New Product Measures EAP Effects on Productivity

September 16, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Chestnut Global Partners (CGP) and Burke Consulting are now marketing a workplace outcome survey tool for employee assistance programs (EAP).

A news release said the new service measures and quantifies workplace effects, such as increased productivity or decreased absenteeism.

The announcement said the approach presents a better model for both client organizations and EAP providers by scientifically demonstrating the correlation of cost to results, providing ROI documentation for specific programs, moving from activity reporting to the presentation of empirical results, and differentiating programs and services with outcome data.

The approach uses a survey that collects employee feedback, both before and after services are provided, on five key aspects of the effects of personal issues on workplace functioning: absenteeism, presenteeism, work engagement, life satisfaction, and workplace distress. Results can be aggregated in a report that analyzes the average change in employee behavior, but also documents the impact on their participation and contribution in the workplace.
 
“This workplace outcome – informed approach represents a departure from conventional measures used to address the age-old question of which EAPs actually work,” said Dave Sharar, managing director of Chestnut Global Partners, the international employee assistance division of Chestnut Health Systems, in the news release. “The conventional approach to gauging EAP effectiveness has been measured by citing end-user utilization rates, client referrals, or even employee click throughs on a Web site to access resources.”
 
The company said the survey is flexible enough to be administered manually or automated in a number of ways – including building the process into an existing HRIS, integrating and installing survey software within an organization’s Web portal, or purchasing access to a secure outside Web page (provided by the EAP vendor) so that employees can log in to respond.
 
Free copies of the workplace outcome survey are available by e-mailing Dave Sharar at dsharar@chestnut.org , or John Burke at jburke@coastalnet.com . More information is available at www.chestnut.org/global/ .  

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