Mark Attridge

Measuring and Managing Employee Work Engagement: A Review of the Research and Business Literature

High levels of work engagement are when employees are involved with, committed to, enthusiastic, and passionate about their work. This article provides a review of the literature on employee engagement, based on studies from academic and business sources. Areas of focus include defining the concept of employee work engagement, how it is measured, how often it occurs, the costs of disengagement, the business benefits linked to positive engagement, and how workplaces can be changed to encourage engagement. The findings indicate that work engagement can be improved through adopting certain workplace behavioral health practices that address supervisory communication, job design, resource support, working conditions, corporate culture, and leadership style. Also featured are several case studies from employers who measure and use employee engagement data to improve their work culture, retain employees, and increase business financial success. Implications for improving the service of employee assistance and behavioral health providers are discussed.

Chapter 2: The Business Case for the Integration of Employee Assistance, Work-Life and Wellness Services

SUMMARY Employee assistance programs (EAP), work-life programs and wellness programs are three commonly provided kinds of interventions that have the goals of reducing healthcare costs, improving employee performance and fostering a healthier workplace culture. The integration of these kinds of programs is a recent trend that has the potential to offer additional synergistic benefits. New studies have linked comprehensive delivery services that support human capital needs with bottom-line financial success of the company. This evidence can be used to make the business case for offering EAP, work-life and wellness services in an integrated capacity. However, while promising, the scientific evidence thus far in this area has methodological limitations and there are critical aspects that require further study.

Pathways to Career and Leadership Success: Part 1—A Psychosocial Profile of

This study profiled the individual difference characteristics of extraordinarily successful business professionals. The goal was to identify which background factors, personality traits, work styles, leadership style, and early life experiences characterized high achievers. Self-report data was collected from a survey of 56 women and 50 men, mostly from the United States. Everyone in the sample had an annual income that exceeded

100k Professionals

100,000, and 60% were millionaires or multimillionaires. Most of the sample were middle age, White, married with children living at home, in good health, had a graduate level education, worked in a senior-level position, owned their own business, and were highly satisfied with their lives. The sample was much higher than norms on several of the individual difference factors linked to career success in past research, including the personality trait of conscientiousness, transformational style of leadership, resilience/flexibility, political use of interpersonal communication skills, and being mentored earlier in their career. The developmental profile featured having college-educated parents, a middle-class upbringing, and normative levels of adverse childhood experiences. Implications are discussed for Employee Assistance Program services and for leadership and organizational development. See other article (Part 2) for examination of gender differences in all of the measures in this study and for qualitative data findings on major positive and negative events on career path, success factors unique to women, and the attributes of effective leadership in general.

Pathways to Career and Leadership Success: Part 2—Striking Gender Similarities Among

This study examined gender differences in personal, family, personality, work style, and leadership factors among a sample of highly successful business professionals. Self-report data was obtained from a survey of 56 women and 50 men, mostly from the United States, all of whom made

100k Professionals

100,000 or more in annual personal income. Most of the respondents had senior-level positions, owned their own business, and were highly educated. Sixty percent were millionaires or multimillionaires. Contrary to past research indicating systemic gender differences that limit the success of females, this study found few gender differences overall. These women and men were similar on most of the measures tested, including parental and early-life experiences, core personality traits, work styles, leadership styles, formative career work assignments, career path life detours, and work-related failures. However, twice as many women than men reported experiencing prejudice or discrimination in their work histories. A majority of both genders acknowledged gender-specific obstacles to career success for women in general (i.e., childbearing, greater family care responsibilities, and sexism). Being a successful leader also was defined somewhat differently for women than for men. Thus, even though a high degree of similarity was found between women and men in most background and career path characteristics, traditional gender-role expectations and sexism issues still affected many of these women, and this was acknowledged by most of the men in the study as well. See companion article (Part 1) for comparisons of this sample with normative and matched samples on many of these demographic, personality, work style, and early-life experience factors.

The National Behavioral Consortium Industry Profile of External EAP Vendors

It is common practice in many professions, fields, and industries to disseminate comparative information. Absent this vital resource an individual company cannot accurately evaluate their performance against a similar cohort and therefore must rely upon anecdotal information. The findings of this study address this deficiency in the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) field by reporting empirically derived comparative data for external providers of EAP services. During 2012 the National Behavioral Consortium obtained a convenience sample of 82 external EAP vendors, located primarily in the United States and Canada and 10 other countries and ranging in size from local providers to global business enterprises. The combined customer base represented by these vendors included more than 35,000 client companies and over 164 million total covered lives. The 44 survey items addressed eight categories: (1) company profile, (2) staffing, (3) customer profile, (4) utilization metrics, (5) survey tools and outcomes, (6) business management, (7) business development, and (8) forecasting the future of EAP. Results reveal a wide range between vendors on most of these factors. Comparisons were also conducted between vendors based on market size, country, and pricing model. Implications for operational practice and business development are discussed along with considerations for future research.

Resources for Employers Interested in Employee Assistance Programs: A Summary of EASNA's Purchaser's Guide and Research Notes

Most people in business now recognize the need for effective workplace behavioral health support services. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) has emerged as a prime resource to help address this need. However, due to the growth of the EAP field, it has become challenging for employers and the business consultants who advise them to determine what is the right kind of EAP program, how to confidently select the right provider of EAP services, and how to best implement an EAP program so it is effective and delivers value to the organization. There are now a variety of resources that can support EAP purchasers and program managers in making these kinds of decisions. This article identifies five employer guides for EAP and other guides for related topics of behavioral health, mental health, and substance abuse and misuse. An in-depth summary is provided of the 2009 report from the Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA), called Selecting and Strengthening Employee Assistance Programs: A Purchasers Guide. Also summarized are the first 10 issues of the new series of brief reports from EASNA called Research Notes. All of these publications from EASNA are available to the public at no cost from the associations Web site (www.easna.org).

Chapter 4: Research on the Integration of Employee Assistance, Work-Life and Wellness Services

SUMMARY This article will focus on the research exploring the degree to which organizational integration of Employee Assistance, Work/Family and Wellness Programs has evolved since the early 1990s. The first study reviewed is the National Study of EAP and Work/Family Programs conducted in 1994 by Boston Universitys Center on Work and Family in which 100 of the top family friendly companies were inter viewed. Two major studies conducted under the guidance of the Employee Assistance Professional Association (EAPA) are then reviewed. The Phase I research conducted in 2001 was a large-scale survey of the professionals in fields of EAP and Work-life (N = 950). The Phase II research conducted in 2002 was comprised of two stages: A pilot study surveying vendors in the EAP and Work-life fields (N = 213) and a qualitative study consisting of in-depth interviews with vendors from all three professions (N = 79). The overall theme from this body of research is one of dramatically increasing movement and market demand for some form of collaboration/integration of service delivery. Finally, the chapter offers recommendations for further research regarding integration of services as well as implications for the professional fields.