The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their job performance, health and well-being. Expected results of EAP utilization include lower absenteeism, improved job performance and improved morale. Services offered through the EAP include telephonic counseling referrals, face-to-face counseling referrals, work life referrals, legal referrals, financial referrals, critical incident consultation cases, management consultation cases, general consultations and referrals.

On a quarterly basis, our vendor, Resources for Living, provides us with the number of EAP services requested by employees. This number paired with a monthly census of full-time employees allows us to calculate the percentage of employees utilizing the EAP.

By measuring EAP participation, we can gauge employee interest or awareness of this resource. If there is high participation, we know the program is being utilized and employees are receiving the help they need. If the measure is low, employees may be unaware of the available resources or see it only as a crisis intervention program.

This year we target 9% as the percentage of employees we would like to see utilizing the Employee Assistance Program. The target is based on the median of previous year's utilization. Previous percent changes are 2013 = 11.6% and 2014 = 9.1%.

1. STEP-BY-STEP Data Gathering Process:

Utilization formula used by provider: Actual = (Number of Services Requested / Number of Days in the Reporting Period) * 365 / Employee Head Count.