Human Resources And The Employee Assistance Program

Human Resources and the Employee Assistance Program

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Alcohol and substance abuse program implementation is a remedial measure for a valued employee. This programming would run in tandem with an Employee Assistance Program or EAP and Health and Wellness programs. If you are implementing random drug testing on-site in order to comply with human rights standards, provincial and federal occupation health and safety standards, an EAP program that includes counselling for drug and alcohol abuse makes fiscal sense.

Perhaps it is a long term employee with whom your company has invested a large measure of time and energy into training. An intervention by this means is far less intrusive and statistically more helpful than your managers attempting the job of assisting with an employees rehabilitation alone. EAP programs provide a management tool to improve workplace performance, productivity, and response to critical incidents according to Andrew Arthur in the British journal of Guidance and Counselling.

Rick Csiernik of the University of Western Ontario discussed EAP utilization rates as an important concept regarding EAP success, the utilization rate being greater in organizations where a union was involved in establishing the program, providing assistance in accessing the program and in managing the program through participation on a joint labor-management committee. (Employee Assistance Quarterly, Volume 18, Issue 3, June 2003). He concedes in the article that there needs to be a consensus in the Human Resources Field as to what constitutes a case where EAP is successfully utilized. The challenge to statistical chart success may have to do with the fact that employees who use EAP programs want to remain anonymous.

Health and wellness and EAP go hand in hand as a Nova Scotia publishing company in Bridgewater found out first hand. The company in question invested $2000.00 in wellness programming and saw a return on its investment of a $6000.00 in saving on health premiums when they offered, among other things, free addictions counselling (Canadian HR reporter April 19, 2010).

ITS Human Resources consultants are among the many professionals that companies can turn to after an employees urine analysis drug test turns positive and the avenues of opportunity come to a dead-end on the employment highway. EAP can become the lifeline the employee needs to make the necessary changes, so they can continue to be a valuable asset to the company.

Saskatchewan companies and their HR personnel ask the same questions as their counterparts are all over the world. Where do I start? ITS will help you get the answers you need and bring help your employees reach their fullest potential.

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