Context and Decision-making in Employee Assistance Programs

This study examines the role of context on decision-making by employers, plan enrollees and employer representatives in Employee Assistance Programs. EAPs have grown from their beginnings in the enlightened industrial alcoholism treatment movement to become an integral part of today’s healthcare delivery system, providing access to behavioral health services for a majority of working age Americans and their families and an organizational resource to employers seeking to maximize workplace productivity. Results of the study indicate that structural characteristics (employer type, workforce size, and industry sector) are associated with the resource dependent decisions of employers regarding selection of EAP benefit features provided to employees and their families. It is hoped that these findings may encourage health benefits consultants and behavioral health care providers to more fully engage with purchasers of behavioral health services to provide a more customized and relevant EAP product which may better serve each organizations’ unique workforce needs.