Human Resource Managers: Are They Your EAP Experts?

If you disagree with me, I want you to reply back: Human resource managers, the CEO, or maybe the CFO of the organization you serve all have power over your EAP. These folks cut your paycheck and control your contract or position. But, here this: These folks are not experts on EAPs, the EAP Core Technology, or reducing behavioral risk and human factors exposures to risk with regard to troubled employees. (So far, I hope we are in agreement.) You're the expert. If you took their direction on how you should run the EAP, who you should see, when you should see them, how to do assessments, what EAP activities firmly grounded in the EAP core technology that you should or should not participate in, etc. you would increase risk to your organization, lower your EAPs effectiveness, and increase risk of being "farmed out" or closed down. (So far, I hope you still agree.) Then why do so many EAPs do all of these things out of fear when the HR department phones and says "do this", "don't do that"?

Here is the problem. You live in fear. Do what the "customer says" or you may not have a job in the future. This "HR is boss paradigm" over EAP mechanisms has played a major role in diminishing the value of the EAP field. Human resource managers are educated about EAPs not from materials produced by EAPA or EAP old-timers, traditional resources, or accurate core-based materials. Instead, they have been educated by managed care, newspaper articles, feature articles in HR journals written by freelance writers, human resource management instructors in the classroom with zero EAP experience or at least nothing long term, human resource management textbooks, the Chief Financial Officer (who has been educated by the benefits consulting firm), and that's about it. (Are you still in agreement with me?) Okay, the kamikaze statement for this blog: These folks don't know what they are talking about, but you are doing what they say--modifying your EAP and its activities to match their "model" of what they think EAPs are supposed to do!

The EAP field could, in theory disintegrate in front of your eyes if you do not claim the high ground and decide that you are the expert and say so. I cannot tell you have many times I have heard this phrase from HR managers -- "EAPs don't do that". Too many EAPs are changing what they do to please customers. Would you change they dynamics of "calculus" because your student doesn't understand math? Calculus has not changed since Newton invented it. So, what are you doing with your EAP? Why are you making changes to the program to match the boss's misguided understanding of EAPs are all about? Better yet, who is backing you up as "authority" should you hold your ground? That's another blog note for the future.

Help Employees Help Their Friends

Not all attempts to help a friend are major interventions like the class substance abuse intervention. Many more are simply conversations between friends that inspire behavior change. Help employees understand more effectively how to have these conversations and you'll reach family members with the influence of your EAP. Even better, hold a brown bag or short seminar on this topic and watch your attendance at such an event sore. When guiding employees, the key is to ask if the client is seeing signs of denial in a friend with a personal problem requiring urgent action to resolve it? Personal problems with tough choices usually include denial. Others use minimization (the friend knows there’s a problem but denies it’s serious) or projection (the friend admits it is serious but says it is not their responsibility to deal with it for some reason). Absent a crisis, the friend simply isn’t motivated to get help yet. Discuss the forgoing concepts in the counseling session. Denial-laden personal problems include compulsive shopping, refusal to see a doctor, ignoring creditors, struggling with alcohol dependence, staying in an abusive relationship, and many more. Here's some brief guidance to consider offering to the client: Start by talking with your friend. Mention your concerns, but don’t threaten or be aggressive. Key is stating your observations and their impact on you, loved ones, and your friend’s life. Ask to help. Mention your obligation to support him or her as a friend. If you sense anger or defensiveness, remain calm and understanding. Rarely do friends part ways over honesty, at least not permanently. If needed, talk to an expert about the problem to get more pointers. This could be a counselor, an attorney, or even the police. Stay healthy, detached, and objective. Remember, your goal is to encourage the first action step toward help, not to “own” the problem of a friend who won’t seek it.

EAPs: Quick Tips for Supervisors On Giving Feedback

New supervisors often struggle with how to give feedback. When their misguided attempts flop, it can set the stage for ongoing conflict. That makes important for EAPs and EA professionals to have a quick and effective way to counsel supervisors, even seasoned supervisors, with the technique of giving feedback to an employees. Here's what to say, "to make it easier, try what is known as the "sandwiching technique."  The technique of providing constructive feedback or correction of an employee's performance allows the message your sending to be received more easily by "sandwiching" the unfavorable comments between favorable comments.  For example, say: "Nancy, I've been pleased with the way you've stepped up the speed of assembling the monthly reports.  You've made real improvement there.  I am concerned, however, about the quality.   There are frequently mistakes in the charts that need to be corrected.  I hope you'll work to improve the quality as well as speed.  I feel good about your attitude toward the schedule we are trying to keep, so I know you'll do fine."  Notice how the message you wanted to communicate was placed between two true but positive statements.  This technique reduces defensiveness and makes your feedback more acceptable, particularly with employees who are more sensitive toward constructive criticism. Related: Supervisory and Leadership Tips

No Mention of EAP's True Role Anymore--Why?

In the 1970's, "employee assistance programs" and their role in the supervisor referral process to help identify troubled workers and reduce enormous and varied costs associated with workplace drug abuse would have been front and center in an article on the subject. This recent article Kentucky's "The Lane Report",  "Abusing the Bottom Line: State's Drug and Alcohol Misuse Rates Highlight the Need for and Value of Good Workplace Policies" omits any notion of this critical application of EAP theory. The areticle appeared in the May 2012 issue. It was written by Lorie Hailey. Ms. Hailey is the publisher of the The Lane Report and has been there since March 2012, approximately. The fascinating question is, "What was her research path to develop the content for this feature?" Ms Hailey is a writer, not an EAP expert, so she had to rely upon experts who gave her leads and contacts so she could interview or gather information. Where to go or who to call upon for expertise and content is an important question. I can see from the content of this article that an EAP is pointed to as only a self-referral help source. How is it possible that EAPs don't enter this story with their history of performance based intervention success? What are the implications for the this article only educating readers about EAPs being a source of help, not a management tool to preserve the bottom line. It is important not to simply shake each others' hands at EAPA conferences and slap each other on the back, while we discuss how wonderful things are going for the EAP field. This article should tell you they are not. This benefit-only paradigm is a major issue undermining effective growth of employee assistance programs, salaries of professionals, reduction in risk, and it is costing lives. I can rattle off many effective EAPs that have closed their doors this year because financial controllers saw a way to cut them for a less effective EAP model. This article and its omission of the true EAP role in helping substance abusing employees is a commonly observed symptom of a problem facing the EAP field. It should be analyzed, debated, and its solution addressed. If you represent an effective provider of employee assistance programs in Kentucky, you may want delve deeper into this amazing observation and important story. You may learn much from Ms Hailey that could point to solutions the EAP field may wish to consider. Oh, don't blame Ms. Hailey. Blame us.

Educate Employees Before Trauma Takes A Toll

Trauma in the workplace. It's a very scary time for victims and helpers. You can actually feel of sense of panic and responsibility and fear all at the same time. Will you...can you...respond to help people, and also impress management with your capabilities. I've been there. Listen, no matter how prepared you are, that shock hits your system. My last EAP served the fire department unit closest to the Pentagon on 9/11 (100 feet away on the helicopter pad!) so, I know that feeling of "oh man...." First, second, third...go here. You go there.''

But, here's the point: Periodically I get urgent emails from people asking if I have a handout on trauma. These requests frequently come after a critical incident when the urgent need of the caller is to help employees or affected persons understand traumatic stress, motivate victims to take advantage of support services like CISD groups, or participate in effective self-care, like getting enough sleep, eating correctly, laying off the alcohol to get to sleep, and anticipating "normal" symptoms associated with traumatic stress after witnessing a critical incident.

It would better I think to educate new first responders immediately upon hiring about traumatic stress and participating in CISD help after a critical incident and a heck of a lot more about why. A lot of these first responders are mentored, not by buddies who are savvy on critical incident stress, but a work culture that heads out after a shift with a six-pack in tow to "process the bad call". This is a prescription for PTSD or at least lowered productivity from the affects of traumatic stress over time. What can be done about this problem? Consider education about traumatic stress as part of an orientation session. Train employees in other workplaces and industries too where trauma is possible--like industrial settings, etc. Help employees understand and be psychologically prepared for the aftermath of trauma so they understand it as a wound or injury to the psyche that should be managed. Take a look at this product on "Facing a Traumatic Event" from WorkExcel.com and see if could help you accomplish these goals.

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."

Careful! Don't Serve Up Problems with EAP Concierge Services

Concierge services - non-traditional helping hand services provided by EAPs and other work-life businesses to help employees resolve everyday work-life problems are gaining hold in the EAP field--well, here and there. A recent post on LinkedIn from a EAP in the United Kingdom got me thinking about this topic again.

The fragile rationale for the inclusion of concierge services in EAPs is that if you can't walk your dog and are worried about the carpet at home, this distraction isn't good for your employer's productivity. Hence a leap forward to providing a helping hand to employees that gets the logistics and worry off the employee's mind to free that brain up for more productivity.

I have one reaction to this: What is the "spirit and intent" of the EAP Core Technology?

Skeptics argue that such "concierge" services are the creations of the work-life industry and move away from what EAP services are all about. Others paint a rationale completely consistent with the core technology. 

The reality of course is that competitive pressures to keep EAPs in business (otherwise known as the market economy) are turning some EAPs into do-it-all for you, one-stop resources for employees. Is this practicaal and protectionist or it shooting EAPs in the foot?

Is this an evolutionary step in the EA profession? Or, is it a step away from behavioral risk management, hands-on help for troubled employes, and better penetration into unmanaged risks in the organization associated with human behavior that only REAL EAPs can identify and dislodge? Does it contribute to a loss of focus for the profession, thereby making it ever more vulnerable to being hijacked by managed care?

In many ways, EAPs have always provided some concierge services. I remember a kindergarten teacher phoning to say she was completely frustrated with AMTRAK for billing her $850 twice for taking a bunch of students on a field trip to New York. After four months and getting nowhere fast, she called the EAP. Yes, we took the case. After all, she does not have the time at work to be on the phone all day. About an hour of bird-dogging AMTRAK and the problem was solved. Concierge service? Perhaps, but is this proof that EAPs should dive in head first into this shallow water? If you argue yes, would you post a sign outside the EAP door that advertises "consumer affairs problems solved here?" What about your brochure?

Will these services build your utilization rate? Yes, but at what ultimate cost? I hear the siren's wail on this one? I think it is a shipwreck for the EAP field to venture this direction. I would argue you could make it easier to get farmed out. 

I think there is something called the “spirit and intent” of the EAP Core Technology. It requires an honest assessment of whether activities of your program match it because the profession is fewer in number this year than last--with many EAP closures only since 2012. I don't think concierge activity is what I would call a salvation related activity.