A need assessment for an Employee Assistance Programme at the Johannesburg Hospital

Abstract

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.