So you have implemented a comprehensive employee assistance programme at your workplace. But is that enough? There is ample evidence in the literature to suggest that EAP services are most effective with a programme that is actively promoted and advertised to employees.
Azzone, McCann, Merrick, Hiatt, Hodgkin, & Horgan (2009) found that employees reported greater utility of EAP counselling services when given access to well-promoted EAP services, which included counselling and educational literature about mental health wellness through talks and online resources.
In this study of nonmissing data from more than 850,000 participants, analysis using logistic regression showed that more employees used EAP counselling services when there was a high rather than low or moderate level of promotion of EAP services by the employer. Interestingly, employees with a more comprehensive EAP were less likely to seek counselling: This may be because an EAP which emphasizes prevention likely results in fewer employees needing counselling services.
Yu, Lin, & Hsu (2009) investigated that 600 Taiwanese employees working in a high-tech industry experiencing high levels of stress. The authors showed that employees’ confidence in dealing with stressors and stressful situations directly influenced the level of stress experienced and rate of burnout documented, leading them to conclude that increasing employees’ self-efficacy through the promotion of effective EAPs would be helpful in alleviating employees stress.
Promotion of existing EAP counselling services within the organization is a step forward to reducing staff turnover, as well as days spent absent from work due to stress-related ill health.
