Selecting an EAP Provider

An important element in your efforts to ease stress at your organization is the employee assistance provider. To help you narrow down your search for a qualified EAP service, here are things to look for when choosing an EAP:

• Be sure the EAP vendor is both experienced and qualified.

• Check for a track record that the vendor provides services to companies of similar size and scope.

• Research the client company references every way you can to ensure that the EAP service provides timely, high-level, quality intervention.

• Make sure that individual practitioners are highly qualified.

• Demand that the EAP provider report back to you without breaching confidentiality issues – the firm can provide information such as usage and trends.

• Be sure the organization offers a consultative approach to working with the HR professionals about how to best improve the program over time to meet the specific needs of that client company.

• Make sure there is a regular review process.

• Require the EAP provider to meet the unique culture and needs of your organization. (An EAP for a software company is going to be very different from that of a staid insurance firm, for example.)

Source: Chicago-based ComPsych Corporation

Workforce, September 1999, Vol 78, No 9, p. 52