Employee Assistance Program: A New Means of China Enterprise
Management of Innovation
She-hong Liang, Lin Wang, Kan Shi, Peng Gao
School of Management, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Corresponding Email: LLLSH@126.com
Abstract - This paper describes the development of
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at home and abroad in
near one hundred years. By analyzing the differences of EAP
in background of introduction and environment of
implementing at home and abroad, this paper put forward
new features of EAP in China. It is also pointed out three
new functions of EAP in the modern enterprise
management. Firstly, EAP has become a new means of
spreading corporate culture deeply. Secondly, EAP has
become a new ways of innovative human resources
management. Thirdly, EAP has been a new breakthrough
for the innovation of enterprises party-building and trade
union work. In short, EAP would be inevitable trend of
development as innovative tools of China enterprise
management.
Keywords -Employee Assistance Program, new features,
new functions, management of innovation
I. INTRODUCTION
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that is set up
for employees by organization is systematic and longterm welfare and support programs. It demands
professional staff to provide diagnosis, evaluation,
training, professional guidance and advices for employees
to help themselves and their family members solve their
psychological and behavioral problems, which aim to
improve employee’s work performance and health in the
organization, and improve organizational climate and
business management performance [1]. EAP is originated
in the United States. It has been widely used in many
well-known enterprises and institutions in developed
countries now. Just as introduction of EAP in China soon,
so its background of introduction and environment of
implementing is different from abroad. EAP in China
shows new features and new functions thus it has become
a new means of China enterprise management of
innovation.
II. DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF EAP
they spent money to hire outside experts to help employee
give up excessive drinking, which is the origin of EAP—
—Occupational Alcohol Programs (OAP). To the 1940s
and 1950s, OAP developed Alcoholism Prevention
Programs (APP) by the U.S. Congress and other
companies, associations, labor management committee
and government agencies. On the prevention of
alcoholism, they made some new and occupational
alcohol prevention and management method [3]. To the
1960s and 1970s, managers had found that alcohol
prevention programs alone couldn't completely solve the
problem of low performance of employees. Because many
reasons impact work performance of employees, then the
focus of EAP was natural from identifying whether
employees were addicted to alcohol to explore
systematically the reasons for low performance of
employees [4]. Since the 1970s, dramatic changes had
taken place in American society. Family violence,
divorce, depression and other problems had been
increasing influence on behavior of employees. Then the
service of OAP was gradually extended, its service
include work pressure, mental health, crisis of reducing
the staff, disaster, career development, healthy lifestyle,
legal disputes, financial problems, weight loss and eating
disorders, and extend the service to the families of
employees, including spouses and children of employees
[5]
. That was the prototype of EAP [6]. Since the 1980s,
EAP had entered into fully integrated and systematic
phase [7]. Some firms have started to introduce EAP into a
systematic and long-term welfare and support programs.
Therefore, EAP has developed into a comprehensive
service, its practitioners include not only psychological
counselor and treatment expert, but also manager at all
levels in the enterprise and trade unions, health care
institutions, social organizations [8]. According to
statistics, nearly a quarter of U.S. corporate employees
enjoy the service of EAP. In the U.S. "Fortune"
magazine's Fortune 500 companies, 90% of them have
established service system of EAP, 80% of them have
employed professional company for providing the service
of EAP. This service has been widely used in government,
community and other public services.
A. The development of EAP abroad
B. The development of EAP in China
EAP was originated in the 1920s when business
owners found that employees who were addicted to
alcohol would negatively affect to the business in the U.S
[2]
. But simple dismissal didn't solve the problem, then
The development of EAP in Hong Kong and Taiwan was
ahead of Chinese mainland. In the early 1990s, some nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong started to provide
service of social work [9]. EAP in Taiwan began in 1972
which founded the "Big Sister Organization" (BS) in
Taiwan Matsushita Electric companies. BS was set up to
help new employees adapt to the environment, as well as
a bridge of communication between first-line workers and
their supervisor. The service of EAP in Taiwan can be
divided into five categories, which is psychological
counseling, education and development training,
recreation and sports, health-care and welfare services [10].
Chinese mainland firstly introduced EAP in the largescale and foreign-funded enterprises. Then the service of
EAP abroad began to enter Chinese market. Some local
institute of EAP services have appeared because the vast
majority of employees who accept EAP services in China
are local employees. Some large state-owned enterprises
have begun to use EAP services. In March 2001, Xi-chao
Zhang who is domestic scholar carried out complete EAP
counseling services in the customer service department of
Lenovo Group. Researchers spread knowledge of mental
health promotion to employees and enhance their
awareness and understanding of psychological problem
by cards, posters and other forms of web. They also
provide managers with a wide variety of training, which
make managers aware of the roles of psychological
counseling in business management and feel the benefits
of EAP to the enterprise [11]. At present, EAP involve
personal life, work issues and organizational
development. Personal life is related to alcohol and drugs,
emotional control, health problems, interpersonal skills,
family relations, economic issues, emotional issues, legal
issues. Work issues related to job requirements, work
balance, work stress, work environment, sense of work
fairness, workplace sexual harassment, work and other
aspects of interpersonal conflict. Organization issues are
involved with some projects of business strategic
development such as employees adapting to layoffs in the
organizational
change
process,
accumulating
psychological capital to build and strengthen competitive
advantage, etc [12].
In addition, that large-scale forum of EAP held in the
21st century and the publication of EAP monographs have
played an indispensable role for the development of EAP
in China. EAP have been formally included in the
national Employee Assistance division "1 + N" compound
training program by China's vocational and technical
training center of Ministry of Human Resources and
Social Security of China in December 2010. "Employee
Assistance Division Curriculum Development Center" has
been formally established in Beijing, which is charged for
EAP teaching materials and training teacher. This will be
a new breakthrough for EAP talent training, which will
lay the talent base for promoting the development of EAP
in more broader and deeper level.
III. NEW FEATURES OF EAP IN CHINA
A. The differences of EAP in background of introduction
and environment of implementing at home and
abroad
We founded that environment of implementing EAP
in China and abroad are completely different by
reviewing the development process of EAP. The
differences mainly embody in the following aspects. First,
the background of introducing EAP is different. EAP was
developed by helping alcohol-addicted employees to give
up excessive drinking abroad, while EAP was developed
by investigating and diagnosing employee mental health
in China. Second, the means of implementing EAP is
different. EAP is mainly for individual counseling and
therapy abroad, while EAP is based on group
psychological survey and training, then employees have
some demands for the individual psychological
counseling and treatment in China. Third, people of EAP
service are different. Foreigners generally accepted
psychological counseling, but Chinese people are still
excluded to psychological counseling. Fourth, the social
environment of implementing EAP is different.
Developed countries are relatively short of labor, so
physical and mental health of workers are more been
concerned. Chinese Government is more concerned about
harmonious labor, employee well-being and social
stability because of the relatively surplus of labor in
China. Finally, from the government support point of
view, foreign government and legal institutions more
support for EAP while Chinese Government and legal
institutions involved less in the EAP.
B. New features of EAP in Chinese enterprises
Because the background of introduction and
environment of implementing EAP at home and abroad
are very different, EAP show the following new features
in China.
1) From the purpose of implementing EAP, it is
more concerned of caring employee culture and
creating positive organizational climate in China.
At present, decision-maker of Chinese enterprise hope
to reflect more employee-caring culture, create positive
organizational climate and establish harmonious labor
relationship by EAP. Then it will be precautionary. EAP
not only enhance the cohesion of enterprises and
employees' sense of belonging, but also stimulate the
intrinsic motivation of employees and further improve
their work performance.
2) From the content of implementing EAP, it is
more focused on spreading widely the knowledge
of mental health and enhancing employee selfmanagement skills in China.
The content of EAP is more concerned about the
popularization of knowledge of mental health, focusing
on developing positive psychological forces of
employees, enhancing psychological capital of employees
and improving self-management skill of employees. It is
the relative weakening of psychological counseling and
treatment for individuals. This is more in line with
Chinese conditions. Through spreading universal
psychological knowledge, it will enhance skill of
employee which will help them handle family-related
issues and reduce the psychological distress and
emotional disorder of employee which could result in
their low performance.
3) From the means of implementing EAP, it mainly
focused on group training, supplemented with
individual counseling in China.
EAP is implemented by organization and mainly
focused on group training, supplemented by individual
counseling in current China. This feature came from the
means of introducing EAP in China and the unique ideas
of Chinese people. Because counseling industry which
started to develop in China has not been widely
recognized. Together with Chinese people less talkative,
their mental ideas of "shame of family should not be
expressed to others", individual counseling abroad is
difficult to apply to the present stage of China. So this
will make the means of implementing EAP in China
become more diverse, more Chinese characteristics.
4) From the main body of implementing EAP, the
executive department of EAP is diverse, which is
more Chinese characteristics.
The implementation of EAP need supports of manager
especially decision-maker in the organization. The
implementation department of EAP in China is also more
diversified because the nature of Chinese enterprises is
different. Some are party-building sector, some are trade
unions sector, some are human resources sector, and
others are executive branch of government. Especially the
party-building sector introducing EAP in large stateowned enterprises which is more Chinese characteristics,
China's large state-owned enterprises should learn from
them. We should also learn more from EAP abroad which
implemented by human resources sector, health
department in conjunction with insurance companies,
medical institutions, etc. We hope that EAP become into a
long-term benefits rather than short-term incentive
optional in order to protect the long-term development of
EAP in China.
5) From the results of implementing EAP, it is more
concerned social value evaluation and make light
of economic assessment in China.
Since short-term results of EAP is difficult to assess,
the enterprises which performed EAP in China are more
good economic organizations so they are more concerned
about the long-term social value and make light of shortterm economic benefits. This is contrary to foreign
enterprises which pay more attention to precise
assessment of return on investment (ROI). It also shows
that Chinese companies began to shift their attention from
concerning material welfare of employees to spiritual
welfare of employees. They began to think mostly EAP as
a human investment, rather than administrative costs.
IV. NEW FUNCTIONS OF EAP IN CHINA
ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT
A. EAP has become a new means of spreading corporate
culture deeply.
From the main purpose of implementing EAP in
China, EAP have become a new measure of Chinese
enterprises which want to build People-oriented
management philosophy. It has also become a new means
of Chinese enterprises implementing employee-caring
culture. By the systematic implementation of EAP,
enterprises will establish organizational culture which is
respected for employees, concerning about difficulty of
employees, stimulating positive force of employees,
training employees to solve problems and pay attention to
their personal development [13]. So the enterprises will
form a stable, healthy and harmonious labor relationship
and help company better respond to business
restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, layoffs and other
changes and crisis, which is same with the aim of building
modern corporate culture. Therefore, EAP has become a
new means of Chinese enterprises spreading
organizational culture deeply.
B. EAP has become a new ways of innovative human
resources management.
EAP help employees solve all the difficulties and
promote their health and development as a systematic
welfare [14]. This will improve employee’s satisfaction and
enhance organizational cohesion so that they have more
sense of identity and belonging, which are more
conducive to attract and retain talent. This is similar with
the function of human resource management. Meanwhile,
EAP can not only help employee alleviate their work
pressure, improve their morale, enhance their motivation,
learn effective interpersonal skills, but also make the staff
quickly adapt to new environment, overcome their bad
habits, face with their career crises, improve their job
skills, which will save indirectly the cost of recruitment
and training, reduce error of dismissal, alleviate the labormanagement conflicts and reduce the cost of human
resource management [15]. Therefore, EAP has become a
new ways of corporate human resource management of
innovation.
C. EAP has been a new breakthrough for the innovation
of enterprises party-building and trade union work.
In 2007, Jin-tao Hu who is Chinese President
proposed that we should strengthen and improve
ideological and political work, paying attention to care
people and psychological counseling, with the correct
approach to handling interpersonal relationship in the
report of the 17th Party Congress. This thesis greatly
contributed to the development of psychology and EAP in
China. In particular, some domestic large enterprises have
been gradually implemented EAP and the results are
significant. For example, China Mobile Group Co., Ltd.
introduced EAP into the China Mobile's ideological and
political work by their party-building sector, which will
make the traditional "ideological education" become the
culture of "psychological care", make the "thinking
change" become the "inner communication", from the
employee's passive acceptance to active consultant. The
EAP help employee reduce their psychological puzzle and
work stress so it has become an innovative method of
ideological and political work and broaden the field of
ideological and political work. Therefore the successful
implementation of EAP in China Mobile Group is useful
attempt and important innovation for the work of partybuilding in state-owned enterprises.
After the incident of "continuous leaping to the death"
in FOXCONN in 2010, the National Federation of Trade
Unions issued the Advices on Further Improving the
workforce and social stability work, which specially
emphasize to strengthen psychological counseling of the
young workers, especially migrant workers. This further
indicates that psychological assistance work for
employees will play important roles on the development
of enterprises. Furthermore, large state-owned mining
companies introduced EAP by the enterprise union in
order to enhance assistance skill of first-line managers in
December 2010, which received wide acclaim. This is not
only an important measure for business to build
employee-caring system, but also a breakthrough and an
innovation for company trade union work.
V. CONCLUSION
In summary, the development of EAP have shown
new features in recent years in China and carry out new
functions in enterprise management. From the purpose,
contents and methods of implementing EAP, it exclude
effectively the interference factors which impact on work
performance of employee, maintaining their mental health
and stimulate their inner potential of work, which is same
with the ultimate target of corporate culture and human
resource management. Therefore EAP has become not
only a new ways of business management in the
workplace to provide humane care for employee, but also
a new means of China business management innovation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study is financially supported by the National
Social Science Foundation of China (Project No.
10AGL003).
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