By Jeff Russ, PhD, CHRP

In a 2005 PeopleTalk article, entitled “Workplace Addiction: Treat it as a Disability,” Doris Toovey suggested 12 strategies to flush out unreported addictions in the workplace, assure that employees received the assistance they needed and reduce employer costs.  Toovey’s strategies made a very good case; their potential benefit and undiminished relevance to the ROI of any organization remains.

Establishing Metrics: Addiction and Absenteeism

However, to actually test those strategies, several things needed to be done. First, the strategies had to be focused on a single metric of the costs to employers; the measure that was chosen was absenteeism. Second, the strategies needed to be rephrased in such a way to enable HR professionals to define, monitor, and implement those strategies consistently in various organization. Third, here in BC, where the bulk of employees are covered by collective agreements, the actual testing or implementation of these strategies should have strong union support. Finally, to assure that HR had de facto “permission” to test or implement these strategies, it was important to determine what strategies union members would perceive as effective and be willing to support in order to facilitate managerial implementation.

7 Steps For Healthy Consideration

This article addresses the results of a recent survey with the Prince George District Teacher’s Association. Below are the union member’s reiteration of seven of Tovey’s 12  original strategies perceived as effective with management support:

• Reform EAP/Group Health Plans by assuring that the company provided mental health/substance abuse plan will cover up to the cost of one full residential treatment program for each family member per year;
• Develop flexible return-to-work by developing of a joint labor-management committee to review, analyze, and reconnect return-to-work employee progress on an individual-by-individual case;
• Educate managers on relationship between mental & physical illness by providing training to managers four days a year as a team, regarding the relationship between mental health and physical illness;
• Reduce emotional work hazards through the development of a complaint process and a monthly review of any complaints through the joint-union management committee;
• Promote work and life balance policies by increasing the value of the benefit package to include employee additional funds for discretionary spending of up to a $1,000 annually for balance activities, such as health, sports, travel, and child/elder care;
• Encourage people to seek the necessary professional assistance through the marketing of the Employee Assistance Program through a new message sent with each pay stub); and
• Communicate the intent to eliminate the main sources of workplace stress with a quarterly newsletter, including such issues as  overwork, lack of clear instruction, unrealistic deadlines, harassment and discrimination, isolated working conditions, and conflict.

The results of this study may benefit human resources planning efforts in many environments. The principles behind this study and the proposed strategies could be utilized within any environment, as long as the proper input was secured from the employees prior to any implementation. The results may benefit not only the employees and the employer, but also family members impacted at home.

Mental Health: A Joint Initiative

The strategy of developing a joint union-management committee to review, analyze, and reconnect return-to-work employee progress on an individual-by-individual case basis reflects the opportunity to work collaboratively with the management on potential issues that concern both sides.

When colleagues may be abusing their sick time, the workers who remain may develop a sense of unfairness regarding the behavior of their union colleagues while management also needs to reduce the costs that are attributed to prolonged absences from work. This would become a responsibility of the joint committee, rather than a back to work management push alone, thus creating a more balanced perception of fairness.

The reduction of emotional work hazards through the development of a complaint process and a monthly review of any complaints through the joint-union management committee strategy offers a potential place to discuss issues outside of the formal grievance process. Constructive discussion honors the intelligence of both sides with a focus on creating a mutually agreeable solution and may eliminate the adversarial grievance process before it begins.

Communicating Care as a Core Value

Seeking to eliminate the main sources of workplace stress through open communication addresses multiple problems. When the employees sense that management is hearing or writing about a concern in a newsletter, this awareness is positive for both sides.

Reforming the EAP and group health plans to assure that the company provides a mental health-substance abuse plan, that will cover up to the cost of one full residential treatment program for each family member per year potentially, provides a new benefit to employees and their families. This could be a strategy where help away from the work place results in a work place performance improvement.

The education of the managers about the relationship between mental and physical illness provides intense training that is close to the work unit. This shifts the focus of the problem to the manager. If management is properly trained, they may be better able to defuse the problems that individuals may experience in the workplace.

As per encouraging people to seek the necessary professional assistance by the marketing the Employee Assistance Program via pay stubs should not to be considered personally intrusive. The employees may not be fully aware of the number of issues that an employee can bring to the EAP program. By offering a different message about the range of services available through the EAP, individuals that are impacted by the more usual issues, such as smoking cessation, may be encouraged to seek help.

Taking A Step Forward…

While each of the strategies merits exploration, not all need be applied to affect positive change in both absenteeism and workplace culture. To maximize the effectiveness of the strategies it is critical to identify which are received with the strongest support by senior executives, management and employees alike.  Where common ground meets the needs of both sides, the greatest potential exists for the establishment of mutually desired results.

The implementation of these evidence-based strategies for present and future industrial or counseling psychologists, therapists, human resources professionals, and other researchers represents a significant social change – particularly in the highly unionized labour environment within BC; it does so by giving employers de facto permission to further study or implement such strategies, better understand their individual roles in the return-to-work process, and improve knowledge about treatment approaches in return-to-work therapy programs.

…Towards a Healthy Return
This is the beginning of the process to strategically implement a mutually agreeable disability management process that will reduce absenteeism, flush out the unreported addictions or mental illness in the work place, assure that employees receive the assistance that they need, and reduce costs to the employer that occur due to unreported addictions or mental illness that underlies some absenteeism. The strategic, collaborative implementation of these strategies can be made in-house or through contracting with an HR management consulting firms.

Jeff Russ, PhD, MPA, ICADC, CHRP, and winner of the 2009 BCHRMA Award of Excellence (Prince George Living and Working Committee), is president of Resources United, providing HR consultation to clients across Canada and the Western States. This was Jeff’s dissertation topic; he can be reached at: resourcesunitedsupportiveservices@3web.net or 1-250-640-2020.

(PeopleTalk Winter 2011)