Den Bergh.  Where Have We Been? … Where Are We Going? , 2000 .

[32]  M. Urato,et al.  Employee Assistance Programs Among Fortune 500 Firms , 2001 .

[33]  A. Coles.  Counselling In The Workplace , 2003 .