Employee Assistance Programs This being the day of the great downsize many managers are hurrying to make the cut's and in doing so closely examining their Employee-Assistance Programs for effectiveness. What are they? How do they help? How do they work? Are they worth the hassle? What are they? By definition employee-assistance programs (EAP's) give a business the means for identifying employees whose job performance is negatively affected by personal problems. EAP's should arrange for structured assistance to solve those problems with the goal of reestablishing the employee's job performance.