Showing posts with label marketing EAPs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing EAPs. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2016

EAP Utilization Hack #20: Make and Rotate New EAP Posters Every Six Weeks

Increasing EAP utilization is about visibility, promotion, and efforts you take to keep your program "top of mind." This means employees develop reflexes for thinking about the EAP as a "fix" for their problems. When people are in pain, they think of resolving that pain. If your EAP offers solutions  that employees can connect to their problems, they will phone. This is why you should be specific about the solutions you offer and link them to specific problems in promotion in your promotional efforts. Also, the magic is to never to underplay the importance of mentioning confidentiality in every communication. You are always marketing confidentiality because there are always forces real and imaginary that are marketing against confidentiality. One promotional technique that doesn't get enough appreciation is EAP posters. This is why I distribute a free EAP poster periodically. Three things make EAP posters work: 1) Relevance to the work culture (that means you must create them with a relevant message. Fun and easy.; 2) Rotate them or post new ones every six weeks. Six weeks is the magic number I came up with where I believe things like posters and flyers of any sort become invisible to those who have seen them 11-12 times; And 3) Problem specific. This means creating a poster that focuses on something like "Seasonal Affective Disorder" or "Teens and Drug Abuse" rather than the general as in this bad example: "When Times are Tough, the Tough Get Going to the EAP" (gag me). Okay, now you know about EAP Poster Technology.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Sell the "Sizzle" in EAP Solutions to Boost Utilization and Penetration of Risk

You are not just an EA professional, you are also a marketing director. This means you have to sell your services, not just tell people what they are. Do this marketing work effectively and you will create emotion in  your audience and they will pick up the phone more often to call for help. In emails, brochure, or other communications talk about "promises" of the EAP. It is a great way to help your mind and language in written communication shift to "benefits" rather than features of your services. This is what "hooks" your EAP client. For example, if an employee comes to your office for help with a financial problems or debt crisis, what are the promises for getting that problem resolved? Sleeping better, less fear, worrying less, and a more hopeful future of course. Employees with financial problems think more about the loss of these things than debt.

Speaking of debt problems and employee assistance programs, consider more outreach in this area if you are not doing so now. People use a lot of denial and magical thinking to deal wit their financial problems. 

A recent MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends discovered that about 44% of employees live paycheck to paycheck, and nearly 60% are very concerned about having enough money to make ends meet. Most people would agree that financial stress is difficult with its accompanying worry and distraction, but this is only part of the story. 

Many people endure financial stress alone because of stigma, fear of being judged by others, or feeling guilty because of overspending. These issues can keep employees from seeking help, even from the most trusted EAP. Financial stress can contribute to headaches, backaches, ulcers, increased blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and panic. Many employees will cope with financial stress using denial, magical thinking, and or coping strategies that relieve fear, but don’t solve their problems. As problems worsen, risk increases for falling prey to payday loans, internet schemes, gambling, or other high risk remedies. Financial problems diminish one’s sense of autonomy, feelings of security, and self-control. So with financial problems come increased workplace absenteeism, diminished workplace performance, and depression. All of these things can adversely affect productivity. Print this form and fax it to get a free trial to FrontLine Supervisor Newsletter to get more good stuff like this and drive more referrals to your program. Print this brochure and fax it. Just mark on it "Dan, just give me a free trial. Don't bill me."

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

EAP Marketing Tip #2:

This is marketing tip #2. (By the way, the reason I am offering these tips is because they make you think more deeply about how your EAP can help the business customer. More specifically, they allow you to both educate the customer, debunk myths about EAPs, improve the likelihood that the customer will acquire a more effective model, and deprogram the customer from the brainwashing they have thoroughly received via their trade journals and benefits consultants and financial advisors. Hopefully you and especially new staff witll acquire a new appreciation of value of your own product.

MARKETING TIP/DISCUSSION WITH YOUR CUSTOMER #2:
Discuss and provide information and contrast about the experience of your EAP staff, their turnover rate, workload, and pay?

POINTS: Experienced EA professionals are difficult to find and recruit. Have you kept good ones on your staff for awhile? That's a big plus. This stability is a selling point and a product advantage. Certified Employee Assistance Professionals with master's degrees in mental health disciplines are particularly hard to come by, but represent the best pick of those who should be servicing your company. Add a mental health license and/or alcohol and drug counseling certification, and you got yourself a rare find. A recovering alcoholic and addict with any of the forgoing can be worth their weight in gold if their diseases are well-managed.

Most managed care cubicle workers delivering EAP assessment by phone are not experience EAP pros. Many, even if CEAPs, may have no experience outside the phone cubicle on the 14th floor of an office building sitting on the outskirts of town. Most are poorly paid, overworked, and mimic the guy on the Ed Sullivan show you may have seen who spun plates on the top of 24 sticks dashing from one problem to the next with a few smashing to the ground periodically. That is likely to be your EAP customer if they don't choose an effective EAP provider.
 
Solid and professional EA staff turnover fast in managed care companies leaving quickly when not adequately paid. Such turnover is deadly and risky to the well-being of employees and family members who tend to not only use an EAP service but "connect" to the staff member's personality because of their need to bond with the helper. This is an important dynamic to explain.
 
Most private EAP providers and managed care companies are notorious for paying low salaries to their line staff. They need to be adequately paid so the stick around.
 
So, just when everyone in the host company knows the employee assistance professional by name, they leave for few thousand more dollars in their paycheck! This is a serious consequence of commodization. Everyone suffers especially employees.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

EAP Marketing Tips: 1 of 10: Talk about Risk Reduction More Deeply

I am going to discuss marketing related issues for EAP providers. Many have complained about low balling, managed care, and "commodization". Commodization is not a problem by the way. It is a symptom of the problem. That problem is lack of definition and codification about what EAPs really are, what they should be, and how they ought to be defined by a nationally recognized organization that both promotes and protects the parameters of the EAP program definition so corporate customers and potential purchasers pull away and are less likely to be attracted to inferior, well marketed knock-offs. (Okay that was a little rough, but this is a blog.)

Back on point. The issue in in free markets is usually also about having a better product and the ability to communicate that. I think a piece of the problem lies here. The problem it seems to me is that EA professionals don't really know their own product very well. Let's discuss this over the next couple weeks and see if my notes transcribed to this blog from the jotted scratches on gum wrappers I possess can assist you with additional insights that will make you better prepared to discuss your program and better able to standou in a crowd because you are able to define a better product.

Issue #1 of 10 for Marketing Discussions with Potential Purchasers of EAP Services:
With the increasing risk to employers of being sued by employees, how does the EAP play a role in reducing this risk beyond simply seeing employees referred for personal problems?


Because CT-EAPs (the CT stands for true core technology-driven programs. Since anyone can call themselves an EAP and get away with it handily, I often like to write "CT-EAP".) deal with troubled employees, many of whom have problems with management, they are frequently the first to learn of an employee’s interest or intention to sue the company. For example, my supervisor did such and such, I am angry, I wonder if I can sue. Such statements, if handled properly, make the EAP an early, front line defense against employment claims and related lawsuits. EA professionals help employees seek solutions to personal problems and will steer employees to more constructive alternatives to meet their needs. In many instances this is accomplished by referring them to human resources, providing conflict resolution assistance, or seeking other alternative dispute resolution channels. Although not researched, EAPs certainly save money by helping ward off lawsuits long before they ever are filed. These are precious dollars recovered from loss. It is more crucial than ever for today’s EA professionals to understand federal laws that govern the employment relationship. EA professionals should know these major laws and have a basic understanding of their tenets. Armed with this knowledge, they can better consult with supervisors in the course of managing troubled employees. Every EAP should respond to an additional question, “How do you respond when an employee comes to your office and states that he or she is interested in suing the company?” Communicating to customers that your EAP is a program of attraction like a magnet for troubled employees and those like to agress against the company financially, where they can get their needs met in "healthier ways" is a huge and attractive marketing point ignored by the most experienced EA professionals and related marketers. A business hearing this may respond very quickly with "where do I sign up!"

Monday, March 14, 2011

Small Business EAPs: Last Frontier for Employee Assistance?

One of the anomalies characterizing employee assistance services to small business is that, in comparison with large businesses, the small ones may well use those services less frequently. However, the services may nonetheless be immensely more crucial to small business survival. Within this truism is a decades old marketing dilemma for EAPs. Marketing EAPs to small business is not an easy task.

How do you convince a small business of say 40 employees to pay a reasonable fee for a proactive, high-touch EAP when the EAPs success will be likely be unable to demonstrate that disaster X or crisis Y never occurred? It is easier to intuitively convince a company with 5,000 employees that the EAP probably had an impact on X and Y, especially if records of the past can be compared with those going forward. This eap cost-benefit proof is a tougher challenge.

The answer to this problem must lie in a presentation that includes cost-benefits, reduction in financial risks, and removal of stress experienced by the business owner/decision maker all of which are included in a presentation tailored to small businesses. I will begin discussing these factors in this blog and also discuss other "influencers" in the decision-making process toward the goal of motivating the decision maker to invest in effective employee assistance services.

Monday, November 29, 2010

More Thoughts about Workers Compensation and EAPs

Employee assistance practitioners have a history of offering services in what may be called the "traditional" areas of their craft ... alcohol abuse, drug use, mental health services, and other personal problems associated with these conditions.

And yet, research has demonstrated a close correlation between "traditional" employee assistance services and indicators not normally considered a part of that total picture--workers' compensation claims, for example.

Workers' compensation claims my, in fact, be among the most significant indicators of workplace health and wellness, as well as very good clues as to the presence or absence of alcohol, drugs, or mental health problems.

If you're marketing employee assistance services, seek to discover the types of industries with the highest accident rates. Also, be sure to turn to OSHA. OSHA maintains a fresh list of high accident troubled companies. This is list is available, and you may discover some of the companies are near you. Why? There are 20,000 of them--at least--every year. So, go for the high accident businesses, not the high numbers of employees. You may find more motivated employers who will be interested in your services.

And approaching prospective clients along the workers' compensation chain can bring into your service orbit the self-insured as well as those who pay premiums, since both can realize substantial savings through the coupling of worker's compensation programs with employee assistance services.

The higher a work organization's accident rate, the higher the premiums it pays for workers' compensation. The organization is therefore motivated to reduce accident rates, on of the jobs employee assistance services are designed to do.