EAP Employers

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are employee benefit programs offered by many employers, typically in conjunction with a health insurance plan. EAPs are intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance, health, and well-being. EAPs generally include assessment, short-term counseling and referral services for employees and their household members.  In Africa the move to corporate/employer provided EAP services is new.  With the concept now being discussed among the various insurance providers there seems to be a movement toward EAP programming.  SAPTA currently is contracted with one insurance provider, working with seven corporations to provide both Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. 

Employees

Employees and (depending on the plan), their household members may use EAPs to help manage issues that could adversely impact their work and personal lives. Clearly an employee that is stressed over issues in their personal life will find it difficult to focus on work issues.  EAP counselors typically provide assessment, support, and if needed, referral. These programs are rare in Africa, but are beginning to exist in some businesses today.  As the concept of EAPs grows, the responsibilities of employee assistance professionals are expanding as well. The issues for which EAPs provide support vary, but examples include

• substance abuse
• safe working environment
• emotional distress
• major life events, including births, accidents and deaths
• health care concerns
• financial or legal concerns
• family/personal relationship issues
• work relationship issues
• concerns about aging parents

EAP services are usually free to the employee or household member, having been pre-paid by the employer. In many cases, an employer contracts with a third-party company to manage its EAP. Many of these firms rely upon resources from skilled vendors of specialized products to supplement their services. The current structure in Africa is insurance managed and contracted programs.  The corporation calls the Insurance provider who then refers to and EAP provider.  Confidentiality is maintained in accordance with privacy laws and professional ethical standards. In some circumstances, an employee may be advised by management to seek EAP assistance due to job performance or behavioral problems. This practice has been thought to raise concerns for some, who believe that the EAP may place the employer's interests above the health and well-being of the employee. However, when done properly and with a highly qualified vendor, both the employer and the employee benefit. In fact, the goal of these supervisory referrals is to help the employee retain their job and get assistance for any problems or issues that may be impacting their performance. And, most importantly, any referrals for job performance issues or concerns are always confidential.

Employers

Some studies indicate that offering EAPs may result in various benefits for employers, including lower medical costs, reduced turnover and absenteeism, and higher employee productivity and morale. SAPTA also provides other services to employers, such as supervisory consultations, support to troubled work teams, training and education programs, and critical incident services.
The broad array of services provided to employers by today's EAPs make a good business case for external programs. External EAPs can provide more than just psychological counseling through the integration of a host of "work/life" resources. These kinds of resources can help employees wrestling with the associated demands of starting a family, dealing with personal finances, legal problems or the stresses of being a working caregiver with aging parents.

As and external EAP provider, SAPTA also provides the added benefit to employees of delivering confidential counseling services off-site, away from the eyes and ears of fellow workers, managers, or the Human Resources department. It needs to be noted, however, that SAPTAs services are paid for by employers who then become the "clients" of the EAP company. A high-quality EAP will effectively communicate to employees that the organization is sponsoring the benefit but that it is confidential (within the scope of the laws) and free to them. SAPTA maintains a strict adherence to the concept of serving two clients; the employer and the employee. If the employee improves as a result of the use of this benefit, then both the employer and the employee are winners--the employer has a good, highly motivated and high-performing employee and the employee gains assistance with a personal problem that was previously impacting their ability to focus on their job.

In business we look to “what’s the value” or “return on investment” on solutions we buy. The provision of employee assistance services has well established business benefits. However, what’s not well established is how to assess the value between providers in this space. Not all EAP solutions are the same, while on the surface they appear to be.
The measure should be the quality of the solution provided and the quality of organization providing the service. If you use of a quality provider who uses the best people, tools and technologies to deliver a valuable solution it will have real business impact. Engagement levels with your employees will be twice as high as a budget EAP provider. This is where the value lies; a provider whom appears cheap will deliver cheap and have little or no impact on your organization.  In this sense SAPTA utilizes only the “Best Practices” in the services they provide, and as an agency that trains the trainers, they the most qualified staff of an agency in Nairobi.