The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides employees and family members with free, voluntary, and confidential counseling from licensed professionals. Counselors are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in convenient locations to help with difficulties that affect employees’ lives and work. Issues typically include emotional, financial, legal, chemical dependency, marital, and family matters. In 2009, more than 26,000 employees and family members received counseling.
EAP provides key support after critical incidents such as natural disasters, workplace and community violence, and unexpected death. The EAP responded to 294 incidents that impacted employee work engagement. From these incidents, 17,989 employees received EAP services in the form of individual sessions or grief groups. EAP also provides consultation to managers and supervisors on issues not only involving individual workers, but also their work environment. The EAP engaged 22,480 managers, supervisors, or union officials in individual consultations.
This year, EAP partnered with the Office of Workplace Environment Improvement (WEI), and the Office of EEO and Inclusiveness to create the “Changes @ Home & Work” initiative. This initiative provides information about the assistance available to help employees achieve a comfort level with life’s changes. In particular, it helps employees make decisions regarding retirement options and incentives they were offered in response to the need to balance declining workload with employee resources.
EAP was honored with the Ross Von Weigand Award, from the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, which recognizes programs that exemplify exceptional labor-management relationships. The EAP Web site has experienced growing demand for information on financial planning and coping with stress, relationships, and anxiety.
