An Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) is a benefit that you can offer to your employees. These are commonly coupled with group insurance plans. However they are also available as a stand alone product. EAP’s are intended to help your employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their job performance or health. EAP’s generally include short-term counseling and referral services for employees and their household members.

The types of counselling services that are commonly included are stress disorders, health concerns, financial or legal concerns, relationship issues, substance abuse, etc.

A well communicated EAP program can add significant value to your overall group employee benefit plan. The ultimate objective is to reduce both absenteeism and presenteesim in the workforce. (presenteesim: actually being on the job site but having your mind drift to another world)