Workforce Safety

Workforce Safety

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) are services that are offered by an organization to help solve personal issues that employees might be going through.  The programs work under confidentiality, issues affecting one individual are not broadcasted in the organization. EAPs were designed to help solve issues like drug abuse, gambling addictions, divorce and marital issues and depression issues. The programs have been expanded to include wellness programs that help employees manage their weights and also their financial issues. Confidential counselling makes employees feel free and open up about their issues. EAPs are put in place in organizations so that safety in the workplace is enhanced, reduce costs and improve employee performances, thus improving their productivity (Nunes et al., 2018). It is the responsibility of management to ensure employee safety and health in the organization (Nunes et al., 2018).  Employee Assistance Programs play a vital role in an organization making the program an important tool for an organization.

The design of the programs varies from one organization to another. One organization can decide to put its focus on drug abuse while another organization can provide a variety of services. The programs are meant to promote employee well being by ensuring that information provide remain confidential (Nunes et al., 2018). Therefore, it is better for the organization to hire help from third-party services that will guarantee the protection of employee information EAPs offer cost-effective employee benefits, which are geared towards improving the health and morale of employees in the organization. When employees are of good health, the rates of employees failing to report to work reduces (Nunes et al., 2018). Management is against employee absenteeism because it reduces productivity. Exercises under EAPs are incentive programs and stress management classes.

EAPs are vital to the employees of the organization. The benefits of the program include strict confidentiality when it comes to the protection of employee information. An employee could be suffering from weight management issues, and her information will be stay between her and the counsellor. Immediate family members of the employee can also enjoy the benefits of the program (Nunes et al., 2018). The couple that seeks help together will be educated on what EAP offers and how they can benefit from the program. Dealing with the pressures of weight management and at the same time with the pressures of the job will affect work productivity and life at home. An employee will no longer pay attention to the workplace, which will end up affecting employee performance (Nunes et al., 2018). EAPs are around to prevent such issues from escalating to uncontrollable levels.

Another benefit of EAP is increased employee productivity. When employees have no personal distraction at the workplace, they are motivated to work hard. Without any issues, an employee will always be present at work, and the employee will not see a need for taking sick days. Absenteeism has serious consequences on the productivity of the organization. The introduction of EAP has increased productivity at the workplace (Nunes et al., 2018). According to research, three-quarters of employees have shown increased work productivity once they started EAP services (Nunes et al., 2018). The program will improve morale in the workplace since employees will be pulling towards the same organizational goals and objectives.

Employee Assistance Programs strengthen workplace mental health. When one individual at the organization is experiencing depression and takes sick days often, the mental health of the organization will be affected. EAP provides support to employees with problems at the workplace. The aim of EAP is to create a positive environment where all employees work together (Nunes et al., 2018). EAP encourages employees to talk about their issues and provide support to them by finding solutions to the problems raised (Nunes et al., 2018). EAP acts as a confidential system that shows employees that they do not have to go through difficult situations on their own. Having a place to confide in employees will be able to handle the difficulties that they are going through without letting it affect others in the organization.

EAP reduces costs related to poor performance at the organization. The program is very cheap to implement and is cheaper than the insurance that employs pay each year. The reason why senior management should implement EAP in the organization s because it is cheap to implement and offers more to the organization (Nunes et al., 2018). Issues like mental health are very costly to organizations, but EAP helps address the issue.  Organizations that have invested in EAPs have reported a significant reduction in healthcare costs. This is because of reduced disability claims, fewer issues of absenteeism being reported and lower medical insurance usage (Nunes et al., 2018).  When an organization saves on costs, it sees no need to lay off employees. But when costs are high for the organization, few employees will be retained. Employee retention also happens because of the positive working environment created by Employee Assistance Programs.

I know of an individual who committed suicide due to personal issues. For so long, she had no one to talk to. People always mocked her because of her weight. She was overweight and had no one to talk to, the organization she was working at during the time did not have employee programs put in place. Had the organization had Employee Assistance Programs, she could have benefited greatly from it. The reason why the senior management needs to implement the EAPs in organizations is to prevent such situations from happening to other employees. People have many personal issues but are of who to open up to due to trust issues. Implementation of EAPs in organizations will create avenues where people can trust each other.

Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)

EPCRA is the most important legislative change put in place so that it can assist communities to be prepared and know how to deal with chemical-related emergencies. The act plays an important role in communities because it requires industries to report storage, use and release of chemicals to local or federal governments. The EPCRA requires chemical facilities to provide information necessary for emergency planning to LECPs, also annual hazardous chemical inventories to SERCs and LEPCs and local fire departments (Laboureur et al., 2016). They also required SERCs and LEPCs to prepare emergency response plans for chemical accidents. Within the EPCRA, they established the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which requires facilities to report quantities of their emissions of toxic chemicals to the TRI database annually.

The EPCRA reduces the impact of chemical incidents because they have many things in place that requires facilities to prepare for chemical incidents. Some examples are SERCs and LEPCs. Within the EPCRA, they divide into four major provisions, Emergency Planning, Emergency Release Notification, Hazardous Chemical Storage Reporting Requirements, Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (Laboureur et al., 2016). The Community Right-to-know helps increase the public’s knowledge and access to information on chemicals at individual facilities, their uses, and releases into the environment. States and communities, working with facilities, can use the information to improve chemical safety and protect public health and the environment (Laboureur et al., 2016). The EPCRA involves everything they prepare a community for a chemical hazard, and they also have specific steps to prepare you. They involve the community and the government.

References

Laboureur, D. M., Han, Z., Harding, B. Z., Pineda, A., Pittman, W. C., Rosas, C., … & Mannan, M. S. (2016). Case study and lessons learned from the ammonium nitrate explosion at the West Fertilizer facility. Journal of hazardous materials, 308, 164-172. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389416300395

Nunes, A. P., Richmond, M. K., Pampel, F. C., & Wood, R. C. (2018). The effect of employee assistance services on reductions in employee absenteeism. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(6), 699-709. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10869-017-9518-5