EAP 101

What Is An EAP?

An Employee Benefit So Smart It Can Pay For Itself

An Employee Assistance Program is a comprehensive set of services designed to help your employees meet life’s challenges face to face — typically involving everything from dealing with depression and stress, to chemical dependency and marital counseling for your employees, to coaching and support for your organization’s managers.

In the more than 35 years since EAPs were first widely introduced, they have more than proven their ability to improve productivity and reduce costs:

  • The workplace costs of untreated depression and substance abuse — in terms of employee turnover, lost productivity, absenteeism and disability — are estimated to be as high as $344 billion in the United States each year.
  • More than 50% of employees say that an employer-sponsored wellness program would encourage them to stay on the job — 51% say such programs make them work harder and perform better.
  • According to the U.S. Department of Labor, for every dollar that is invested in an EAP, businesses see a return of anywhere from $5 to $16.