Why are employee assistance programmes under-utilised and marginalised and how to address it? A critical review and a labour process analysis

Abstract

The exploding employee demands on mental health services and the under-utilised employee assistance programmes (EAPs) stand in stark contrast. Despite widespread coverage and awareness of EAPs, their low utilisation rates have marginalised them in organisations' human resource strategies. This study explores why employees are resistant to using EAPs from the perspective of dynamic contention, drawing on insights from labour process theory. Through a critical review of the literature, it yields a picture of neither perfect managerial control nor condition-altering resistance in EAPs. In addition, despite their potential to mediate between labour and management, EAPs often align too closely with management, fail to provide avenues for employee input, and struggle to adapt to changing work dynamics. The study concludes with suggestions for effectively leveraging EAPs' constructive broker role to strategically bridge labour and management and address their under-utilisation and marginalisation.