April 2004   In This Issue...   Front Page   Value Model   Toolbox   Integrated Program   Risk Management   Outcomes Connections Regulatory   Update Research   Review Interact   Member     Exchange     Forum Feedback	Assessing the Value of an EAP in an Integrated Program Patricia Herlihy, Ph.D., R. N., Rocky Mountain Research, Boulder, Colorado Though employee assistance programs have been around in one form or another for approximately 60 years, there is still considerable debate over how best to evaluate their true value. With the growing movement toward integration of EA, work-life, and wellness services--a 2002 survey of EAP and work-life vendors found that more than one-third of respondents were already integrated and two-thirds expect to be providing integrated products within five years--questions have surfaced about how to prove the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of an integrated model. No rigorous empirical studies have been completed to date that illuminate the return on investment (ROI) of an integrated model or whether employees prefer integrated services. The lack of such evidence is not, however, deterring work organizations from integrating their EA, work-life, and wellness services. The following are just a few examples of the creativity of organizations in wrestling with the notion of integration of services. Northern Trust Company, a financial services organization in the midwestern United States, dates its interest in work-life issues to 1988, when it asked Jeanne Ulatowski (now vice president of work-life services) to conduct a feasibility study for an on-site childcare center, which opened in 1990. This initial request quickly blossomed into a variety of work-life programs and services, including an internal EAP called the Family Assistance Program (FAP). In 1997, six years after the launch of the FAP, wellness services entered the picture with the construction of a fitness center and collaboration around disability management issues. All of these services continue to be offered under the generous umbrella of the FAP. Ulatowski notes that while there are data showing the cost-effectiveness of individual programs, there is no way to capture the total impact of the integrated program due to what she calls the “fluidity of transactions across services.” She emphasizes that Northern Trust wants its employees to use the full range of services necessary to enhance productivity and increase focus at work. At Northern Trust there is a culture of “doing the right thing,” so numbers, although helpful, are not required to maintain these services. FleetBoston Financial, a financial services firm headquartered in New England, is a relative newcomer to the concept of integration. Mergers and acquisitions forced this company to take a fresh look at its benefits program and specifically its EAP, which initially was integrated, then separated from other services, then integrated again within a larger entity called People Achieving Total Health (PATH). Claudine Reilly, FleetBoston’s health benefits manager, says PATH is based on the definition of optimal health espoused by Michael O’Donnell, editor of the Journal of Public Health: “Optimal health involves the whole person and is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, and intellectual health. PATH is a pilot program and currently is reporting savings of 14 percent on medical claims. The fitness and wellness components are boasting an ROI of 4:1 ($4 million). Approximately 70 percent of FleetBoston’s workers are women and nearly half of all employees work in call centers or operations centers, so programs have been tailored to meet specific needs of this population as well as the overall company culture. Reilly says there have been concerns over “turf wars” between the various programs, but in general there is agreement that an integrated model leads to a healthier more productive employee population. A third company, Dupont, one of the oldest and largest life science companies in the world, has combined its EAP with occupational health and wellness programs to form Integrated Health Services (IHS). Angela Greenwald, Dupont’s EAP manager, says these three programs have been integrated for the last 15 years, throughout which time there has been a continual reassessment to ensure OHS meets the needs of a highly technical population. The work-life program at Dupont also is an active collaborator with IHS, though it is located in a different functional area. While the utilization rate of Dupont’s EAP is high (12 percent), Greenwald says the keys to IHS’ success are that it understands both Dupont’s needs and employees’ needs and is a good business partner. The Dupont culture of “cross communication” in all areas of its business translates to a more “wholistic” approach in the areas of employee assistance and wellness. These brief vignettes exemplify that at this point in time, establishing the value of an integrated model relates more to the core values of an organization than to cost-benefit evaluations. Although the three companies can cite cost-effectiveness numbers for individual programs, the challenge remains to design a formula for identifying the ROI of integration itself. The common thread running through these vignettes was that both corporate culture and history dictated which services were integrated with other services. DISCUSSION (Member Exchange Forum)   Back Issues   Top of Page   Contact EAPA   © 2004 Exhange On-Line is a publication of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, Inc. (EAPA). Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly prohibited. Publication of bylined articles does not constitute endorsement of personal views of authors. Appearance of paid advertisements does not constitute endorsement by EAPA.	Vol. 2    No. 1