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Importance of Maintaining an Effective and Organization-Appropriate Employee Assistance Programs

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The United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires almost all organizations and industries to have an emergency action plan (EAP). The rationale for mandating EAPs is that they " will result in fewer and less severe employee injuries and less structural damage to the facility during emergencies," (OSHA, 2013). If the EAP is followed, it will likely lead to a more organized evacuation with less confusion, fewer injuries, and less property damage as well (OSHA, 2013). The importance of maintaining an effective and organization-appropriate EAP cannot be underestimated. An EAP saves lives and also protects valuable information and property. However, many organizations maintain EAPs only because they are required to do so by law. Their EAPs are not updated regularly enough, and employees are unaware that they even exist. An EAP is useless if the employees are unaware of it, or it compliance with the EAP is low. Organizations like ours do little to inform employees about the nature of the EAP and what might be required of them in case of a real emergency. Therefore, I recommend that our organization immediately reevaluate and improve its compliance with its emergency action plan. First, our organization need to reassess what is needed in terms of effective evacuation and emergency response. Chao & Henshaw (2001) recommend brainstorming potential scenarios before developing the emergency action plan. In our geographic location,

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