The Fully-Utilized EAP: How to be a Smart Shopper

The Fully-Utilized EAP:

How to be a Smart Shopper

A good Employee Assistance Program offers more than psychotherapy referral services, and HR professionals need to understand the many ways an EAP can contribute to the organizational missions that drive HR, health & safety, corporate security, and compliance efforts.  From this presentation participants will gain a deeper understanding of the origins of EAPs and the services that these vital programs can offer.  Participants will also learn how to differentiate the metrics by which EAPs are traditionally promoted from the metrics that inform business decision-making, thus equipping them with the insights to become smart shoppers who are able to fully-utilize the benefits of an EAP and appropriately value an EAP’s impact on organizational objectives. 

About the presenter,

Jeff Christie, LCSW, CEAP    

Jeff Christie is a licensed clinical social worker and certified employee assistance professional, who has spent over 30 years understanding human behavior, with a specialization in the significance of the interplay between psychological health and the workplace.

The experience of Jeff Christie, LCSW, CEAP, includes the management of the employee assistance programs of energy-sector Fortune 500 companies as well as large healthcare delivery systems.  He received his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, with a focus in industrial social work.   For the past 34 years he has worked in the fields of family therapy, chemical dependency treatment and employee assistance programs.

Mr. Christie has also served as an educator, presenting numerous workshops on the subjects of worklife balance, employee assistance programs, recovery from trauma/loss, and EAP ethics.  His interest in ethics has led to published articles on EAP and workplace ethics and his role as a primary author of the book, Ethical Dilemmas in Workplace Counseling: A Casebook.  He is a SHRM member who has frequently presented to groups of human resource professionals.

In 2007, Mr. Christie served on the EAP task force of the National Business Group on Health, a collaboration that resulted in the publication of An Employer’s Guide to Employee Assistance Programs.

In October 2008, Mr. Christie was elected as president of the Employee Assistance Roundtable, an organization of internally managed employee assistance programs of Fortune 500 companies.  In October 2010, he was selected as president of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, the largest of the EAP professional associations. 

Presently, Mr. Christie continues to build the internal EAP for the JPS Health Network, tailored to the specific needs and challenges of its diverse workforce.  It is the same dedication to understanding the unique needs of each person and each organization that defines all his work.