EAPs help employees and protect the bottom line by reducing absenteeism and costs, including those related to workers’ compensation. But what about improved morale? How does one put a dollars-and-cents measure on it so the EAP gets credit?
When employee assistance programs help employees resolve personal problems, happier and healthier employees result. If we can assume happier and healthier employees have a positive effect on morale, then it’s obvious that EAPs can be a major contributing factor. But your question is about dollars and cents. Although it is not possible to pin a dollar figure to low or high morale, there are other measurable values that morale is known to directly affect. One of them is turnover. Research is plentiful on the hard costs of turnover. Productivity is also affected by morale. And, of course, this can be measured. So, if an EAP is proactive within the organization, helps employees resolve problems, and contributes to high morale and lower turnover, there is some significant confidence that the dollars-and-cents impact can be safely attributed to the EAP. There are dozens of other factors that also influence the bottom line.