3. The Need for Employee
Counseling
Have you ever seen people:
• Struggling due to high levels of anxiety?
• Refusing treatment for a treatable
condition?
• Experiencing job burnout?
• Involved in efforts to promote good health?
4. Personal problems are a part of life
Personal problems affect job performance
Healthcare costs continue to rise
Reducing tardiness, absenteeism, lost time
and worker’s compensation saves money
Reducing turnover can improve productivity
and the bottom line
5. Addressing Employee Well-
Being
• Promotes employee morale
• Reduces the impact of external factors on
work
• Promotes productivity
– Cheaper to train, treat, and retain existing
workers than to hire new ones
6. Employee Counseling as an HRD
Function
• Counseling serves the same goal as other
HRD activities
– Improving/maintaining worker performance
• Same techniques are used, especially
coaching
• Same kinds of analysis and planning
needed
10. Counseling
• Needs a non-threatening person with
whom the worker can discuss problems
and seek help. Options include:
– Supervisor/coach
– Ombudsman
– HRD Counselor
– Professional Counselor
11. Referral
• Directing employee to appropriate
resources for assistance – e.g.,
– Physician
– Substance abuse treatment center
– Marriage counselor
– Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
– Other options (clergy)
12. Treatment
• The actual intervention to solve the
problem – e.g.,
– 1. Group therapy
– 2. Medications
– 3. Individual therapy
– 4. Psychological therapy
13. Follow-up
• Needed to:
– Ensure the employee is indeed carrying out
the treatment
– Obtain information on employee progress
– Ensure that referrals and treatment are
effective
14. A Caution About Employee
Counseling
• All six approaches are not always needed
• The following issues drive which approach
is taken:
– Type of problem identified
– Appropriate response
– Available resources
15. Who Provides Employee
Counseling?
• Depends on the organization and
organizational culture
• Can be done using:
– Corporate resources (In-house)
– Outside resources (Out-of-house)
16. In-House Efforts
Advantages:
• Internal control
• Familiarity with
organization
• Better coordination of
efforts
• Sense of ownership
• Greater internal
credibility
Disadvantages:
• Confidentiality
• Lack of needed
resources
• Employee reluctance
to use services
• Limitations in staff
skill and expertise
17. Contracting Externally (Out-of-
House)
Advantages:
• Subject matter
experts
• Confidentiality easier
to maintain
• Lower cost
• Better identification
and use of resources
Disadvantages:
• Lack of on-site
services
• Possible
communications
problems
• Lack of organizational
knowledge
18. Characteristics of Effective
Programs
1. Top management support
2. Clear policies and procedures
3. Cooperation with unions and employee
groups
4. A range of care:
– Referral to community resources
– Follow-up
19. Characteristics of Effective
Programs
5. Policy of guaranteed confidentiality
6. Maintenance of records for program
evaluation
7. Health insurance benefit coverage for
services
8. Family education
20. EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE
PROGRAMS
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
are employee benefits programs offered by
many employers, typically in conjunction with
a health insurance plan. EAPs are intended to
help employees deal with personal problems
that might adversely impact their work
performance, health, and well-being. EAPs
generally include assessment, short-term
counseling and referral services for employees
and their household members.
21. PURPOSE
The purpose of an Employee Assistance
Program (EAP) is to improve the
psychological health of your employees. It will
help your staff develop coping skills and
accept a greater degree of personal
responsibility. It will help them resolve their
individual, marital, family and job
performance problems. As a result, their
productivity and attendance will improve.
22. FEATURES
• Direct Access: Employees call the psychologist's office
directly.
• Quick Response: The first counselling session occurs within
a few days, and a crisis is dealt with immediately.
• Professional: Counsellors have their Doctorate degree in
clinical psychology, and are experts in human behaviour.
• Confidentiality: The employer never knows who uses the
service.
• Off-Site: Counselling takes place at the Psychologist's office.
• Direct Treatment: Referrals are made only when the patient
requires another specialist or long-term care.
• Appropriate Coverage: 24 hours a day hot-line with offices in
towns and cities in which employees are located
23. • Employees and their household members may use EAPs to
help manage issues in their work and personal lives. EAP
counsellors typically provide assessment, support, and, if
needed, referrals to additional resources. The issues for
which EAPs provide support vary, but examples include:
• Substance abuse
• Safe working environment
• Emotional distress
• Major life events, including births, accidents and deaths
• Health care concerns
• Financial or legal concerns
• Family/personal relationship issues
• Work relationship issues
• Concerns about aging parents
24. SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Substance abuse refers to the harmful or
hazardous use of psychoactive substances,
including alcohol and illicit drugs. Psychoactive
substance use can lead to dependence syndrome
- a cluster of behavioural, cognitive, and
physiological phenomena that develop after
repeated substance use and that typically include
a strong desire to take the drug, difficulties in
controlling its use, persisting in its use despite
harmful consequences, a higher priority given to
drug use than to other activities and obligations,
increased tolerance, and sometimes a physical
withdrawal state.
25. People abuse substances such as drugs, alcohol,
and tobacco for varied and complicated reasons,
but it is clear that our society pays a significant
cost. The toll for this abuse can be seen in our
hospitals and emergency departments through
direct damage to health by substance abuse and
its link to physical trauma. Jails and prisons tally
daily the strong connection between crime and
drug dependence and abuse. Although use of
some drugs such as cocaine has declined, use of
other drugs such as heroin and "club drugs" has
increased.
26. Behavior Patterns That Could
Indicate A Potential Substance
Abuse Problem
• Absenteeism
• On-The-Job Absences
• High Accident Rates
• Job Performance Issues
• Poor Relationships with coworkers
27. MENTAL HEALTH
The World Health Organization defines
mental health as "a state of well-being in
which the individual realizes his or her own
abilities, can cope with the normal
stresses of life, can work productively and
fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution
to his or her community".
Mental health describes either a level
of cognitive or emotional well-being or an
absence of a mental disorder.
28. MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
• Individual adjustment problems
• External factors
• Divorce and marital problems
• Depression and suicide attempts
• Difficulties with family or children
• Legal and financial problems
29. • EAPs are based on the premise that work is very
important to people, the work itself is not the cause
of the employee’s problem. Consequently, the
workplace can be a means to get people help.
• The supervisor plays a key role in getting help for
the employee. Often, however, the supervisor
denies the problem and even enables the troubled
employee to continue the problem behavior. The
supervisor is critical in confrontational process with
the troubled employee. Therefore, education is
necessary to eliminate the supervisor’s tendency
to enable the employee by denying the problem.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR
EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
30. • Information about the employee’s job performance
is extremely important in diagnosis and treatment.
It can be used to measure and track whether
treatment is successful.
• Workplace peers and union stewards are very
important, however they too can deny the problem
and enable the employee to continue the behavior.
Teaching them to confront and consequently break
the denial barrier is an important element.
• Job leverage is the key ingredient in helping an
employee. The counselor must be able to use this
in conjunction with supervisor.
• EAPs concentrate on job performance issues. They
are not intended to be medical programs.
31. • Cost – effectiveness is an important consideration
and must be addressed with upper management.
• The EAP professional’s knowledge about addiction
is paramount. Every EAP should be staffed by
licensed professional s who are familiar with
addictions and other employee personal problem.
32. EFFECTIVENESS OF EAPs
• Effectiveness is “generally accepted”
• Estimated 50% to 85% effectiveness rate
• Estimated savings of $2 to $20 per dollar invested
in EAP
• However, much EAP evaluation is subjective, and
strongly criticized
33. EAPs AND THE HRD PROFESSIONAL
• EAPs are often housed within the HRD area of
the organization
• HRD must determine:
– Costs vs. benefits of the program in monetary
terms
– Whether it’s cheaper to replace an individual
than to successfully treat that person
• Healthcare organizations are increasingly
involved in EAPs (behavioral healthcare
management)
34. WHAT IS STRESS ?
•Stress is the “wear and tear” our minds and bodies
experience as we attempt to cope with our continually
changing environment.
•SOURCES OF STRESS:
1) internal
2) external
35. THE ALARM REACTION
• Increased gland activity
• Increased heart beat and respiration
• Elevated blood pressure
• Body poised for action
• Insomnia
FIGHT OR FLIGHT REACTION
38. ORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORS
• Factors intrinsic to job
• Organizational structure and control
• Reward systems
• Human resource systems
• Leaderships
39.
40. SMIs
Stress management interventions or programs are defined
as “any activity, program or opportunity initiated by an
organization, which focuses on reducing the presence of
work – related stressors or an assisting individuals to
minimize the negative outcomes of exposures to these
stressors”
42. EFFECTIVENESS OF SMIs
• Look for specific issues with employees
• Assessment
• Specific and focused solutions
• Strategic interventions
• Evaluation and feedback
43. EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND
HEALTH PROMOTION
PROGRAMS
• Employee wellness programs (EWPs) or Health
Promotion Programs (HPPs) are made up of activities
that ensure employee health and fitness.
• Wellness is more than mere absence of disease.
• These Programs attempt to encourage individuals to
adopt lifestyle that maximize overall well-being.
44. Three Levels of Fitness and
Wellness Programs
• O’Donnell describes three levels at which
fitness and wellness programs can be
implemented.
• Level 1 – primarily educational without
interventions
• Level 2 – seeks to bring about direct
change:
– Supervised exercise, fitness centers, etc.
• Level 3 – institutionalized wellness
45. Ten Dimensions of Work Site
Wellness
• Heirich described 10 dimensions of worksite
wellness programs:
1.Establishing a Constructive wellness policy
2. Conducting wellness screening
3.Establishing Working relationships with
community resources
4. Employee referrals to treatment and health-
improvement interventions.
5. Menu-approach to health improvement
46. Ten Dimensions of Work Site
Wellness
6. Outreach and follow-up counseling
7. wellness events carried for entire
organization.
8. Worksite policies and systems
9. Ongoing evaluation of wellness process
10. Periodic evaluation of cost-benefits of
wellness programs
47. Exercise and Fitness
Interventions
1. Most popular interventions
2. Even modest exercise helps prevent
disease
3. Research shows effectiveness
Problem: Getting those who would benefit
the most to exercise
48. Smoking Cessation Programs
• Smoking: most publicized health risk
• Cost per smoking employee: $2,853
per year more than nonsmokers
• Measuring effectiveness:
– Quit rate
– Percentage of smokers in program
• Cost Benefit: $8 saved for $1 spent
49. Nutrition and Weight
Control
• Obesity: 30% or more over one’s “ideal”
weight
• 30% of Americans are obese; another 34%
are overweight
• Obesity causes hypertension,
musculoskeletal problems, high blood
sugar, and cholesterol levels
• Competition helps program effectiveness
50. Control of Hypertension
• Hypertension – blood pressure greater than
140/90 repeatedly over time
• Greater incidence of heart disease and
stroke
– Control through, exercise, weight loss,
medication, stress reduction and low salt diet
• Benefit: $1.89 to $2.72 reduction in health
claims per dollar spent on program
51. Overall Effectiveness of Health
and Wellness Programs
• Organizations should have multiple components to
their health and wellness programs
• Studies and Research demonstrate reductions in
sick leave, health plan costs, and worker’s
compensation costs of over 25%.
• Challenge :
1. To get more organizations to implement such
inclusive wellness programs
2. To see that more individuals take part in them.
52. 52
Issues in Employee Counseling
1. Effectiveness of programs
2. Legal issues
3. Who is responsible for counseling?
4. Ethical issues
5. Unintended negative outcomes
53. Effectiveness of Counseling
• Determine organizational demographics
• Determine expected participation rates
• Estimate start-up and maintenance costs
• Implement test and tracking system
• Measure pre- and post program
• Analyze results for users and non-users
• Do present and future cost-benefit
analyses
54. Legal Issues
• Using counseling programs to comply
with legislation may increase liability to
lawsuits:
– Must be equally available to all
– Erroneous assessments are made
• Injuries in wellness/fitness programs
can lead to lawsuits
56. Ethical Issues
• Confidentiality:
– Records should be held in strictest
confidence, and kept separate from the
employee’s regular personnel file
– Release only with specific employee
permission
• Nature of Participation:
– Mandatory versus voluntary
58. Potential Unintended Negative
Outcomes
• Increased worker’s compensation costs
• Employee scheduling problems, increased
fatigue, lower performance
• Conflicts at work over smoking bans
59. Closing Thoughts
• EAPs show that companies care
• HRD professionals have the skills
and expertise to provide EAP
information
• Promoting employee health and
well-being can contributes positively
to an organization’s bottom line.
60. Summary
• Employee well-being affects ability,
availability, and readiness to perform a job
• Employee counseling encompasses a lot of
areas
• It is an HRD function that:
– Ensures that employees are now effective
contributors to the organization, and that they will
continue to be in the future
– Needs professionals who are qualified to deal
with the difficult issues involved with this topic
