EAP Refresher Training for Supervisors Can Reduce Risk, Tragic Losses, and Perhaps Keep Your EAP from Getting "Farmed Out"

When was the last time your EAP conducted supervisor refresher training? Refresher training targets organization-specific questions and concerns supervisors have about using the EAP to manage troubled employees. It delves deeper into the work culture, examines nuances of the EAP policy, and allows discussion of "anecdotal issues" supervisors have faced (without any confidential disclosures) in their in use the EAP.

Although, you may complain about getting enough time to do first-time supervisor training, and the resistance management has in giving you face time, the following can help you paint an argument for getting the training time you need.

Here something that must be discussed: An impassioned argument does not guarantee that management will listen to your request to arrange supervisor training. And this is where you need understand the EAPs purpose. The degree to which your EAP "sells" its valuable purpose to the host organization a management tool instead of an "employee benefit" plays directly to the question of whether they will give you time to meet with supervisors. An EAP is communicated as an employee benefit to employees. But don't you look at an EAP this way. If you do, you will drift into an argument for losing your contract or program to a managed care 800#. You must market your EAP as a management tool (a pro-people, pro-organization program) and not a touchy-feely service. The latter will cause any organizational CFO to initiate discussion with the corporate board about having your program contracted out to a cheaper service delivery model.

If you can produce the results of a survey that demonstrates supervisors need what you have to offer, and with it show a direct connection to reduce risk to the organization, you increase the likelihood of getting stage time for supervisor training and re-orienting management's view of your program as something that can't be contracted out.

Consider constructing a survey of supervisors based upon the following questions and producing a report.

Please rate your knowledge in the following areas according to the scale below: 5 - I have a lot of expertise; 4 - I have a good grasp in this area; 3 - I feel adequate in this area; 2 - I feel rather weak in this area; 1 - I feel very inadequate in this area.

1. The policies, procedures and steps I would take to intervene with an employee who has

    alcohol on his breath. Comment: _______________________

2. The effects of alcohol and different types of drugs, prescription and illegal, and their effects of performance and behavior. Comment: _______________________

3. How to write an effective corrective letter to motivate an employee to improve performance or seek help for a personal problem. Comment: _______________________

4. How to make a supervisor referral to the employee assistance program. Comment: _______________________

5. How confront an employee with performance problems in such a way that might motivate them to seek help from the EAP. Comment: _______________________

6. How to write an effective performance improvement plan to resolve performance problems.

    Comment: _______________________

7. Managing interpersonal conflict between two or more employees.

   Comment:  _______________________

8. Feeling support from the organization for recommending and pursuing disciplinary action when

    necessary. Comment: _______________________

9. Writing effective and useful documentation that can support job actions or administrative

    recommendations in response to performance problems.

   Comment: _______________________

10. Giving clear, useful feedback on employees behavior. Comment: _______________________

11. Persuading and motivating employees to perform their best.

     Comment: _______________________

12. Feeling capable of responding properly to employees that may be potentially violent.  

     Comment: _______________________

13. How to monitor an employee who has been treated for a severe psychiatric condition or

     alcoholism/drug addiction. Comment: _______________________

14. The degree to which I feel an employee with an alcoholism problem has a disease, not a moral or psychiatric problem. Comment: _______________________

15. I am suspicious employees may be stealing, using drugs on the job, sleeping at work, or

stealing time, but I can't prove it. Comment: _______________________

Note that the comments section in a survey like this is critical. You will learn more this way. (Also, it will help you with questions and issues that you can send me to discuss in The Frontline Supervisor EAP Newsletter.

 

You may be able to think of more questions. These questions are only a starter. Once tallied, such questions argue on their own merits the need for training, but do not be afraid to analyze answers and make judgements yourself about what they mean. For example, if most supervisors think alcoholism is not a disease, but a psychiatric or moral issue, their attitudes are likely to interfere with their proactive use of the EAP.

Always consider the degree to which employee problems and supervisor attitudes increase the risk of lawsuits for employment practices liability. This area of discussion is a broad one and EAPs can play a significant role it educating supervisors about many issues and reducing this risk. For example, misapplication of discipline can create the grounds for a lawsuit that can cost an organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. Organizations pay close attention to such exposures, but only the truly insightful think about how to use their EAP as a prevention tool.

One last piece of advice. I know this sounds cynical, but let me say it anyway: Once you present a report to management that discusses risk and suggests what should be done about it, never let management return it to you. This is a technique used to later avoid knowledge of a risk issue if something the report predicted actually comes to pass.