By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

The brochures asks “How Well Are You Managing Your Most Important Asset?” The question does not refer to stocks and bonds. It does not refer to profits and their investment potential. It refers to people.

“The most important asset of any well run organization,” says Suzanne Steed, as she holds up her brochure, “is the employee. And, without question, more and more companies have come to that realization.

Suzanne Steed is certain of her facts. And facts she surely has. Suzanne is the Atlanta representative of a national Employee Assistance Program (EAP) company. Within the last 10 years just about every large company and corporation in the U.S. has initiated an EAP for all employees. “And not just the large ones,” says this delightful and knowledgeable young woman. “Small ones have them, too. They are vital investments for any company. It is by all means cheaper to help an employee than to lose an employee.” That, in a nutshell, is what EAP does.

In one line Suzanne Steed puts it like this; Employee Assistance Programs are for healthy employees with problems. Most of the Fortune 500 companies have one; in fact, six out of ten thousand companies across the nation are involved with the EAP.

My question to Suzanne was: Is this sort of like Blue Cross? The answer was quickly given that EAP has nothing, in itself, to do with physical health care. It is almost exclusively concerned with the emotional health of the employee and his family.

“Of course the man or woman may need hospitalization or an institution,” says Suzanne Steed. “That can ultimately be the answer and the EAP will recommend that answer.”

Employee Assistance Programs began about 10 years ago with a view to helping skilled workers handle problems which they were experiencing with alcoholism. “It all started with helping those who admitted having a problem with substance abuse -- alcohol and drugs,” says Steed. “The result was so satisfactory that they soon moved to other emotional areas of need too.”

So today, an EAP helps with other emotional problems, mainly marital problems, problems with aging parents, pressures experienced with children, stress and other emotional trauma experienced by the employee.

“In the case of alcoholism,” says Suzanne Steed, who represents the company of Brownlee, Dolan, Stein Associates, “We might recommend hospitalization or some kind of treatment. That’s when hospitalization insurance would come into the picture. However, with marital problems or parent or children problems we might recommend a counselor. Sometimes counseling can be done right then when the employee calls. The program is of great help to the employee, and of infinite value to the employer too. And remember, it is all confidential.”

Confidentiality is of great relief to the employee. The EAP sees to it that all employees are given a number where help can be obtained at any time. Sometimes it is a local number. At other times it is a toll free long distance number. He can find help or a good referral for himself or his family. If the employee refuses to accept the help or refuses the referral or finds that his family will not accept the help, no report can be made to the employer. The confidential nature of the call stands. “In a sense,” says Suzanne, “we work for both employee and employer. We attempt to get the first well. We attempt to keep employees healthy for the second.”

Employees often seek help from the program on their own initiative. This is called self-referral. There is also job performance referral. “Obviously this means,” says Steed, “that the work is not being done, or it is not up to standard. Then a supervisor or manager might call. Again the needs of the employee come first. Help is there.”

Employee Assistance Programs are not just phone numbers to be given to employees. Those involved in them are also there to prevent problems arising in companies. Throughout the year trained people give lectures, workshops and seminars to employees on marital problems, teenage difficulties, addiction to drugs and alcohol, single parent difficulties and a host of other human, emotional problems.

Some companies hire and train their own EAP personnel; others use experts like Suzanne Steed. No employer with good, dependable, trustworthy staff has ever regretted his investment in an Employee Assistance Program. As the brochure said, his most important asset is his everyday working people.