ROI and Financial Benefits > Cost of Employee Personal Problems

Employees' personal problems are already costing your organization. Do you want to provide employees with a tool to effectively deal with these issues (EAP) or do you just hope they'll leave their personal problems at the door?

• Absenteeism
  Reasons other than illness accounted for more than 67% of unscheduled absences –
  Family Issues – 24%
  Personal Needs – 21%
  Stress – 12%
  (CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, 2002)

• Depression
  The economic burden of depression is at least 44 billion dollars annually. Increased employee costs, including absenteeism and reduced productivity, represent 55% of that cost. (Greenberg et al.) By 2020, depression is expected to be the number two cause of global disease burden. (WHO)

• Workplace Violence
  1,751,100 days of missed work, totaling $36 billion in cost, is the minimum price of workplace violence annually.

• Substance Abuse
  Abusers are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in on-the-job accidents than others, 5 times more likely injure themselves or another, 5 times more like to file a workers' compensation claim, 10 times more like to miss work, and are 33% less productive. 75% of people who use drugs are employed. Drug use costs U.S. employers between $75 and $100 billion per year (DOL).

• Elder Care
  American businesses incur nearly 15 billion dollars attributed to elder care costs each year as a result of decreased productivity and absenteeism. (AARP and The National Council on Aging) Long-distance caregivers miss an average of 20 hours per month of work and 36% report missing days of work (Zogby International, 2004).

• Divorce
  Fifty-two percent of all workers will go through a divorce that affects their productivity. ( U.S. Census)

Up to 68% of all workers will, at some time, experience workplace problems that will prevent them from managing their day-to-day duties. Think of it this way: if you could cut the annual cost due to emotional stress in half, what would it mean to your bottom line?