Employee Assistance Programs, or EAP's, have been in existence in some form since the early 1940s. Early programs focused on individuals whose alcohol use affected their job performance, and thus were called, "Occupational Alcohol Programs." Authors Dickman and Challenger report, "the EAP movement began...with one recovering alcoholic worker sharing his recovery with another." (Employee Assistance Programs, A Basic Text, edited by Dickman, et.al, 1988, p.49).

By the Early 1970's, the scope of services provided by EAP's widened and the number of companies implementing EAP programs increased significantly. The business community recognized that many everyday life stressors could also negatively impact an employee's ability to perform well on the job. Today, over 88% of Fortune 500 companies provide EAP services for their workplace. This number is expected to increase to 96% by 2003.

The fiscal benefit of an organization providing an Employee Assistance Program is measured in both hard and soft costs. Hard costs can be measured objectively and include statistics such as employee health insurance claims, days off from work, worker’s compensation costs, and on the job accidents. “Soft” costs are more difficult to measure, taking into account worker retention, training, and personal and workplace satisfaction which directly impacts employee productivity. Fluctuations in these figures are not necessarily attributable only to the impact of the Employee Assistance Program, however studies have been conducted comparing the hard and soft costs of an organization prior to and immediately following the implementation of a comprehensive EAP. The cost benefit has proven to be substantial.

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