Evaluating Benefit Equity in Outcomes Among Users of an Employee Assistance Program
Date
2017-05-10Publisher
Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA)Peer Reviewed
YesType
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) field “benefit equity” refers to the equitable distribution of benefits among the different types of employees covered by an assistance program. Despite variations in client characteristics that could modify counseling outcomes and produce benefit inequity, outcomes studies in the EAP field generally evaluate the overall effectiveness of services with the implicit assumption of having similar effects across all users. This article discusses the importance and relevance of evaluating benefit equity in outcomes among users of an EAP in addition to overall effectiveness, and reports on findings from an analysis based on data collected from workers (n = 249) who used counseling services of an employee assistance program provided by a Canadian vendor. The findings were supportive of the existence of benefit equity in problem resolution among users of the counseling services, which provided up to 12 sessions per year. None of the demographic attributes of the EAP clients modified the extent of problem resolution (i.e., benefit) reported after file closure. Benefit equity analyses can be adapted for use with other service offerings, evaluation methodologies, and intervention outcomes/measures. Benefit equity in outcomes could also serve as an additional factor for purchasers to take into account when selecting an EAP.Description
Research ArticleCitation
Milot, M. (2017). Evaluating benefit equity in outcomes among users of an Employee assistance program. EASNA Research Notes, 6(1), 1-7. Available online from http://www.easna.orgSeries/Report No.
EASNA Research Notes;Volume 6 - Number 3Keyword
benefit equitycounseling outcomes
effectiveness
outcome measurement
Employee assistance programs
Employee fringe benefits
Identifier to cite or link to this item
http://hdl.handle.net/10713/6629The following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/