An analysis of characteristics and financial evaluation for established in-house corporate Employee Assistance Programs

The purposes of this research study were to determine if surveyed companies had conducted an analysis of costs for an established in-house employee assistance program (EAP), determine EAP usage rates, determine if relationships existed between EAP demographic characteristics, size, and services offered, and determine if an investigator-designed tool yielded sufficient data to rigorously evaluate the current status of EAPs. This research study was designed to explore the dimension of program costs and the relationship between costs, demographic variables, EAP services offered, and EAP program effectiveness. The hypotheses for this study were as follows: (1) There are no differences among types of EAP services offered by the companies studied. (2) There are no differences in cost-benefit analyses (CBA) among EAPs as offered by the companies studied. (3) There are no differences in the cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA) among EAPs as offered by the companies studies. (4) There are no differences in the utilization rates of an EAP as offered by the companies studied. Questionnaires mailed to 300 randomly selected Forbes 500 companies yielded a total of 96 usable questionnaires for the sample. Analysis of the data using Pearson product moment coefficient indicated two very weak positive correlations between client\u27s awareness of services and cash flow and criteria for measuring EAP and sales. In addition, one very weak negative correlation was found between to whom services are provided and sales. An unpaired t test found statistically significant results in comparing the presence of an EAP and corporate demographic variables. An analysis of variance yielded statistically significant findings between corporate category and corporate demographic indexes in all comparisons. Results obtained in this study support past recommendations that standard data elements on program activities be recognized and accepted. The findings that corporate indexes clearly affect an EAP are of note as this research study has conducted empirical as opposed to conceptual EAP analyses. Further research should be directed at replicating this study with another study directed at mid-range and small corporations