Approximately six to eight percent of the nation's workers have problems which affect their job performance; without assistance, these problems become worse, affect others, and may have serious consequences to the employer as well. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a pragmatic but compassionate attempt to improve performance by constructing therapeutic strategies to help employees deal with their personal problems. Employee Assistance Programs began in the 1940s with companies providing assistance to employees for alcoholism. In the 1970s programs began to shift their emphasis to encompass a broad range of employee problems. In the 1980s the focus of the programs has changed to employee assistance. The elements of an EAP include assessment, treatment, and continuing recovery program. Both labor and management should support the EAP goal of assisting the employee with a problem because troubled employees affect both management and labor. The major difficulties facing people are alcohol, drug, mental health, marital, family, financial, legal, job, and medical problems. Procedures should be clearly stated. Education, training, review and record keeping are some of an EAP's activities. The success of an EAP is measured by the number of individuals who return to a productive life. An EAP is an essential component for corporations in today's world for humanitarian and economic reasons. (ABL)