Employee Assistance Programs During COVID-19: Organizational Experiences in Oklahoma's Public Sector

Abstract

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) offer support services to help workers address personal and work-related problems. EAPs are most known for handling mental health and substance abuse issues, which have increased over the past several years, especial- ly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows that although personal well-being is directly correlated with employee produc- tivity, EAP utilization is severely low. The following paper ex- plores EAPs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oklahoma from organizational experiences in municipal, healthcare, and academic settings. This paper also compares EAP literature from before and after the pandemic, employee reasons for using an EAP, employee demographics, costs, issues, alternatives, solutions, and recom- mendations.