Why should you provide EAP for your employees?
It Makes Good Business Sense.
Employers have found that proactive, preventive efforts to help employees identify and resolve personal issues before they have serious medical, family, and/or workplace consequences make financial and business sense.
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EAPs have been shown to contribute to:​
​Decreased Absenteeism
Fewer Labor Disputes
Greater Employee Retention
Reduced accidents & fewer workers compensation claims
Reduced Medical Costs
(arising from early identification & treatment of individual mental health and substance use issues.)
Studies Show with EAP:
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Every dollar they invest in an EAP, employers generally save anywhere from $5 to $16.
Source: What Works: Workplaces Without Drugs. U.S. Department of Labor, -
General Motors Corporation’s EAP saves the company $37 million per year-$3,700 for each of the 10,000 employees enrolled in the program.
Source: Substance Abuse: A Guide to Workplace Issues. ASIS O.P. Norton Information Resources Center. -
United Airlines estimated that it gets a $16.95 return for every dollar invested in employee assistance.
Source: Substance Abuse: A Guide to Workplace Issues. ASIS O.P. Norton Information Resources Center. -
The City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported a savings of $350,000 over a five-year period in reduced sickness absenteeism for employees with alcohol problems.
Source: “Taking Inventory,” published in the EAPA Exchange, (July 1992), EAP Association. -
Studies done at Crestar Bank showed that average psychiatric costs were 58 percent less for EAP participants compared with those who did not use the EAP. EAP participants had an average of 8.8 sessions compared to 13.1 sessions for the non-EAP group. The average cost of $45 per session resulted in a savings of $193 per outpatient case.
Facts
For every dollar they invest in an EAP, employers generally save anywhere from $5 to $16.
According to the National Business Group on Health, mental illness and substance abuse disorders account for more than 217 million lost workdays per year at a cost to employers of approximately $17 billion annually.
Indirect cost estimates, such as those resulting from poor morale, damage to public image, employee theft, workplace accidents, or diverted supervisory and management time, cost even more (Finch & Phillips, 2005).
Substance Abuse/Depression/Stress
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Accoring to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse -Workers with alcohol problems were 2.7 times more likely than workers without drinking problems to have injury-related absences.
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Breathalyzer tests detected alcohol in 16% of emergency room patients injured at work.
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Analyses of workplace fatalities showed that at least 11% of the victims had been drinking.
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Large federal surveys show that 24% of workers report drinking during the workday at least once in the past year.
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One-fifth of workers and managers across a wide range of industries and company sizes report that a coworker’s on- or off-the-job drinking jeopardized their own productivity and safety.
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Industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.
Source: “Management Perspectives on Alcoholism,” by M. Bernstein and J.J. Mahoney, published in Occupational Medicine, -
70% of all current adult illegal drug users are employed.
Source: NIDA Capsules, National Institute on Drug Abuse, -
70% of the estimated 14.8 million Americans who use illegal drugs are employed.
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Marijuana is the most commonly used and abused illegal drug by employees, followed by cocaine, with prescription drug use steadily increasing.
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According to the National Intstitute of Mental Health, Depression costs an estimated $23 billion in lost workdays every year.
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One study found that employees used about 8.8 million sick days in 2001 due to untreated or mistreated depression (National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2002).
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Depression results in more days of disability than chronic health conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes (National Committee for Quality Assurance, 2004).
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Two-thirds of both men and women say work has a significant impact on their stress level, and one in four has called in sick or taken a "mental health day" as a result of work stress. (American Psychological Association, 2004).
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Stress has been called the "health epidemic of the 21st century" by the World Health Organization. Nearly half of all workers suffer from moderate to severe stress while on the job, and 66 percent of employees report that they have difficulty focusing on tasks at work because of stress. - Source: SHRM; Taking A Fresh Look at EAP Counseling, (2016)
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Job stress costs US industry up to $300 billion annually due to absenteeism, employee turnover, diminished productivity, workplace violence, and direct medical, legal and insurance fees. -Source: Southern New Hampshire Medical Center (July 2002)
Violence or Threats In The Workplace
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Nearly two million people a year are victims of violence or threats in the workplace.
Source: Workplace Violence, U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2002). -
Violence in the workplace is caused by a variety of factors, including job stress, job-related conflict, layoffs and firings, alcohol and drug abuse, accessibility of weapons, and domestic problems carried over from the home. Source: Attorney General Janet Reno's presentation to an EAPA conference entitled “Responding to Workplace Critical Incidents.”
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The occurrence of domestic violence is high and probably underreported with one wife or child in 21 being physically abused 3 to 4 times per year. The greatest problem regarding women, violence, and employment is the response of the organization to violence against women.
Culturally Diverse Workforce
The economic data clearly show that our nation—and, by extension, our workforce—will continue to become increasingly more diverse, as racial and ethnic minorities make up a larger portion of the population, as women continue to enter the workforce, and as gay and transgender individuals, as well as people with disabilities, continue to play a vital role in growing our economy.
As projections show that a majority of most work forces are now composed of non-whites, females, and immigrants, the challenge will be for workforces to adjust and provide adequate employee resources to assist with sensitivity and other concerns to a culturally diverse make-up of workers
Work/Family Issues
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Nearly three times as many employers offer child care benefits today as in 1988.
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“Not only are the elderly, those 65 years old and older, increasing as a percentage of the population but also the eldest portion, those over 85, is increasing faster than any other segment. More and more often we are seeing seventy-year-olds trying to care for their parents, who are in their nineties.”
Source: William Benson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Aging