Hi Moz,
My apologies for not clarifying my earlier post.
An Employee Assistance Program provides counselling to employees if they are experiencing difficulties in either their personal or professional lives.
Issues can include but are not limited to relationships, parenting, family matters, drug/alcohol issues, grief etc. Sometimes workers may wish to go to counselling if they have work issues but want to speak to a third party.
When an employee wishes to use the service they ring the counselling provider to make an appointment. As the service is confidential they are not required to advise their employer.
There may also be situations where a manager feels that a worker may be experiencing problems that are affecting work performance, and therefore can inform them about the service. However you need to be extremely careful here, as the employee may not feel comfortable with this approach.
The service provider should give you statistics each month so you know how many people are using the service, and in some cases, which locations.
Employee Assistance Programs can be very beneficial, as they provide the opportunity to seek assistance from a qualified person in a descrete manner. The organisation can also benefit as the employee's issues will have a lesser impact on work, as they are given appropriate strategies to manage them. Additionally, employees feel that the organisation is looking after their well being by providing the service in the first place.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Michaela
|
