Headlines about "Employee assistance plans (EAPs)"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
Employee Assistance Programs Incorporate Large Range of Offerings - Including Legal, Financial, Wellness and Stress Issues
Excerpt: "The EAP of the 21st century, when effectively implemented, is not merely the referral service of the past, but rather a start-to-finish case management and return-to-work program for employees suffering from critical issues like depression and disability." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Employee Assistance Programs Can Combat the Negative Side Effects of Financial Problems
Excerpt: "In the last year, EAP programs have begun to see an increase in the volume of calls related to stress, depression and other work-life challenges. After talking through issues with an EAP professional, many of these individuals specify that financial challenges are a contributing factor to their underlying problems." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

More Employers Help Workers Deal with Legal Problems
Excerpt: "The number of large companies offering group legal plans rose to 33% in 2007, a 6% increase from 2006, according to the study [by work/life services provider Workplace Options]." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Employee-Assistance Providers Are Seeing a Spike from Callers in Financial and Legal Distress
Excerpt: "The financial distress felt by some employees is also showing up in reduced employee morale and performance, according to experts." (Human Resource Executive Online)

Benefits to Protect— and Add— During Economic Downturns
Excerpt: "There are five employee benefits that should be protected during down times, and they have one thing in common: personal accountability. These benefits use company resources to provide long-term advantages to both the organization and the employee – but only if the employee is willing to meet the organizational investment with his or her own efforts." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Web Resource Helps United Services Automobile Association Employees Help Themselves
Excerpt: "The Personal Balance Tool (PBT), developed in 2006 by USAA, Harris, Rothenberg International (HRI) and ValueOptions, is a web resource that more than half of USAA employees use to address a variety of personal concerns that will impact their work life." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Company Steps Up to Help Laid-Off Workers
Excerpt: "It's hard to imagine how laying off 20 percent of your workforce can turn into positive publicity, but that's what has happened to Mobility Electronics Inc. The small Scottsdale Airpark company was featured in the Wall Street Journal last month in a story on how more companies are extending the availability of employee-assistance programs to workers being laid off." (The Arizona Republic)

Telephone Outreach Benefits Both, Employer and Employee
Excerpt: "In a study report in the September 26 issue of JAMA it was revealed that workers who suffered from depression but took part in a program that included telephone outreach involvement seemed to eventually have fewer symptoms, worked longer hours and retained their jobs longer than other participants who received the usual care but not the telephone care treatment. Not only was there an improvement in their mental health but they showed greater productivity." (Earthtimes.org)

Employers See Value in Helping Those Laid Off
Excerpt: "A growing number of employers give laid-off staffers something extra to ease the pain of their job loss: continued access to employee-assistance programs." (The Wall Street Journal Online)

Commentary: EAP Benefits Worth More Than Their Price Tag
Excerpt: "Granted, EAPs are inexpensive, and stress and marital problems aren't directly driving benefit cost increases as much as obesity and diabetes. However, it's no secret that emotional problems tend to manifest themselves physically and often run comorbid to chronic physical disease." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

How The New York Times Company Doubled EAP Participation
Excerpt: "The New York Times Company . . . pulled together an advisory committee comprised of HR executives at diverse business locations, and began a thorough evaluation of company needs, in a six-month long process that resulted in both a new vendor and more than doubled use of the external EAP program." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Men and Women Call EAP's about Different Problems
Excerpt: "New research reveals men are more likely than women to call employee assistance programs for help with substance abuse, job and relationship problems, according to Bensigner, DuPont and Associates, a national EAP provider." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

2007 Leading EAP Providers - Listed in Alphabetical Order
Excerpt: "Employee assistance programs have a dual purpose. They help companies address productivity issues in the workforce and also assist employees in identifying and resolving personal concerns, according to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

Online Crisis-Support Service Prevents Employees from Feeling Isolated While Maintaining Privacy
Excerpt: "On its Web site, CareCircle promotes its product as particularly effective for families affected by a medical crisis, elder care, a new baby or military duty. However, the space also can be used to assist families affected by natural disasters, children with special needs and bereavement . . . ." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Integrating EAPs into Smoking Cessation Can Help Workers Stub Out the Habit
Excerpt: "'Benefit managers and health care practitioners treat smoking as an acute problem, instead of the chronic condition that it is,' . . . . 'We need to change this perception. [Smokers] want comprehensive smoking cessation benefits.'" (Employee Benefit News)

BenefitsLink Named 'Best of the Web' by Human Resource Executive Online
We're the only site in the 'Benefits' category! Thanks for letting us share this news with you. Excerpt: "With that in mind, we considered it fitting to present in this anniversary issue 10 of the best HR Web sites and 10 of the best HR blogs for your browser's Favorites/Bookmarks list. . . . [I]f it's about benefits, you'll find something about it on BenefitsLink. Just a cruise down its left side navigation/links bar, and you quickly get the idea how they chose the site's name back in 1995." (Human Resource Executive Online; free registration required)

Companies Call For EAPs to Assist in Identifying and Helping Domestic Violence Victims
Excerpt: "Lost-productivity costs as a result of domestic violence add up to $727.8 million annually, and 7.9 million paid workdays are lost a year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. An employer coalition is seeking to work with employee assistance programs to ensure that they know how to spot the signs of abuse." (Workforce Management)

Employers Must Assess the Sum of All Parts of Integrated Health Services
Excerpt: "Benefit managers shopping for a wellness program will find more employee assistance programs and disease management vendors are tapping into the wellness market." (Employee Benefit News)

Aetna to Provide Employee Assistance Services to Small Group Health Plans
Excerpt: "Aetna . . . today announced that employee assistance services will be a standard part of the servicing of fully insured health plans for all small group employers." (Forbes.com)

Financial and EAP Counseling Can Improve Fiscal and Physical Health
Excerpt: "'Most people don't realize how often their physical problems are caused by stressing over money problems,' says Mary Brown, senior vice president at BrownRichards & Associates, a company specializing in providing national and international work-life consulting and referral services." (Employee Benefit News)

Peer Assistance Program Supports EAP in Counseling Workers
Excerpt: "Nearly all of us at some point have taken a co-.worker into our confidence for help solving a personal problem. Several California transportation unions have built on this aspect of workplace relationships, creating a peer assistance program (PAP) in which specially trained employees lend support to colleagues in crisis." (Employee Benefit News)

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