EAP RESEARCH
The EAPA Research Committee is focused on enhancing and building a research-minded dimension within EAPA’s strategic planning that centers on supporting research-informed practice in the EA field. The committee’s mission is to help promote the value of EA services, demonstrate the return on investment of EAPs, and support efforts of creating valid and reliable outcome measures of EA practice.
The workplace landscape that EAPs navigate every day is rapidly changing and complex. By gathering data that will help support, expand, and stress the significant impact of the work that EAPs do every day, EAPA can help EA professionals develop the strategies necessary to meet the emerging shifts and changing needs of the workplace.
Research Forms:
EAPA values the importance of applied research in supporting the field of employee assistance and workplace wellbeing. If you or your organization are interested in partnering with EAPA to support a research proposal or to participate in a research study, please fill out the Research Inquiry Approval Form for further review and consideration. We appreciate your interest.
EAPA Research Approval Form
2024 EAPA Institute and EXPO conference Membership Pulse Survey
Towards the end of September 2024, hundreds of EAPA members gathered in Indianapolis for our annual Institute and EXPO. Throughout the conference, all the attendees were encouraged to complete a brief pulse survey that the EAPA Research Committee designed to gain a better understanding of the research priorities amongst our members. The following is a summary of the aggregate results from that conference pulse survey:
The following graphs depict the answers received from respondents who completed the entire 3-question survey. From a total of 170 initial responses, 111 respondents completed the entire survey.
In addition, the survey also encouraged respondents to provide additional qualitative responses that highlighted their preferences of topical areas to explore in further EA-oriented research. There were four main themes that emerged from the qualitative responses. EAPA respondents were most interested in:
1. More information on utilization rates (e.g., how to calculate and track utilization rates; identifying a summary of EAP services provided; and understanding what companies are doing successfully to increase utilization and for what purposes).
2. Gaining more understanding about how organizations understand the value of EAP services to communicate the value of EAPs more effectively (e.g., identifying the metrics that employers use to assess the value of EAPs; how organizations assess the value differentiation between EAPs and CEAPs; how insurance entities and MBHOs identify the value of EAPs; clarifying the value that organizations place on EAP services delivered on-site services vs online, external v internal services).
3. Sustainability of EAPs and the EA field through building the next generation of EA professionals (e.g., exploring the interest and openness of higher educational institutions and programs in the EA field; identifying opportunities for building awareness of the EA filed and leveraging student recruitment into the EA field).
4. Collecting data and understanding how to measure outcomes of EAP services (e.g., interest in learning more about the various types of tools and assessments utilized by EA professionals to gather data at the individual and organizational level; interest in learning more about how performance and productivity, absenteeism, etc. are impacted by EAP services).
The results of this brief pulse survey of EAPA members attending the 2024 conference in Indianapolis provide a snapshot of the sentiments, attitudes, and perspectives of EAPA members at a single point in time. Of course, sentiments and interests will change and evolve. However, all of these perspectives will help guide EAPA’s decision-making regarding our future research priorities. It is important to recognize that as a non-profit membership-based organization, the degree to which EAPA has the capacity, resources, and infrastructure to pursue certain research priorities is largely dependent upon membership participation. This will likely remain dynamic and continue to evolve over time. As your professional membership home, we always welcome you sharing your insights, perspectives, and feedback to help inform EAPA’s Research Committee and support our collective efforts and work as an association.
The EAPA Research Committee
Dr. Bryan McNutt, Chair
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