Employee Assistance Programmes are to be established in all government departments, according to a circular of the director-general of the Department Public Service Administration. According to the head office of SAPS, the three disciplines of the Helping Professions should implement this programme. The Helping Professions consist of the Chaplains, Psychological Services and Police Social Work Services. The services rendered by the three disciplines were fragmented and had to be stream- lined and coordinated. This dissertation researched the activation of the existing helping professions in the West Metropole to participate in the development and integration of an effective internal EAP. This would result in more effective teamwork and minimising the duplication of services. In Chapter 1 the research problem was identified, namely activating the three disciplines into an EAP team for the benefit of the SAPS client. When this research was done, proper guidelines from the SAPS National Head Office were yet not in place. To put together an effective EAP team, the uniqueness of each discipline first had to be uncovered to ascertain its strong and weak points, and to determine how the three disciplines would complement one another. Attention was given to the relationship between their discipline-specific training and the core technologies of the EAP. Chapter 2 addresses these aspects. Chapter 3 consists of the findings of the literature review regarding the collaboration between the different disciplines within the helping professions over the broader spectrum. Quite a number of themes that were covered by the literature review were also identified and highlighted by the respondents of the helping professions of the West Metropole. Chapter 4 contains the results of the data analysis and interpretation of the empirical study. Rich data was obtained through a semi-structured schedule used in the interviews. A balance was struck between the functioning of the different disciplines, the literature review and the results of the empirical study, and that was captured in Chapter 5 where certain recommendations were made. Copyright 2004, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Biehl, J 2004, The activation of the helping professions of the South African Police Service (SAPS) with respect to an internal Employee Assistance Programme in the West Metropole, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02072005-153014 / > / Dissertation (MA (Social Work--EAP))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

The study aimed to investigate the trends and patterns in Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services from ICAS Southern Africa. The sample was forty RFPs from the public and private sectors. The sample of forty was drawn from the ICAS Southern Africa archives of RFPs for 2012 to 2016, using probability sampling. The quantitative research approach was followed, using document analysis design. The researcher utilised the content analysis technique to extract the information from the RFPs and quantify it into a coding sheet. The findings reflect changes in requests for EAP services by corporate clients in South Africa over the past five years. There was a trend towards the integration of services from the EAP, Health and Wellness, Work-life and other related fields. The service delivery models requested also showed changes with electronic services emerging strongly, which presents an opportunity for the three fields to further integrate and provide holistic services. / Mini Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Social Work and Criminology / MSocSci / Unrestricted

The main goal of this study was to explore the perceptions of managers regarding their role in the successful implementation of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in the Department of Education (DoE) in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The researcher used a qualitative research approach to explore the perceptions of managers regarding their role in the successful implementation of the EAP in the DoE. To do this, the researcher used a probability sampling technique with the purposive sampling method to select the sample for this study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with the use of an interview schedule to gather data form 24 participants. With regard to data analysis, the researcher employed Creswell’s (1998) analytical spiral to analyse the data collected from the participants. The analysis involved both the transcription and interpretation of the data. The empirical findings revealed, on the one hand, that participants were knowledgeable about the EAP and its usefulness in managing performance. Although this is case, the findings of the study showed, on the other hand, that these participants do not use the programme to manage poor performance within the DoE. As a justification, the participants reported a lack of understanding when it comes to referral processes and types of referrals to the programme. Even important to note was that managers showed little trust (if not completely none) to staff members who deal with the EAP when it comes to upholding confidentiality and professionalism. Thus, recommendations from the participants called for an active participation and involvement in the EAP on the part of the managers to ensure a successful implementation of the programme. Such recommendations included, amongst others, the training of managers in the DoE. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

This research project was concerned with the description of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) mainly in the South African mining industry. The focus was on the impact of legislation on the practice of EAP in the South African mining industry. The researcher used a qualitative approach in this applied research study. The researcher employed a phenomenological strategy within the exploratory study. This was done through the utilization of semi-structured interviews. The researcher first looked at the evolvement of EAP as a field of practice, following by a discussion of the current state of the EAP in the South African mining industry. The researcher continued by discussing relevant pieces of legislation that have a direct influence on the practice of EAP in the mining industry. The second part of the project was the empirical study. Ten respondents were drawn through the process of purposive sampling. The researcher mainly dealt with the views of four Human Resource practitioners and six EAP practitioners in the mining industry. Through this exercise, the researcher looked at what the practitioners’ views were on the role of legislation as specifically to two issues. The first was the general provision of EAP services. The second was the stipulation of the legislation according to them, pertaining the practicalities of the provision of the service. The researcher’s conclusions regarding impact of legislation on the practice of EAP in the South African mining industry can be presented in the following manner: • Legal provisions have played a significant role towards the development of the field of EAP in general; • Other implications have been difficult to implement for mostly two main reasons. The first is that they are too general and therefore are seen to mean different things to different people. The second is that the people who matter most do not know them. These are either human resources practitioners, occupational social workers and/or EAP professionals or union and/or employee representatives. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

The researcher is employed at Aventis Pharma as an Employee Assistance Practitioner since 2001. Employees at Aventis Pharma do not utilize the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). They wait for supervisors to refer them to the EAP for assistance. The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons for the resistance of troubled employees to utilize the EAP at Aventis Pharma. In this study, a qualitative approach was the most appropriate because the researcher’s intention was to get information on employees’ perceptions, not numerical data. The researcher intended to ascertain the respondents’ feelings, perceptions and opinions based on their resistance to utilize EAP. The researcher utilized applied research because Royce (1991:19) states that its findings are used to solve problems of immediate concern. The researcher utilized applied research in order to understand the problem in detail and to generate knowledge with regard to solving the problem of resistance. The researcher utilized an exploratory design that is more qualitative in nature. The purpose of the exploratory study was to gain insight into a situation, phenomenon, community or person (Bless&Higson-Smith, 1995:42). The researcher explored the respondents’ perceptions, feelings and opinions of EAP to find out their reasons for not utilizing the EAP. A phenomenological strategy was utilized. The aim of the researcher was to understand perceptions, feelings and opinions about utilizing the EAP from various respondents. A literature study as well as an empirical investigation was implemented in this research project. Respondents were gathered on a sampling basis and a semi-structured interview schedule was used to gather information from the respondents at Aventis Pharma. In this study the semi-structured interview schedule helped the researcher to gain knowledge and understand the respondents’ perceptions, feelings and opinions on the utilization of an EAP. The interview schedule consisted of open and close-ended questions. A tape recorder was used to ensure that all the necessary information was recorded. After collecting information, it was analysed and interpreted and the researcher compiled a report to document the research findings. The researcher conducted a pilot test with 2 employees who were not part of the main study and this helped the researcher to check the effectiveness of the interview schedule before it could be done on a large population. The research population for this study was the employees of Aventis Pharma. The company is situated in the east of Pretoria. It consists of 215 employees. The boundary of the sample consisted of 12 employees at Aventis Pharma. The company consists of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled employees. The respondents were employees who are semi-skilled, those who have standard seven to a diploma. The respondents were between the ages of 20 and 55 years, males and females from various race groups. For the purpose of this study, the researcher utilized the non-probability purposive sampling. The in-depth interviews revealed the following: The majority of employees knew about the EAP, marketing was done within the company but some employees could not differentiate between the EAP and social work. Different types of written materials were used to introduce the programme in the company. Employees do not want supervisors to refer them to the EAP; they want to consult on their own. They believe that if a supervisor refers you to the EAP, it means you have problems. The employees’ resistance to consult on their own forces the supervisors to apply a mandatory referral. On the issue of supervisory training, employees feel that supervisors should not be trained on EAP. They believe that supervisors will not leave their jobs and became EA practitioners. For most employees, supervisory training is a waste of time. / Dissertation (MSD (EAP))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Employee Assistance Programmes are the various interventions in the workplace, which are aimed at helping employees who are experiencing personal and work-related problems. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a need for a structured Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) at Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital. In this study, the researcher utilised a quantitative approach due to the nature of the research topic under investigation, which is geared towards the assessment of the needs of employees for an EAP, because she wants to base her knowledge gained on objective measurements of the real world, not on someone's opinion, beliefs or past experiences. The researcher utilised research in this study to explore the need for an EAP programme that might be designed/introduced to solve employee problems. For this study, the researcher opted for a combination of an exploratory-descriptive design, due to the fact that little is know about the phenomenon, group or programme. The researcher used a combination of interval/systematic sampling and random sampling to complement each other in eradicating any bias that has the potential of occurring when applying interval/systematic sampling. To achieve representation and precision in this study, the researcher divided the total population of 525 Sterkfontein employees into five categories according to their departments and attached the actual number of employees in a particular department as reflected in the staff establishment document of Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital to the appropriate stratum. The results derived from this endeavour were thus: Management (25), Clinical Staff (45), Administration (44), Nurses (253) and the General Assistants (158). The researcher divided each employee in each respective category by one tenth or 10% in order to know how many respondents from each category could be included in the sample, and added together all the figures derived from such a division to obtain a sample size of 53 respondents for the study. As a result, the researcher came up with the following respondents in five (5) categories of employees: - Management (3), Clinical (5), Administration (4), Nurses (25) and General Assistants (16). The researcher compiled only one questionnaire for all five (5) categories of Sterfontein Psychiatric Hospital employees because EAP recognises that employees start from the CEO to the lowest paid employee in the company and, as such, considers all employees to be equal. The investigation illustrated some limitations in the normal running of the hospital. Most of the respondents had both personal and work-related problems, which impacted negatively on the hospital. There were no mechanisisms in place that were geared towards helping troubled employees or providing skills in handling troubled employees. Hence, from these limitations, it became clear that there is a need for an Employee Assistance Programme at Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital. / Dissertation (MA (SW))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work / unrestricted

According to Stroh, Northcraft and Neale (2001:297-300) "an organisational culture is a system of shared values about what is important and beliefs about how things work that produce the norms and expectations of performance. Whether weak or strong, an organisation's culture has a profound influence on how work gets done. It can affect many aspects of organisational life, from who gets promoted and what decisions are made to how people dress, act and play at work. Barker (2003:141) defines EAP as services offered by employers to their employees to help them overcome problems that may negatively affect job satisfaction or productivity. EAPA-SA (2005:6) on the other hand defines EAP as a worksite- based program designed to assist work organisations in addressing productivity issues and employee clients in identifying and resolving personal concerns, including, but not limited to, health, marital, family, financial, alcohol, drug, legal, emotional, stress, or other personal issues that may affect job performance. The study was aimed at determining as to whether there is any influence of organisational culture on utilisation of the EAP in Rand Water. It was a quantitative study with a sample of 155 employees selected across all sites. The data collection method used was in the form of questionnaires. In this study, the findings suggest that the organisational culture promotes employee well being and that employees are encouraged by their managers to make use of the Employee Assistance Programme. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Social Work and Criminology / MSW / Unrestricted

Pricing models of Employee Assistance Programmes: experiences of corporate clients serviced by a leading Employee Assistance Programme service provider in South Africa. Pricing models is one of the sub-standards in programme design amongst the standards outlined in the Employee Assistance Programme Association of South Africa (EAPA-SA). According to EAPA-SA (2010:5), costing an EAP should be based on sound financial principles. Such costing will ensure the best possible application of financial resources with the objective of justifying the balance between expenditure and benefits. However, pricing is identified as a challenging area in the EAP field. Corporate clients are faced with a situation where EAP service providers bid for one contract, selling EAP services which are of a similar nature using varying pricing models with different prices. Such price competitiveness leaves the corporate client with no reason not to overlook the financial consequences of choosing one service provider over the other, since price becomes the critical deciding factor in purchasing decisions. The pricing issue in the EAP field and the impact on pricing models used prompted the researcher to pursue the study to understand the processes and complexities involved in the pricing models in the EAP field. The study focused on two samples which comprised of participants from corporate client who had terminated contracts with a leading EAP service provider, as well as participants from this leading EAP service provider. The research findings indicate that contracting in the EAP field is a complex process owing to a number of factors that have to be considered before contracting. The complexity impacts strongly on the choice of the pricing model eventually chosen for contracting purposes. The views shared by both groups of participants indicate that there are internal and external factors that influence the choice of a pricing model. These are the factors that must be considered when making decisions as to what should be made available to employees and to the company for the effective implementation of Employee Assistance Programmes. Informed by these factors, the researcher developed a guideline that could be applied in practice as a standard EAP pricing model. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmchunu2014 / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Through the Health and Safety Act, government has placed pressure on corporate organisations to exercise their duty of care and provide support to employees who may have psychological difficulties. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) is the one way in which organisations can fulfil their duty according to the Health and Safety Act. Human Resource is most important and valuable resource an organisation has which is often not even recognized. The effectiveness of an organisation is to a large extent dependent on the well-being of its staff. An employee assistance programme is designed to help employers manage issues of performance in the workplace. Employees manage the balance between work and personal pressures which have become increasingly part of daily life. Furthermore, the success of this programme depends on the flexibility it has according to the ever-changing needs of employees, organisations and society. The organisation in this study does not have formal assistance programmes in place to provide support to its employees who may have psychological difficulties. This study examines the need of an Employee Assistance Programme from the perception of both the employer and the employee and reveals that both groups have different needs, experience different types of problems and view the EAP in different contexts. Despite the differences in opinion, the evidence indicates that both employer and employee perceive there to be a great need for an EAP.

Employee Assistance Programme is a work-site based programme design to assist in the identification and resolution of productivity problems associated with employees impaired by personal, legal, emotional, stress, or other personal concerns, which may adversely affect employee job performance (Terblanche, 1999:4). The researcher was motivated to conduct this study by her observation of social problems at the hospital as well as and the hospital’s CEO’s interest in the EAP. The literature review had little on the concept of EAP in hospitals. The majority of information used in this study is on the rationale, goal and the functions of EAP. Secondly, the researcher consulted the experts and pilot tested the questionnaire. This study was aimed at exploring a need for the employee Assistance Programme at Johannesburg Hospital. The sample comprised of 74 staff members chosen from different disciplines in the hospital. The approach of this study is a quantitative approach, the type of research is applied research and the research design is exploratory research. Research procedures and strategy used is a hand delivered questionnaire. The information gathered was presented through tables and figures. The researcher found that there is a need for an Employee Assistance Programme for the employees of the Johannesburg Hospital. The form and type of service required were that of internal or indigenous EAP, with offices in the social work department and should be run by the social work department. Based on the researcher’s opinion, a combination of the internal and external EAP is more beneficial in that the two have the scope of practice that is advantageous when blended together. For instance internal EAP will provide resources such as counselling while external EAP will provide rehabilitation resources. / Dissertation (MA (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted