The Journal of Employee Assistance articles from April 2008

The Journal of Employee Assistance archives from April 2008

Our mission and business should drive technology.(Front Desk)(Column)
April 1, 2008... Several articles that have appeared in the Journal in recent years (and many of these columns as well) have emphasized the need for employee assistance professionals to become conversant in the language of business and position themselves...

The security to share her mistakes.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... I want to applaud Pam Wyss for her "First Person" column, titled "How Not to Respond to a Critical Incident," which appeared in the 1st quarter 2008 Journal of Employee Assistance. As I read her account of a high-intensity critical incident...

Preparing for the challenges of research: while nearly all employee assistance professionals agree on the need for more research, proving the business value of EAPs will pose fundamental challenges for our industry.
April 1, 2008... Much fanfare surrounded the inaugural meeting of the Employee Assistance Research Foundation (EARF) at the 2007 EAPA Conference in October. The naming of Paul Roman, distinguished professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, as senior...

Do EAPs work for employers on Long Island? Employers on Long Island are more likely to use EAPs than employers nationwide, and they perceive that the programs offer a significant return on investment.
April 1, 2008... In an effort to manage rising healthcare and employee injury costs, many employers have discovered that instituting an employee wellness program can pay dividends in the form of greater attention to safety, higher employee retention rates, and...

Providing alcohol education in the workplace: replacing traditional awareness activities with a hands-on "game" helped teach employees how much alcohol they consume when they pour drinks.
April 1, 2008... The term "standard drink" is widely used in public health campaigns to promote responsible use of alcohol. A standard drink is a serving of any alcoholic beverage that contains 14 grams of absolute alcohol. As most beers contain about 5 percent...

Working with Hispanic clients: employee assistance professionals must understand cultural and racial differences when helping Hispanic workers, but the biggest challenge may be earning their trust and getting them to use the EAP in the first place.
April 1, 2008... According to the 2006 U.S. census, there are approximately 45 million Hispanics in the United States. Close to 30 million are of Mexican heritage, about 4- million are of Puerto Rican descent (and have been U.S. citizens since 1917), and...

The lessons of 'free' EAPs: free and low-cost EAPs are symptoms of predictable business changes taking place within the employee assistance profession.
April 1, 2008... The rising number of "flee" and low-cost EAPs is creating discussion, concern, and questioning within the employee assistance profession. From a historical perspective, the profession has been experiencing a reduction in prices for EAPs for...

Bridging the digital divide: older workers know the business; younger workers know the technology. EAPs can help employers bring the two together to share technological expertise and critical business knowledge.(Focus: EAPS AND THE ELECTRONIC SOCIETY)
April 1, 2008... Much has been said and written in recent years about the so-called "digital divide," the gap between those who have access to information technology and the skills to use it effectively and those who don't. For better or worse, some people use...

Using technology in mass disasters: technology offers EAPs the opportunity to provide employer and employee clients with more service options during mass disasters and do so faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.(Focus: EAPS AND THE ELECTRONIC SOCIETY)
April 1, 2008... EAPs, healthcare providers, and health insurance companies increasingly are using information technology applications to address a wide range of concerns facing their client populations. For example, when addressing health and wellness issues,...

More than one in five work 48-plus hours weekly.
April 1, 2008... An estimated 22 percent of the global workforce, or 614.2 million workers, are working more than 48 hours per week, with employees in developing countries and in the services sector and the security industry among the most likely to work long...

Obese workers much more likely to miss work.
April 1, 2008... Obesity and morbid obesity are associated with increased rates of work absenteeism and cost U.S. employers an estimated $4.3 billion per year in lost productivity, according to a study published in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of...

Bullying more harmful than sexual harassment.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Although both bullying and sexual harassment can create negative work environments and unhealthy consequences for employees, workplace aggression has more severe consequences, according to two Canadian researchers. Sandy Hershcovis of the...

Hospitality, construction workers more likely to abuse alcohol.(Survey)
April 1, 2008... Workers in the hospitality and construction industries have higher rates of alcohol abuse than employees in other sectors of the economy, and men are as much as three times as likely to suffer from alcohol-related problems as women, according...

Fact sheet helps employers evaluate screening tests.(Info Sources)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... In response to the growing use of various tests by employers to screen job applicants, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a fact sheet that describes the application of federal anti-discrimination laws to such...

Drug-free workplace kit available online.(Info Sources)
April 1, 2008... Employers interested in developing drug-free workplace policies and programs can download a free kit that provides workplaces of all sires with practical, evidence-based information, resources, and tools. The kit, available from the...

Online calculator can show impact of problem drinking.(Info Sources)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The Ensuring Solutions Alcohol Cost Calculator/or Business, a free, online tool that business leaders, researchers, and consumers can use to track the costly effects of alcohol on U.S. businesses, has been updated with new data to provide a...