Employee Assistence Programs (EAP)
What is an Employee Assistance Program?
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an established strategy for assisting employees and their families with personal and work related difficulties.
Such issues, whether work related or not can impact upon the work performance of an employee, as well as the performance of work colleagues. Please contact your nearest ORS office to discuss how an EAP program may positively benefit your organisation.
What is the ORS EAP Service?
The ORS employee assistance service involves providing counselling resources to an organisations' employees Australia wide to assist them to deal with a range of personal or work related issues.
An EAP is based on the concern for the high human and financial costs to both industry and the community that can manifest as a result of difficulties in an employee's personal or work life.
By utilising EAP services, organisations allow employees to deal with issues that may result in:
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Improved work safety
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Fewer costly workers' compensation issues - often unresolved personal issues or workplace conflict can be channelled through work-related injuries
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Lower staff turnover
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Reduced workplace conflict and friction between employees
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Improved work satisfaction
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Improved productivity
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Fewer performance management issues
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Reduced absenteeism
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Reduced lateness for work
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Reduced risk of unhappy troubled staff when dealing with customers
By offering employees and their immediate families the opportunity to obtain professional assistance through counselling, on many occasions these problems, difficulties and concerns can be resolved before they impact upon the employee's work performance. EAP's also help to develop a positive organisational culture, and demonstrates a company's commitment to the health and well being of its employees.
A 1300 number is available for contact with ORS from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call. ORS is able to respond at short notice to assist client organizations deal with emergency situations.
Main Issues Dealt With By EAP
The most common issues addressed by EAP counsellors with employees and their families fall into two categories, personal Issues and work related issues. These include:
Personal Issues
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Emotional issues such as anxiety and depression, non work-related stress, loss or grief, suicidal thoughts and behaviours, post trauma stress reactions
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Stress management
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Family and personal relationship issues such as issues associated with family members, marital and de facto relationships
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Alcohol or drug issues
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Financial issues including financial problems and gambling
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Health issues such as medical or health problems and psychological disorders
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Legal issues
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Interpersonal issues such as loneliness, self-esteem and concept, deficits in interpersonal skills
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Conflict and dealing with difficult or aggressive people
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Anger management
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Bereavement
Work Related Issues
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Work relationship difficulties such as conflict with managers or supervisors, work-mates or other staff
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Work performance issues such as employee behavior, absenteeism, performance quality or productivity, work related accidents
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Work environment issues such as shift work, fly in fly out arrangements, relocation issues, workload, the physical work environment
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Workplace harassment and equal opportunity issues such as discrimination and other EEO issues, threats, and abuse of power within the work place
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Workplace stress
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Reactions to traumatic workplace events that may require critical incident debriefing
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Vocational issues including job satisfaction, vocational choice, retirement and redundancy issues (adjustment and career related issues)
ORS Approach to EAP
ORS is a member of the Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australia. ORS applies a goal or outcome oriented approach to all of its service delivery.
ORS Recognises that Knowledge of Working Conditions and demands are essential to providing effective employee assistance. ORS' work in vocational rehabilitation places it in a unique position to gather occupational information on a very wide range of occupations. All ORS counsellors have a strong occupational knowledge and hands on experience in assisting clients to meet the demands of the workplace whether they be physical, mental, emotional or all three.
ORS Recognises that Issues Outside the Workplace may have a bearing on an individual's workplace performance. It is understood that referrals may be due to the personal difficulties of employees and/or their families. Our counsellors are skilled in dealing with counseling for conflict situations whether the conflicts have arisen from personal relationships or work issues.
ORS Counselling Services are based on an empowerment model. The advantage of this approach is that clients not only work to solve their current problem but also are provided with the skills to take on more of the responsibility to address their own issues.
ORS Staff are Sensitive to and able to respond to the needs of varying cultural groups of all which are currently represented in our case loads. ORS currently provides services to clients from many different backgrounds including individuals from non-English speaking backgrounds, aboriginals and people with disabilities. ORS staff are competent in the use of interpreters.
ORS Maintains a Database of community resources that can be utilised for individuals who require ongoing assistance that is beyond the parameters of the employee assistance program.
Copyright 2004 The ORS Group. All rights reserved
