‘Management Support’ Category
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
 Workplace gossip throwing a monkey wrench in your organization's productivity?
By Valerie S. Nosek
People love talking about other people and people like hearing about other people’s business. Surprisingly, experts agree this behavior is a part of human nature. This fact explains why celebrity gossip magazines are so popular. It’s why strangers will strain to listen to juicy talk about someone they don’t even know. And, it’s also why gossip will never be completely eradicated from the work environment…but, that doesn’t mean human resource (HR) and management professionals should give up on trying to curtail workplace gossip.
Gossip Does More Than Just Waste Time…
While most in HR and management recognize employees gossiping as a time waster that lowers productivity, some negative outcomes may not be as obvious.
A recent study by Tim Hallett, an assistant professor at Indiana University, highlights the impact of gossip in the workplace through observation of staff at a middle school going through leadership change. The year-long study documents how gossip affects management, teamwork and employee retention. Originally published as “Gossip at Work: Unsanctioned Evaluative Talk in Formal School Meetings,” in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Workforce Management reports on Hallet’s study in the article, “Gossip’s Toll on the Workplace.”
Gossip “played and important role in the construction of workplace problems and relational politics,” the study said. Hallett reported gossip undermined management’s ability to lead, it fostered resistance to change, perpetuated unnecessary drama and contributed to higher than normal employee turnover.
So, not only are individuals affected by gossip, but the workplace as a whole suffers. The following represent just a few examples of costs associated with workplace gossip:
- Lower morale
- Lack of trust
- Increased anxiety among employees
- Divisiveness as individuals “take sides”
- Irreparable damage to feelings, reputations, relationships
- Individuals who gossip viewed as unprofessional, thus jeopardizing chances for advancement
- Good employees leave due to an unhealthy work atmosphere
- Lost productivity
- Damage to organization’s reputation
- Damage to individual’s/employee’s reputation
- Possible legal issues
Confronting Gossip
Do not participate in gossip. If conversation drifts toward something you feel is leaning toward rumor, redirect the discussion. If this doesn’t work, let the person or group know directly that you will not participate in this type of conversation and excuse yourself from the conversation.
According to “Workplace Gossip,” written by Kit Hennessy, LPC, CEAP, “This will serve several purposes. It will send a message to the gossipers that what they are doing is not acceptable. Others who feel the same way as you do will be more likely to follow suit and not become involved with the gossip, thus taking away the audience. And lastly, you will feel good that you have said ‘no’ to something that wastes time and could cause harm.”
Leaders often make a mistake in pretending not to know about gossip or thinking that by admitting knowledge of the rumors adds credence to them. Instead, managers need to be attune to the grapevine and willing to take action.
One way to do this is by building good relationships with staff. In this way, staff members will be comfortable talking to you as a manager when they hear something that doesn’t seem quite right, or is unquestionably gossip. Keeping communication open is essential in limiting the rumor mill.
“One thing employees may gossip about is what management is or isn’t doing. Rather than allowing speculation to turn into misinformation, consider communicating regularly with your employees about what’s going on in your workplace, at least about things that don’t have to remain confidential for some reason. Open communication may stop some of the rumormongers from making up information. Moreover, the gossipers’ influence will be minimized because everyone – or at least those who need to be – will be “in-the-know.” When employees believe they have sufficient information, they’ll spend less time gossiping and more time working.”
- From “What Can HR Do About Workplace Gossip?” HR Hero, Sept. 1, 2009.
It may also be appropriate to address the issue of gossip in your Code of Conduct or disciplinary policy, where, through formal review and education, the organization can make employees aware that malicious gossip or other behaviors that create discord are subject to progressive disciplinary action as per policy. You may want to include a statement that clearly prohibits remarks about “the organization, co-workers, customers, competitors, agents or partners that could be considered harassing, threatening, libelous or defamatory in any way.” (“What Can HR Do About Workplace Gossip?” HR Hero, Sept. 1, 2009.)
Rely on your employee assistance program (EAP) for help in addressing workplace issues and problem employee behaviors that impact job performance. Ease@Work, a comprehensive EAP, offers consultation with a dedicated account manager and/or a clinical manager regarding workplace and employee concerns.
Tags: eap and management support, employees who gossip, gossip and productivity, gossip in the workplace, human resources and gossip, leaders and gossip, management and gossip, managing workplace gossip, rumor mills at work, rumors in the workplace, work grapevine, workplace gossip, workplace rumors
Posted in Management Support | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Being Late is Bad Business for All Involved
By Valerie S. Nosek
The meeting invitation indicated a start time of 10:00 a.m. I gather my materials, grab a cup of coffee and head to the conference room, arriving a little less than five minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start. I settle into my seat, prep my materials and wait…and wait…and wait.
It’s now 10:10 a.m. and I’m still the only one in the room. Even the person who scheduled the meeting has not arrived. I begin to doubt whether the information I had was correct. Perhaps the meeting was cancelled and I missed the notification?
Just as I’m thinking this, two other people walk into the room. The individual facilitating the meeting still has not arrived. It will be 10:16 a.m. before he manages to roll into the room, excuses falling out of his hands in the form of copies he had to print, which he says made him late.
Punctuality Starts at the Top
I recently had a conversation about people being late to meetings with a friend, who also happens to be a very successful leader in his organization. He, too, has an issue with people who are late to scheduled meetings, saying this behavior is disrespectful to everyone involved in the meeting. At the most basic level, being late says, “I really don’t care about your time; it’s not valuable to me.”
My friend, unfortunately, is in the minority though when it comes to CEO’s and their record for being timely. According to a 2002 survey of 2,700 chief executives by Proudfoot, CEO’s are late to meetings 60 percent of the time. And, it’s suspected that the “late rate” percentage would be higher, except that most CEO’s are “punctual to meetings with important clients.”
What some leaders may fail to realize though, is that like so many other desirable workplace behaviors, punctuality starts at the top. Managers/supervisors who are chronically late send a message to their staff that wasted time and inconsiderate behavior is tolerated within the organization.
And, we also know there are leaders who may take advantage of their status with a “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude. But this approach isn’t even a good idea with children, so why would it be appropriate in the workplace? Furthermore, a leader who strives for excellence would never use this approach regarding expectations for those they supervise.
Employees will quickly lose respect for the leader who does not model the work ethics and behaviors expected of all employed by the organization. On the flipside, leaders who are good role models may be labeled as “tough,” or having high expectations, but they are also the ones who are typically respected, develop staff loyalty and have good morale within their division/department.
Time is Money
It may be a cliché, but it’s also true. How much money is wasted every year by meetings that start late?
Think about your organization and calculate:
- How often meetings are held?
- Number of staff involved?
- Hourly rates for each staff member involved?
- How many minutes it typically takes to actually start the meeting?
If meetings are run efficiently within your company – great! But if not, you might be surprised at how much all that time is actually costing. And, while this amount may indicate significant internal losses, also consider the outside client who is kept waiting.
If it’s a prospective client, they may view your/or your employee’s tardiness as indicative of how your organization delivers product or services and choose to contract with another vendor. Similarly, a current client may switch vendors if they feel their time (interpret as their “business”) is not valued.
Sending the message – “It’s not OK to be late”
If chronic tardiness is an issue in your organization, and you are in management or often lead meetings, try these suggestions:
- If you are in leadership, a manager/supervisor, or the meeting organizer, do not be late.
- Do not wait for people arriving late. Start the meeting on time.
- If you can, close (or lock) the door. Those arriving late will have to make more of an effort to join the meeting and it will be very clear that their tardiness has been noticed.
- After the meeting, and in private, have a conversation with each offender and clearly explain your expectations regarding punctuality.
- Following the one-on-one conversation, consider any future offenses documentation worthy. Keep track of these offenses and report/consider them (as appropriate) when evaluating job performance.
As an employee assistance program, Ease@Work can offer expert guidance in employee issues that impact workplace performance and productivity. We also offer consultation and coaching for leaders seeking guidance on a variety of workforce management issues.
Tags: chronic tardiness, chronically late, eap management resources, eap management support, late for meetings, tardiness
Posted in General Wisdom, Management Support | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Assessing Training Needs, Setting Expectations, Measuring Outcomes
By Valerie S. Nosek
As a comprehensive Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with an extensive training catalog, it’s not unusual to receive a number of calls every week from various organizations requesting training for employees, managers/supervisors and yes, even executive leadership. Providing effective employee education is an important part of what we do – that’s why we ask probing questions about the instigating need, specific objectives, participants to be included, work culture/environment and more, when approaching a training engagement. These initial questions usually lead to a revealing conversation that allows us to match training with needs and secure the best suited subject matter expert to facilitate the program.
It would be very easy to simply say, “Oh yes, we can provide ‘X’ training,” schedule the workshop and be done with it. But, as Benjamin McCall said in his recent post, “How to be an HR Ninja: Uncover Training Needs,” providing effective educational programs in the workplace is so much more than just providing “the training.”
Like McCall, we firmly believe that “training, and the learning that takes place, should engage all members of the organization to increase performance while aligning learning objectives to the overall goals of the business.”
Providing training without a formally expressed expectation of retention or application of what was learned is wasteful of company resources, yet, too often this is how training programs are presented. Effective employee educational programs should lead to sustainable change or improvement of a skill set, on the part of the individual(s) involved.
Furthermore, it is critical to review and assess that the training chosen matches the philosophy of the organization. For example, a client may say they want their middle management staff to be more assertive in decision-making, but then upper management or executive leadership micro-manages when it comes down to actually allowing middle managers to make independent decisions. Training that does not match the culture of the organization not only wastes time and money, but can also result in frustration and lowered morale for employees who were engaged in the training and are then blocked from applying what they’ve learned.
McCall also makes a great point in saying that “Just because people WANT training doesn’t mean they need it and just because they NEED training doesn’t mean they want it.” And it is this statement that is at the center of why any training provider committed to offering effective educational programs should ask those probing questions prior to scheduling training.
It’s very common to receive a request for one type of training, only to discover after an exploratory discussion that the training need is something different than originally thought. Let’s take the hypothetical case of the manager whose team seems to be experiencing an increased amount of conflict and is not acting as a cohesive unit:
We receive a call from the human resource contact at Company XYZ asking for a teambuilding session for one of their divisions. The HR professional says the division’s manager reported that suddenly, members of the group are not getting along and it’s impacting productivity. They need to learn how to work better as a team. We ask for a phone consultation with the manager and anyone else who should be included in determining what outcome is desired from the training.
During a conversation with the manager and his assistant manager, we find the company has recently reorganized some positions and this division was affected. While the team members are the same, their responsibilities have shifted. We also find out that before the changes, the group functioned well and without conflict. The managers acknowledge some employees are having difficulty adjusting to their new roles, but feel they are all valuable and capable of the performance expected.
After this discussion, it becomes apparent the problem is not that the group doesn’t know how to function as a team or that there are members of the group creating conflict. Instead, the employees within the division are having difficulty adjusting to the changes that have taken place.
In a best case scenario, a teambuilding workshop may have reinforced skills this group already knew, but still would not have been the best use of training funds. On a less positive note, bringing teambuilding training to a group who knew they were able to work well together before reorganization could have potentially caused more problems, such as lowered morale or hostility, as employees might feel the blame for lost productivity was misplaced: “We didn’t have any problems until the ‘bigwigs’ decided to do it this way instead of how we were doing it before. Now they’re blaming us that it’s not working when it was their idea.”
A program on change management was more applicable to the division’s needs. Employees were resistant to the changes that had taken place and just wanted things to “go back to the way they were before.” However, a change management session allowed employees to recognize the stages of change, determine where they were in terms of acknowledging and accepting change individually, and learn how to move forward so that the group could return to the exceptional levels of performance expected of them.
Ease@Work can help you address your company’s training, coaching and organizational development needs. Our programs are thoughtfully tailored to your organization, using a variety of methods, some of which might include phone or in-person consultation, needs assessments or use of focus groups. Skills retention can be assessed through pre- and post-testing, assessing application of training 30-, 60-, or even 90-days out.
Tags: adult learning objectives, assessing training outcomes, EAP and training, education in the workplace, employee coaching, employee education, employee skills retention, employee training, executive coaching, management coaching, needs assessment, od, organizational development, tailored employee training, training needs, workplace education, workplace training
Posted in General Wisdom, Management Support, Return on EAP Investment | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
By Swan Khanna-Salehi, LISW, LICDC, CEAP, SAP, Ease@Work Clinical Manager
A drug-free workplace is an expectation of every organization and the right of every employee. The degree to which an organization makes efforts to assure a drug-free workplace varies significantly. In some cases, the organization assumes that their employees are not abusing drugs on the job and figures that their managers would be able to identify substance abusing employees. This is probably the most common reason that I hear from organizations that do not have a formal drug-free workplace program.
If this is the case in your organization, consider this question. Do you utilize hair testing for pre-employment drug testing? Wouldn’t a casual drug user stop using while job hunting? If they were smart they would. You hire smart employees don’t you? According to Omega Laboratories, Inc. the typical detection window for urine testing is 2-3 days. THC, the active drug in marijuana, is the one major exception which can be detected in urine for up to 20 days. How long is the average job search? Longer than 20 days? Even if you are utilizing pre-employment drug testing, only the more expensive hair test will detect illicit drug use for up to 90 days.
You want to be sure you do not hire substance abusers, but pre-employment testing is only one element in establishing a drug free workplace. It is also important to discourage the abuse of drugs and alcohol among your current employees with random drug testing. The less expensive option of urine testing is effective here because of the element of surprise.
Your EAP is a very important component of any drug free workplace and there are several ways your drug-free workplace program should be benefiting from your EAP. Even if you do not drug test at all, your EAP can help to reduce the incidence of substance abuse in the workplace in a number of ways.
- Drug free workplace policy: Your EAP can review your drug free policy to ensure that it is effective and can help you to establish one if you do not currently have such a policy.
- Employee education: Employees need to be told what substance abuse is and that the company does not allow it. The policy makes this official, but you should have your EAP spend at least an hour per year providing substance abuse education to your employees. Questions about prescription drugs are among the most common at these employee trainings. Can a prescription drug generate a legitimate positive drug test? Yes! An out-of-date prescription will not overturn a positive drug test. If an employee is prescribed a pain medication for an injury that resolves before the prescription is finished, they might keep the remainder “just in case.” Is it safe to take that medication several months later? Maybe, but maybe not. It is possible that this employee may have had changes in their diet or health that may cause a different reaction than what they experienced when the prescription was current. A more serious complication could be caused by an adverse drug interaction with a new prescription, over-the-counter drug or herbal remedy.
- Supervisor education: According to the article “Bad habits on campus: how to deal with staff and faculty who are addicts , ” in the July 1, 2008 issue of University Business, “Issues of discrimination or retaliation will pop up when supervisors or managers act as unlicensed Psychiatrists.” According to Alan Cohn, LISW and director of faculty, staff and employee relations at the University of Virginia it is “a liability, a legal issue” for a supervisor to jump to the wrong conclusion about drug abuse. A well trained supervisor is better prepared to identify and deal with a substance abusing employee. They will also have more confidence when dealing with reasonable suspicion. One thing that supervisors learn from our supervisor education sessions is that they can call us at any time, 24/7 for a management consultation with a counselor to discuss a difficult employee issue whether it pertains to substance abuse, psychological change or any other employee behavioral issue.
- A confidential, no-cost solution for employees: Perhaps the most important way your organization should be benefiting from an EAP is by giving your employees the means to get help on their own. Many substance abusers want to be freed from an addiction but do not know where to turn. Even if you have a “last chance agreement” policy, fear is still a significant barrier to approaching management about substance abuse. An EAP will make any workplace safer because of this feature, but a workplace with random drug testing will benefit in multiples from the EAP because the random testing provides significant additional motivation to seek help.
BWC Discounts: According to Ease@Work Sales Manager Patrick Gaul, the majority of calls to Ease@Work for information about substance abuse related services used to be from businesses interested in discounts from the Ohio BWC. The BWC DFWP program was an especially good incentive when they used to encourage all businesses to participate in the program by offering discounts from 10-20% for establishing a Drug Free Workplace Program that met their standards. As of last year the Ohio BWC took this incentive away from thousands of Ohio companies by disqualifying those which already receive another discount, including a group rating. Apparently there are more changes in the works. According to an email update that Patrick received from Advocare, Inc., a Cleveland-based group health and workers’ compensation managed care organization, “It is very likely a new drug-free safety program will replace the existing Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation’s (BWC) program by July 1, 2010.” The update went on to say that the potential changes are a mixture of good news and bad for DFWP companies. For example they are considering elimination of the stacking rule, but only for companies at the advanced level which requires random testing of 25% of the workforce. They are also considering elimination of the 5 year limit for the discount program, but the discounts will be reduced to 4-7%. If you would like to receive industry updates from Advocare, you can reach them at www.advocare-inc.com.
Tags: addiction, dfwp, drug abuse, drug free workplace, substance abuse
Posted in Health & Wellness, Management Support, Mental Health | Comments Off
Friday, February 26th, 2010
By Patrick Gaul
According to Wikipedia, critical mass is a threshold value of the number of people needed to trigger a phenomenon by exchange of ideas. (Sorry Andy, our website / social media guru, you told me to avoid citing Wikipedia, but hey, this is an article about social networking. I thought it was appropriate.) Anyway, it appears to me that social media has blown past critical mass. It is clearly a phenomenon. At what point though will social media be considered a mainstream tool for management? I believe it’s safe to say that we’re not there yet.
The Social Networking phenomenon was born because of teenagers on MySpace. That seems to be the excuse that most social media-phobes fall back on when explaining why they aren’t utilizing it. “It’s just a bunch of kids finding out where the party is.” In reality, MySpace did have a practical application for one industry, but the fact that MySpace is the music distribution method of choice for Indie rock bands throughout the world doesn’t exactly endear it to the MBA set.
The fact that Ease@Work is blogging is proof that social media has reached critical mass. When our target audience (anybody managing employees) starts reading this blog in large numbers and utilizing it to exchange ideas, I will believe that social media has reached critical mass as a tool for management. (Believe me, we’re not there yet. I’m patient though. It’s only been 7 months.)
I’m not so naïve to believe that the Ease@Work blog will ever be the go-to place for cutting edge management information on the Internet. There are some great tools out there though and you can connect with Ease@work on a number of them.
LinkedIn (LI) is, in my opinion, the best way to begin utilizing social media as a manager or HR person. I have been on LI for years and have met many great people. The magic of LI is the way in which it helps other people to help you. If you have a need for anything that somebody else in the world can help you to find, there is somebody in LI who has the answer. I have over 250 contacts and I am no LION (Linkedin Open Networker), meaning that I don’t accept invitations from people that I don’t know or have some sort of business or personal connection with.
I utilize my connections to help others more than helping myself, and I never forward any information that I consider an unsolicited advertisement. If somebody has a valid business reason to reach out to one of my contacts, I will contact that person privately explaining the request. If they are not interested, I will politely tell the requestor that my contact is not interested. I would rather offend a salesperson than a valued business connection. (I have found however, that few people use LI to sell their product or service. To me, it is a genuine networking tool and most people understand that to use it for anything but networking will quickly ruin your LI reputation.)
If you are interested in connecting with me on LI, follow this link to my profile. You can also find other Ease@Work staff on LI, along with other potentially valuable connections.
Facebook is getting more useful as a business-networking site, but to me its strength is still in personal networking. However, I do like the fan page feature for business purposes and find it’s a great way to share information about Ease@Work. I especially like that you can tie your FB page to a blog. If you are on FB and want to know when Ease@Work has posted a new blog entry, become a fan of the Ease@Work FB Page.
The HR Net: For those of you in HR, if you are not familiar with Steve Browne’s HR Net, I encourage you to check it out. This is an old-school bulletin board where HR people can post questions for other HR people, or they can promote happenings in the HR community. Steve sends a weekly e-mail that begins with an entertaining HR related song parody, followed by a list of the new posts from the past week.
HR Net is a password-protected site. To get your password and a link to the site, e-mail Steve Browne at sbrowne@larosas.com. If you are looking to network within the HR Community, Steve is the guy to know in Ohio.
Ideas and people are two very important components in success as a manager. I encourage you to embrace anything that helps you build a network of people who can help you be successful in your job.
There are a million other ways to use technology to share ideas and meet new people. If you have any suggestions of things that work for you, please feel free to tell us in a comment.
Tags: business networking, facebook, linkedin, Management Support, networking, social media, social networking, using facebook, using linkedin
Posted in Management Support | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 29th, 2010
When mental illness enters the workplace
by Patrick Gaul
The Society for Human Resource Management recently published an article of offbeat or humorous stories related by HR Managers to SHRM Online. One example was a request by a Wiccan employee for time off work to celebrate the Winter Solstice. The request was granted and the Manager “received [an] education on maintaining an objective perspective and to not pass judgment.”
The article then went on to describe a few other anecdotes submitted to SHRM Online and ended with a story recounted by an HR Director describing a valuable employee who had requested that the company
“…somehow protect him from the alien rays that were shooting at him from his computer and slowly killing him”
At this point, my EAP filter kicked in and I immediately thought, “Great, a story about how the EAP saved the day. She’s going to get this guy some help, right?” Wrong. The article went on to describe the HR Director’s resolution.
“So I sent the office manager to a medical supply store and we purchased one of those large lead dental protectors and I convinced the employee that by putting that apron over his computer when he was not there would keep all ‘rays’ from coming through to him… Yup, he bought that and stayed with us for another few years”
I imagine many people reading the article found this funny. I can appreciate this type of humor, especially if it was in a movie like Office Space. In that movie, Milton clearly had some problems, but he is one of my all time favorite characters and I have no problem finding humor in his disturbed personality. What’s the difference? Milton is a character! I think that people today have a hard time understanding the difference between the way fictitious characters are treated and the way people should be treated in real life.
According to Ease@Work Counselor Sandra Lavelle, the employee fearing the alien rays “is likely to suffer from a serious and chronic mental illness and this company’s solution in reality is not that simplistic nor appropriate.” She went on to say this story “…speaks to the ignorance of mental illness by the general working public as well as management in Human Resources”
I know that these might sound like harsh words, but why is it that companies are more concerned about liability exposure presented by an employee requesting a non-traditional religious holiday than they are with getting proper treatment for an employee suffering from mental illness?
As I was preparing to write this post, I received an email from a friend who is a Special Education Teacher. She was thrilled because a parent had thanked her for being the “bright spot” in her disabled son’s life. Apparently this child is difficult to deal with because of his special needs and most people are not as patient with him as his teacher.
If we look around, there are many examples of people mistreating other people simply because they are different. For centuries racism and sexism were accepted and it wasn’t until very recently, in the context of history, that critical mass was reached with regard to the disapproval of blatant racism and sexism. In many respects we have a long way to go but at least the business community can no longer discriminate on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.
I am not calling for prosecution of people who make fun of mental illness or people who are impatient with special needs children. I would like it though if people would begin to think like a professional when encountering interpersonal challenges. A special needs child should not rely on his teacher to be the one and only “bright spot” in his day just because he does not behave like the other children. An employee suffering from delusions should be able to get professional help when turning to his HR Director for help rather than being made fun of in a national forum for the HR industry.
So, the question remains: How would I expect the HR Director to respond to the employee fearing alien rays which were slowly killing him through his computer?
An evaluation by the EAP would have been a great start. According to Lavelle, “The recommendations of this evaluation would best meet his needs pharmacologically and may give him counseling resources for therapy to best assist him to manage his mental illness. This individual then has the best possible outcome to stay well and be a productive employee.”
And isn’t that what being in management is all about?
Most full-service EAP’s would be happy to provide an in-service for management on ways to deal with difficult employees by utilizing the services provided by the EAP. If your EAP will not do this, get a better EAP. It’s that simple. Finding a better EAP is much easier than replacing a manager, addressing legal fallout, or risking personal injury from an incident in which employee behavior was treated inappropriately.
Tags: discrimination, employee mental illness, mental illness
Posted in Health & Wellness, Management Support, Mental Health | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 11th, 2010
by Patrick Gaul
Building and maintaining a board of directors can be a challenge for many organizations. Ideally the motivation for a potential board member should be passion for the service your agency provides. It is also important to have the right mix of board members. “Diverse boards are better able to expand capacity and weather tough times” according to the article Board Diversity: Your Biggest Challenge in the May/June 2009 issue of Nonprofit World.
If you are looking at ways to improve development, why not look at the things you highlight when recruiting employees? Are there any benefits that can be efficiently extended to board members?
I recently had a conversation with an administrator at a non-profit Ease@Work customer. She had been telling a board member about the new fitness coaching service we had recently added to our program. This board member was interested in this service because, like most of the US population, she was looking for help with weight loss.
She called us to ask if they were allowed to include board members in the census of covered employees. My immediate answer was yes, of course she could. When I checked their contract I learned she could even do so without incurring any additional cost because adding their board members would not increase their numbers beyond the maximum allowable under our agreement.
Ann Kent, the Non-Profit Services Director at Business Volunteers Unlimited told me, while there are no laws against offering something of value to a volunteer board member, our customer should check her organization’s bylaws. In this case, since this agency can offer our program to their board at no cost, it is highly unlikely that the bylaws will forbid it. In most cases our agreements are based on a per employee rate. Even then, at approximately $2 per employee per month our program should be well within any limits set in the bylaws.
In many cases the benefits offered by your organization will be too costly to extend to your board members and may not be needed by the board member. Health insurance comes to mind. Your board members probably already have access to an EAP as well. However, if they work for a large national company they probably do not have an EAP that offers as many high quality local resources like in-person fitness or nutritional consultations. When they find out how inexpensive it is, they’ll applaud you for making such a wise benefit choice.
Tags: board benefits, board development, board diversity, board member recruiting, fitness coaching, nutritional coachig, wellness
Posted in Health & Wellness, Management Support | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Welcome to Ease@Work 2.0
By Patrick Gaul
The world is changing. In his 2005 book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman described the globalization of the economy and suggested ways that the United States could manage globalization through adaptation.
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) industry is changing, too. Human Resource (HR) professionals should take note of this transition in the industry, as the concept of an ever-evolving EAP must be understood in order to ensure your organization is receiving the fullest benefit from your EAP.
At first glance, one of the biggest changes has been one that many in the C-Suite would consider a positive. EAP’s are now available for much less money than they once were. In fact, an EAP is no longer something that has to be purchased at all, as it is given away for “free” by many in the benefits industry. This can be a positive trend for some companies like small groups or groups in financial crisis that would not otherwise be able to pay for an EAP. Having 24 hour access to a counselor to support employees and/or management is something that no company should be without. Most HR professionals understand though that most of these “freeaps” (pronounced free APs), as I like to call them, do not benefit their organization or their employees in the same way a full service EAP does.
Each HR professional probably has a slightly different take on why they would prefer a full service EAP over an add-on program. But, the reality is that the price difference has reached a critical tipping point, where the perceived differences in price often make it impossible for the HR person to overcome the differences in services. (Please note I say “perceived” because free isn’t really “free” when the true cost of the freeap is built into the premium or base price of the service it’s being added to – such as a health insurance premium or payroll service.)
“An EAP is a critical link in the success of an integrated strategy, in that the EAP links health to workplace performance. It is the unique quality of an EAP, but it is often overlooked,” said John Burke, a thought leader in the EAP field and principal of Burke Consulting. (The Changing Nature and Future of EAP’s, Journal of Employee Assistance, 2nd Quarter 2009.)
In the same article, Jodi Jacobson, chair of EAP specialization at the School of Social Work, University of Maryland said, “As the field works to redefine itself, one of our biggest challenges is how to change or improve the face of employee assistance so that we are seen not only as a ‘nice’ additional health benefit, but as a program that is strategically integrated with the larger workplace.”
My personal experience has taught me what Jacobson says is very true. Most people I speak with agree Ease@Work is a “nice” benefit for employees, but that’s not usually the reason a company purchases it. Organizations invest in Ease@Work because we can become “strategically integrated” into the workplace of each of our customers, and because we are an important link between health and workplace performance. Ease@Work provides special training for managers as well as HR professionals in order to guide them through this integration. (I have uploaded excerpts from one of these trainings to Slideshare if you are interested in seeing an example.) The bottom line is, this integration must be intentional and deliberate. It takes work on the part of the EAP and the EAP customer’s management team.
As a manager at Ease@Work with responsibility over Sales and Marketing, I would like to transform the person who believes an EAP is a commodity into a person who understands their organization does not really have an EAP if the program filling the “EAP role” is not strategically integrated into the workplace and producing in a positive effect on workplace performance.
So, the question is, how do I explain this essential difference to HR directors or other leaders in an organization? If I were to try this in a cold call, it would go something like this… (cue the harps and soft focus edit to a man on on the phone)
Me: “Hello, is this the Human Resources Director?”
HR: “Yes.”
Me: “Does your company have an EAP.”
HR: “Yes, we get it free with our ________.
Me: “Is it strategically integrated into your workplace, resulting in a positive effect on workplace performance?”
HR: [Click.]
Interact@Ease
As a company providing personalized service – customized to client needs – in an industry that is rapidly changing in good ways (and bad), it is our goal to provide you with many brief examples of how Ease@Work is a leader among full-service local/regional EAPs. We would also like to entertain you and share with you some great information we come across during the course of doing our jobs. Even if you are not in the market for an EAP, we believe you will learn something at Interact@Ease. Hopefully we will too. For that to happen we need your active participation. Please feel free to interact with us by adding your comments to our entries.
Tags: EAP Blog, hr blog
Posted in Management Support, Return on EAP Investment | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
 Dr. Dawson presenting "The Upcoming Retirement Wave: What HR Needs to Know" at the 2009 Cleveland HR Star Conference. The 2008-2009 economy may have delayed retirement for some, but be assured, the delay is only temporary. With approximately 80 million Baby Boomers in the U.S., many are already planning their exit strategy from the work place – whether or not the economy cooperates.
What Impact Will Retirements Have on HR?
Major waves of retiring employees could potentially leave some businesses reeling from changes. HR needs to start thinking about the following critical issues now.
- Succession planning
- Knowledge transfer
- Multiple generations in the work place
- Pension/401K Plans
- Health care benefits
- Employee wellness programs
For HR and Retirees Alike, The Time to Make Plans is Now, written by Dickson Dawson, Ph.D., owner of Retirement Intentions, LLC and an Ease@Work retirement coach, spells out some of the things HR, and potential retirees, should be considering for future wellness. He also presented “The Upcoming Retirement Wave: What HR Needs to Know” at the 2009 Cleveland HR Star Conference. Follow the above link to download a copy of his presentation.
Tags: baby boomer, knowledge transfer, Retirement, retiring employees, succession planning, wellness
Posted in Management Support, Retirement | Comments Off
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Employees More Likely to be Caregivers
Talk to any baby boomer and chances are likely they have personal experience in assisting an aging parent or elderly relative in some way. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 54 percent of the work force will be caring for an elder by 2008.
But why should employers be concerned about employees who take care of older relatives?
Quite simply because eldercare issues directly impact the employer’s bottom line to the tune of billions each year. A 1999 report by the MetLife Mature Market Institute “estimated that U.S. companies lose $11 billion to $29 billion a year in reduces productivity;” an upcoming report is expected to show those losses as even greater (AARP Bulletin, May 2006).
Caregiving Issues Multi-Faceted
Human resource departments are finding elder caregiving issues are complicated; there are two distinct sides to the equation. First, there are the practical concerns – those related to safety, living arrangements, medical costs, insurance coverage and/or assistance, managing doctor’s appointments etc. Then, there’s the issue of what impact caregiving responsibilities have on the employee – stress and the resulting negative influences on health and well-being.
While companies have recognized eldercare as a productivity problem, the focus has been on finding resources for the family member, not in addressing the mental and emotional health needs of the employee doing the caregiving. Fortunately, this is changing.
Re-Focusing EAP Services to Meet Caregiver Needs
A recent Wall Street Journal article (June, 21, 2007, page D1) reported “…in the first shift in elder-care benefits in years, a few employers are offering elder-care programs aimed at the health and well-being of the workers themselves. By encouraging workers who have eldercare duties to take better care of themselves, employers hope not only to raise productivity, but to scale down healthcare costs.”
The Ease@Work employee assistance program has been an leader among EAPs, offering eldercare assistance to caregivers in both – community resources aimed toward the needs of the geriatric family member and for the health and well-being of the employee. The Ease team of eldercare specialists have expertise focused on the separate sides of the eldercare issue; employees seeking assistance through Ease@Work have access to the support they need personally as a caregiver in addition to up-to-date resources and practical information.
“Caregivers are usually working and keeping up a house, and they are on-call 24/7 and feeling overwhelmed,” said Margaret Chesler, an eldercare specialist with Ease. ” That puts caregivers at high risk for depression and health problems.”
It is clear with an increasingly aging population, more and more of those in the work force are going to be responsible for an elder family member’s care. The solution for employers begins with a comprehensive EAP that includes an awareness of, and the ability to address, eldercare and caregiving as an integrated issue.
Tags: care-giver, care-giving, caregiver, caregiver issues, caregiving, caregiving issues, dependent care services, eap eldercare services, elder-care, Eldercare, eldercare issues, work-life balance
Posted in Eldercare, Family Dependent Care, Management Support, Return on EAP Investment, Work-Life | Comments Off
|
|
