How an Employee Assistance Program Can Work for You

Personal & Confidential
How an Employee Assistance Program Can Work for You

Miller Compressing Company wanted a way for its employees to get confidential help with their personal problems. Its professional employee assistance program provider has not only helped employees, but has enlightened management.

As a union official, one of Hensel's responsibilities is to refer individuals who need help to the company's employee assistance program (EAP). The people he has referred to EAP all have received prompt and satisfactory attention for their problems. EAP counselors follow up on how treatment is progressing and make sure employees are comfortable with the person treating them. Hensel says, "It has been my best resource to get help for fellow workers.

The "Do It Yourself" Method

We started an employee assistance program at Miller Compressing because we were planning a drug and alcohol testing program and wanted to provide a means for employees to seek help before testing started. The company realized that drug addiction and alcoholism are diseases of denial, diseases requiring professional counseling to get people into rehabilitation programs.

Before starting the EAP, we had a number of employees with chemical dependency problems who sought help on their own initiative or were terminated because of various performance problems. We didn't understand what caused substance abuse and didn't know what kind of treatment programs were available or which facilities provided the best treatment. We rarely monitored these employees' follow-ups with counselors; if an employee successfully recovered, it was done with little help from us.

In some cases, the company proved to be the unknowing enabler. How many times had we given good old Charlie his paycheck early for questionable reasons, or not had the heart to discipline Jane for her tardiness or absenteeism? And don't many people have too much to drink on bowling or softball game nights and function at below-normal levels the next day? Successful confrontation of an employee suspected of being under the influence rarely occurred.

Not wanting to have our own "family" of, employees sent to "some outsider" for counseling, we initially considered using management employees in personnel and nursing to provide this function. Even with three full-time management employees in personnel and one registered nurse, however, we quickly realized that we did not have the ability to deal with these problems in-house. The vast majority of managers are experienced m dealing with business problems and not in counseling employees, especially those with chemical abuse problems. Also, employees are afraid to tell the company about their personal problems due to concerns about privacy and company reaction. In addition, counseling employee family members under this in-house approach was impractical.

What Professionals Can Offer

An employee assistance program proved to be the vehicle for providing needed counseling and enabled an objective, experienced person to assess problems. We interviewed three EAP providers. Although most EAPs offer similar services, one large nationwide company was too impersonal and another provider just didn't feel right. We selected a smaller, local company that we felt comfortable with.

Our EAP provider helped us set up our alcohol and drug testing and rehabilitation programs. Its staff members were a key resource in educating our upper management about chemical abuse. We found that our EAP has much more to offer than just dealing with chemical dependency, even though this problem accounts for 40 percent of our use of the program. Employees with emotional and marital/family relationship problems make up 25 and 20 percent of the program, respectively. Financial and job/vocational problems round out the remaining issues for which people have sought counseling. Our EAP can provide these statistics on the types of problems being handled without disclosing any personal employee information.

Our EAP also provides educational classes for employees on many subjects, some of which are: what's normal in alcohol and drug use, stress management, budget management, smoking cessation, and learning disabilities. Training for supervisors and labor representatives covers recognizing and handling employees with problems that affect job performance; effective listening and assertive confrontation techniques also are taught.

An employee assistance program can aid your company, as it did ours, in the following ways:

allowing employees to get help for personal problems on an anonymous basis,

relieving management of trying to handle employee problems that in many cases it is incapable of handling,

improving work performance,

helping retain valued employees,

giving employees a means of getting help for family members,

improving employee relations by showing a commitment to employees and their   families,

improving management skills through training, and

increasing rapport between management and employees.

Counseling is available from our EAP 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to all employees and family members on a voluntary and confidential basis. However, an employee may be referred by the company if on-the-job problems are detected. The EAP will furnish the company with information regarding an employee's problem only if the employee signs a release of information. Employees are referred to appropriate treatment, self-help, or community programs. Employee insurance coverage is considered before referrals are made.

Personal & Confidential
How an Employee Assistance Program Can Work for You

Miller Compressing Company wanted a way for its employees to get confidential help with their personal problems. Its professional employee assistance program provider has not only helped employees, but has enlightened management.

As a union official, one of Hensel's responsibilities is to refer individuals who need help to the company's employee assistance program (EAP). The people he has referred to EAP all have received prompt and satisfactory attention for their problems. EAP counselors follow up on how treatment is progressing and make sure employees are comfortable with the person treating them. Hensel says, "It has been my best resource to get help for fellow workers.

The "Do It Yourself" Method

We started an employee assistance program at Miller Compressing because we were planning a drug and alcohol testing program and wanted to provide a means for employees to seek help before testing started. The company realized that drug addiction and alcoholism are diseases of denial, diseases requiring professional counseling to get people into rehabilitation programs.

Before starting the EAP, we had a number of employees with chemical dependency problems who sought help on their own initiative or were terminated because of various performance problems. We didn't understand what caused substance abuse and didn't know what kind of treatment programs were available or which facilities provided the best treatment. We rarely monitored these employees' follow-ups with counselors; if an employee successfully recovered, it was done with little help from us.

In some cases, the company proved to be the unknowing enabler. How many times had we given good old Charlie his paycheck early for questionable reasons, or not had the heart to discipline Jane for her tardiness or absenteeism? And don't many people have too much to drink on bowling or softball game nights and function at below-normal levels the next day? Successful confrontation of an employee suspected of being under the influence rarely occurred.

Not wanting to have our own "family" of, employees sent to "some outsider" for counseling, we initially considered using management employees in personnel and nursing to provide this function. Even with three full-time management employees in personnel and one registered nurse, however, we quickly realized that we did not have the ability to deal with these problems in-house. The vast majority of managers are experienced m dealing with business problems and not in counseling employees, especially those with chemical abuse problems. Also, employees are afraid to tell the company about their personal problems due to concerns about privacy and company reaction. In addition, counseling employee family members under this in-house approach was impractical.

What Professionals Can Offer

An employee assistance program proved to be the vehicle for providing needed counseling and enabled an objective, experienced person to assess problems. We interviewed three EAP providers. Although most EAPs offer similar services, one large nationwide company was too impersonal and another provider just didn't feel right. We selected a smaller, local company that we felt comfortable with.

Our EAP provider helped us set up our alcohol and drug testing and rehabilitation programs. Its staff members were a key resource in educating our upper management about chemical abuse. We found that our EAP has much more to offer than just dealing with chemical dependency, even though this problem accounts for 40 percent of our use of the program. Employees with emotional and marital/family relationship problems make up 25 and 20 percent of the program, respectively. Financial and job/vocational problems round out the remaining issues for which people have sought counseling. Our EAP can provide these statistics on the types of problems being handled without disclosing any personal employee information.

Our EAP also provides educational classes for employees on many subjects, some of which are: what's normal in alcohol and drug use, stress management, budget management, smoking cessation, and learning disabilities. Training for supervisors and labor representatives covers recognizing and handling employees with problems that affect job performance; effective listening and assertive confrontation techniques also are taught.

An employee assistance program can aid your company, as it did ours, in the following ways:

allowing employees to get help for personal problems on an anonymous basis,

relieving management of trying to handle employee problems that in many cases it is incapable of handling,

improving work performance,

helping retain valued employees,

giving employees a means of getting help for family members,

improving employee relations by showing a commitment to employees and their   families,

improving management skills through training, and

increasing rapport between management and employees.

Counseling is available from our EAP 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to all employees and family members on a voluntary and confidential basis. However, an employee may be referred by the company if on-the-job problems are detected. The EAP will furnish the company with information regarding an employee's problem only if the employee signs a release of information. Employees are referred to appropriate treatment, self-help, or community programs. Employee insurance coverage is considered before referrals are made.