| Employee Assistance Program (EAP) |
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Employee assistance Individual consultations to assist with personal and work related problems: - Distress, due to personal/family problems. A wide range of problems, that are of concern to the employee are dealt with on a confidential basis. - Distress, due to work related problems. These problems can vary from burnout, bullying, work overload, poor time management, to poor working relationships, redundancy, retirement etc. The employee will be assisted to cope better with the work stressors and to develop more helpful management strategies. In some cases the employee wishes for some action to be taken within the workplace. With consent of the employee the consultant can organize a so called facilitated workplace dialogue with relevant parties to address the particular work related issue. See workplace dialogue.
Workplace Dialogue
This dialogue is proposed to facilitate listening, speaking openly, discussing openly and trying to resolve any differences and difficulties that may exist. This dialogue, as mentioned above can be initiated by the consultant in conjunction with the client, an employee who is experiencing difficulties in the workplace. The client will agree to relevant information being shared. It can also be proposed or initiated by HR or a (line) manager This is an informal process, suggested when internal communication has not been properly established or has been attempted but has broken down. This intervention, the workplace dialogue, ideally should be undertaken as soon as it becomes clear that the normal route of problem solving appears ineffective or if the people involved in the problem solving are, or have become ,themselves part of the problem. It is different from mediation in that is less formal, with fewer rules and more focused on the dialogical process than on achieving clear, agreed outcomes. |
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a service offered by a company or an organisation to all their employees as a special benefit . It means that they can avail of a number of counselling sessions to assist them with personal or work related problems. This has proven to be a cost effective HR benefit as it can lower the rate of sick leave, absenteeism and can improve productivity and general moral of the workforce. Counselling is carried out by experienced therapists, in a setting away from the workplace, with a focus on resolving the presenting problem in a brief number of sessions.