I must admit that the last few months have been very exciting for me and Perspectives Ltd. As I have mentioned on other occasions, Perspectives and I have been providing services to the workplace for almost 30 years, primarily via EAPs. And during that time, we have seen the workplace and the EAP field change and grow.
Along the way, we’ve been changing and growing too. And last week, Perspectives made an announcement that we’re really excited about because it furthers our mission of providing high quality EAP services. We purchased another Chicago-based EAP company with a high-touch service delivery model and philosophy similar to our own: Creative Care Management (CCM). This organization, like ours, has been around for 30 years.
So why did we make this move? Of course, the opportunity to increase our revenue base was appealing. But an even greater draw was the opportunity to provide high quality programs to organizations in need of an employee relations partner, to deepen our footprint in education and small government and to serve a greater number of businesses headquartered in and around the Chicagoland area. It also gives us additional office locations and staff to add to our mix.
We also chose CCM because its CEO, Mike Davis, agreed to join us as Vice President of Account Services to ensure a seamless transition and support business development. I can’t tell you how great it is to have him on our team.
We will continue to deliver consistent and enhanced services to all of our customers – old and new – and are committed to quality and stability of those services. In keeping with this tradition of quality, we are individualizing the transition experience for each and every customer that’s brought into Perspectives EAP as a result of the acquisition. Mike Davis and I are personally managing that process.
Believe me, this is only an initial step in our long-term growth plan which includes pursuit of similar acquisitions. We’d like to find more EAP companies interested in joining the Perspectives team and delivering the high-touch experience to their customers. We believe that the marketplace wants and needs this kind of service now more than ever.
Thanks to everyone that has helped support this growth – our customers, our partners, peers and our staff. Check out the announcement via the link below and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
Perspectives Ltd Acquires Creative Care Management
Chicago-based EAP expands; purchases business with similar high-touch service delivery model and philosophy
Tags: acquisition, Bernie Dyme, business, CCM, Creative Care Management, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, high-touch EAP, Mike Davis, Perspectives, Perspectives Ltd, purchase
This morning, I read something that really disturbed me. It was a blog about Roy Hobbs, a Chicago native, veteran journalist and weekend television anchor in Birmingham, Alabama who was arrested in April on drug charges. He was a prominent personality who was afflicted with drug addiction and needed help.
Roy Hobbs, a Chicago native, veteran journalist and weekend television anchor in Birmingham, Alabama arrested on drug charges
To make matters worse, he claims that his employee assistance program (EAP) failed him. One article stated that “he wants people to know that many employee assistance programs are ineffective. When he needed a professional to “talk me off the ledge” on that fateful Friday, all who were available until Monday were volunteers, he said. Monday would have been too late.”
I’m not sure who his EAP was but is not standard for EAPs to have volunteers on call. (I’d be interested to know if that was actually the case.) In fact, any EAP worth its weight in salt will have professionals on call after hours and on weekends.
EAPs are there for this very purpose; to assist those in need when they need the help with professionals who understand depression, alcoholism and drug abuse and many other issues that can have devastating effects on the lives of employees and their family members.
So, maybe this is s a good time to plug high quality, high touch EAPs.
Unfortunately, there are many EAPs out there that are “free” or “are bundled into some insurance product.” The main problem with these, as I have stated before, is that they don’t promote their value or even their existence. This is a problem because prevention and early intervention should be one of the main goals of a good EAP.
So, audit your EAP and ask the following questions:
- How active are they in promoting their services to employees and what are they doing to promote them?
- How easy is it to access their services?
- Who does answer the phones after hours (hopefully not an “answering service” with no experience or qualifications)?
- What kind of utilization is your program getting & what kind of utilization?
- Is it online or are their phone people actually speaking with and helping callers?
For more information, see “If EAP Is Invisible, You’re Not Seeing ROI” on our website if you want to dig deeper and are looking for more probing questions to ask. And if you don’t have an EAP, get a GOOD & VISIBLE ONE!
Tags: audit eap, Bernie Dyme, drug abuse, drug charges, EAP, employee assistance, Perspectives, Perspectives Ltd, Roy Hobbs
As floods plague communities around the Chicago area, many businesses and their employees are being affected. Basic survival instincts have kicked-in as families, whose homes have been damaged or destroyed, fight to find warm beds, food and clothing.
Organizations like the Red Cross often provide some initial stress or grief counseling as part of their relief efforts. But even after the initial crisis has been triaged, employees may need help coping with stress, anxiety and daily living. Your hardworking, dedicated staff is likely to be distracted from work by a sense of loss and the stress of rebuilding their lives – while at the same time being fearful of not being effective at work when they need a job most.
Employee assistance programs (EAPs) can help you and your employees cope with these types of circumstances more than you may realize. A few simple steps that I recommend for HR managers include:
- Talk to your Account Manager about the specific challenges faced by your workforce. EAP Account Managers can make recommendations best suited for helping your organization – whether that means having the EAP manage confidential financial assistance programs, providing on-site groups for employees, known as Critical Incident Stress Debriefings (CISDs), or delivering other training, support and services.
- Remind employees that dedicated counselors are just a phone call away. Our EAP provides phone and in-person counseling options. Counselors can help employees cope with the emotional strain of the event and create an action plan for working towards a positive outcome. And, we may be able to identify additional resources to help with an employee’s specific flood-related needs.
- Direct employees to online resources. Ask your EAP about relevant online resources to help your staff. Every single organization that uses our EAP, and every single one of their employees, has access to our Perspectives Online service. Multiple tools, tips and types of guidance are provided there. Simply doing a search for the word “flood” turns up guidance on managing flood-related stress, filing insurance claims, repairing your home and more.
We also manage financial assistance programs for a number of our customers and have seen use of those programs. Our role there is to assess the need for assistance, make sure that program criteria are met and match employees with financial help – all confidentially. A good example of that kind of program is available as a case study on our website.
We’ve received a number of calls from employees affected by the flood already, so we know there is a need for help right now.
Our hearts go out to those that are struggling with this. No matter what type of EAP you have, it can’t hurt to call. And, if you have a high-touch EAP, you might be surprised how much they can help.
Tags: Chicago, chicago floods, counseling, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, HR, HR managers, Perspectives, Rick Kronberg
Looking for more information about legal issues impacting the workplace?
This month, Jon Vegosen points us to a variety of resources with insights on employment law developments.
Parental Leave Provisions of the FMLA Expanded
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has expanded the parental leave provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to cover nontraditional families, including same-sex partners. Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd. (FVLD) provides more information about this development in our July newsletter prepared by Orley Moskovits Desser.
Texting While Driving Regulations Increase Risk of Liability for Employers
Federal, state, and municipal regulations concerning texting while driving can put employers at increased risk of liability for automobile accidents that are caused by employees who send text messages while driving. My law partner, Damon Dunn, and I recently had an article about this topic published in HR Advisor: Legal and Practical Guidance. There is a link to the article on the FVLD website.
Is Your Website Accommodating?
The July edition of the American Bar Association of the Section of Labor and Employment Law has an interesting article by Leah P. VanLandschoot regarding what websites are places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Employers that fall into one of the designated groupings are required to make fully accessible to individuals with disabilities the goods and services they offer on their websites. For more information visit the American Bar Association website.
Effective Interviewing
With the United States beginning to emerge from the worst economic climate in eight decades, hiring new employees may be the last thing on some employers’ minds. There are signs, however, that things are improving on the hiring front. Some companies, especially Wall Street firms, have begun hiring. The EEOC announced on its website that it is hiring in many locations across the country, including investigators, mediators, attorneys and administrative and clerical positions. If your organization is going to be hiring, are your managers prepared to conduct effective interviews? Do they know how to structure an interview? An article I wrote for Consulting Magazine on this topic may prove helpful to them.
Jon Vegosen is a founding member of Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd. and has more than 33 years experience practicing law. He is nationally recognized for his work in labor and employment relations and is sought after as an author and spokesperson on labor and employment issues.
Tags: American Bar Association, Americans with Disabilities, DOL, effective interviewing, employees, employment law, FMLA, FVLD, Jon Vegosen, labor, liability, parental leave, public accomodation, texting
Healthcare costs aside, Illinois businesses may be paying dearly for bad employee habits.
Illinois ranks among the worst states in the nation for binge drinking (47th) and smoking (38th), according to the July 5th issue of Crain’s Chicago Business.
When you take a closer look at the data, which comes from the United Health Foundation’s “America’s Health Rankings” report, you learn that more than 19% of Illinois residents binge drink and more than 21% smoke.
That’s a hefty chunk of the population, and likely a hefty chunk of the workforce.
We know that these types of behaviors impact employers through their healthcare premiums but businesses also get slammed via:
- Increased absenteeism
- Job-related errors
- Increased presenteeism
- On-the-clock ‘breaks’
- Supervisor/colleague frustration & overall decrease in morale
If a significant percentage of your workforce is engaging in these activities, the rest of your business is being affected. You’re losing productivity. You’re losing potential profit. You’re probably losing patience. And you may be losing once effective and loyal employees who have contributed to your organization in the past.
When you want to hang onto your people, but you need to enhance their performance, employee assistance programs, smoking cessation programs, wellness programs and supervisory training programs to help managers identify and manage potential problems, may be a smart investment.
I know that we’re in a challenging economy, but that alone may be a good reason to take measures that prevent healthcare premiums from going up and improve profit potential.
Your employee assistance program (EAP) can help you more than you may think.
We’ve extended our services far beyond the traditional substance abuse services of the early days, although we still provide managed behavioral health. Today, we’re really about broader cost prevention and issues management on the employee relations level – dealing with any and all issues that crop up as the result of employing a workforce. Issues that blur the lines of wellness, productivity, stress and morale – like tobacco addiction and early substance abuse intervention – are right up our alley.
If your workforce resembles Illinois’ ‘vital’ statistics, you may want to give your EAP a call for ideas that cut long-term costs but make sure it is a proactive and visible program
Tags: absenteeism, Bernie Dyme, binge drinking, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, health care, healthcare costs, illinois, managed behavioral health, morale, Perspectives, Perspectives Ltd, presenteeism, smoking, substance abuse, tobacco
Yesterday, CBS news reported that Chicago has the worst heroin problem in the U.S.
The report, based on research by Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, claims that there were 23,000 mentions of heroin in emergency room records in Chicago and its suburbs.
That has a huge impact on employer healthcare costs and productively regardless of whether it’s an employee or one of their dependants that’s the user.
False stereotypes may also be blinding employers from seeing who the real culprits are. Experts state that heroin users are “more white, more female, and much younger than is the common perception.”
The Consortium makes several recommendations regarding government policy and funding, but I’d like to remind businesses that they can do something to protect themselves now: involve your employee assistance program (EAP).
EAP costs pennies-on-the-dollar compared to other benefits, such as healthcare, and acts as a cost prevention tool that protects against escalating healthcare expenditures, lawsuits, absenteeism and lost productivity. And, EAP is usually available to all of an employee’s family members at no additional cost.
“It’s cheaper to buy heroin than… to buy a movie ticket. That’s really frightening,” Kate Mahoney, executive director of PEER Services, told CBS Station WBBM.
At Perspectives Ltd, we do several things to help HR and business leaders proactively prevent, identify and manage substance abuse issues impacting their workforce:
- We provide training to supervisors and managers to help them identify substance abuse by employees
- We consult with HR about how to intervene with an employee when needed
- We promote the EAP within organizations to ensure that it’s highly visible and utilized by employees and their family members when they want to speak with someone confidentially about addiction issues
- We help manage behavioral health cases when chemical dependency treatment is needed
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like some additional insights into how EAP can help protect your organization. The type of EAP you select does matter when it comes to cost prevention and ROI.
Terry Cahill is Vice President of Development and Principal of Perspectives Ltd. He has 30 years experience in the behavioral healthcare market and has been in the employee assistance programs (EAP) and work/life field for more than 20 years.
Tags: Chicago, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, ER visits, healthcare costs, heroin, managed behavioral health, MBH, Perspectives Ltd, Roosevelt University's Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, Terry Cahill
The deadline is July 1, 2010 but many companies are still struggling to understand compliance.
As a provider of employee assistance program (EAP) and managed behavioral health (MBH) services, Perspectives Ltd is in a unique position to help employees before they tap into a businesses’ mental health benefit.
That can really cut costs for an employer.
We’re doing this by helping organizations understand how to position EAP and MBH in response to mental health parity law.
The implementation of parity makes EAP prevention and assessment roles even more important. EAP will continue to play a role that compliments MBH services, even as EAPs role as a gatekeeper to mental health benefits is being reviewed.
If you need help understanding how mental health parity may impact your organization, feel free to contact me.
In addition, here are a few steps you can take to evaluate parity needs for your business:
- Ask the question: “When it comes to behavioral health, what are the goals of our organization?”
- Evaluate the financial and treatment limitations of your existing medical benefits. How do they compare to your medical /surgical benefit?
- Consult your benefits advisor and your employee assistance program (EAP) for help positioning EAP and MBH in response to mental health parity law.
- Develop objective criteria for deciding what treatments and treatment settings will be covered.
- Document, or have your managed behavioral healthcare partner document, how to best align medical management processes with parity regulations.
- Have a strong rationale for the choices you make. Regulatory bodies will consider “good faith” interpretations of the law.
Terry Cahill is Vice President of Development and Principal of Perspectives Ltd. He has 30 years experience in the behavioral healthcare market and has been in the employee assistance programs (EAP) and work/life field for more than 20 years.
Additionally, he networks with organizations in Chicago and nationwide, including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the National Behavioral Consortium (NBC), to evaluate how parity is impacting businesses.
Tags: EAP, employee assistance, managed behavioral health, MBH, mental health parity, parity law, Perspectives Ltd, Terry Cahill
Jon Vegosen briefs us on important developments regarding employee texting.
The United States Supreme Court addressed employer monitoring of employees’ text messages for the first time on June 17, 2010 in the case City of Ontario v. Quon. The opinion underscores the need for employers to address text messaging and other newer forms of electronic communication in the policies they issue to their employees.
The Court held that a police department’s audit of text messages by an officer who had repeatedly exceeded the department plan’s monthly character limit did not violate the officer’s Fourth Amendment rights. During the audit, intended to determine whether the character limit was too low, the department came across a number of personal and often graphic messages the officer sent while on duty.
While the Fourth Amendment applies only to public employers, courts apply a similar analysis to privacy claims by non-government employees.
The Need for Privacy Policies
The court refrained from deciding whether employees have an expectation of privacy in text messages, instead deciding the police department’s search would be reasonable regardless. Absent a clear rule regarding employees’ expectations of privacy in text messages, it is largely up to employers to shape these expectations.
Even employers who do not foresee monitoring employees’ communications need to keep their options open in case the need arises. Employers should make clear that employer issued communication devices are subject to monitoring or searching and that employees do not have a right to privacy in connection with these devices. While many employers program their computers to display a warning to this effect every time an employee logs on, this might not be feasible for other communication devices. It is therefore important that employers regularly communicate their monitoring policies and confirm employees’ acknowledgement of them.
After adopting such a policy – and ensuring that employees read and sign it – employers should make sure not to informally downplay the policy or make any assurances that they will not enforce the policy. While the Supreme Court did not review this issue, the appellate court in Quon found that the police department may have effectively waived its policy by verbally assuring officers that their communications would not be searched as long as they paid for any overage charges.
Conducting Permissible Searches
The Supreme Court also provided guidance regarding what kind of search an employer may conduct. First, it held that a search should be conducted for a work-related purpose. In Quon, for instance, the search was intended to determine whether the department needed to change its text messaging plan, not to investigate the officer’s private life. The Court held that the fact the search unintentionally discovered personal text messages was irrelevant. One of my partners, Damon Dunn, emphasized this point in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. As Damon put it, employees “need to anticipate their communication devices may be monitored for seemingly routine business purposes, even if the search reveals intimate and embarrassing information.”
Second, the court held that the scope of a search must be reasonable and the search must be targeted towards the employer’s legitimate, work-related purpose. The Quon Court rejected the argument that an employer must conduct searches in the least intrusive possible way – for instance, by allowing the employee to redact his personal messages beforehand. It did, however, compliment the department’s efforts to minimize intrusiveness by redacting off duty texts and limiting its search to a two month sample.
Third, the Court indicated that it would look favorably upon searches that are in accordance with the employer’s policies and guidelines.
Finally, the Court held that the fact that the department’s service provider might have violated the federal Stored Communications Act by turning over the officer’s text messages to the police department did not render the department’s own search unreasonable. This holding offers some comfort to employers because it indicates that they should be able to search employee communications hosted by third parties to the same extent that they can search communications on their own systems without risking additional liability under statutes aimed at service providers. Still, employers should not collude with or encourage service providers to illegally turn over employee information.
Jon Vegosen is a founding member of Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd. and has more than 33 years experience practicing law. He is nationally recognized for his work in labor and employment relations and is sought after as an author and spokesperson on labor and employment issues.
Tags: employe texting, employment law, Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn, FVLD, Jon Vegosen, Ontario v. Quon, Perspectives, texting
Throughout history people have invented new ways to get high – as an escape from the stress of daily life and real problems that need to be faced.
Today is no exception.
Perspectives Ltd’s Employee Assistance program (EAP) Counselors regularly speak with employees from every walk of life, facing every kind of challenge. Those conversations are confidential, between patient and counselor, but we do look for trends affecting groups of people.
Recently, we’ve begun to see use of a new substance in Northwest Indiana. And, technically, it’s legal – although it can still dampen your workforce productivity and escalate legal concerns if your employees have accidents on the job while under the influence.
As far as we understand, the substance is made in China and is a mix of spices and herbs that is sprayed with a synthetic compound similar to Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC,) more commonly known as Marijuana.
The product is sold as incense, but people are smoking it to get high. It comes in one gram packages and is sold for $10-$20, depending on its strength. Police have been arresting users for public intoxication, but cannot arrest for them for possession.
So what does that mean for HR and business leaders?
The most important thing you can do is be observant about your workforce. If you’re in Northern Illinois, Northern Indiana or another area of the country where this substance is gaining in popularity, keep an eye out for employees that are exhibiting a change in behavior. If you have instances of employees who appear intoxicated yet are coming up negative on drug tests and alcohol tests, this may be the reason.
And, be aware of the indirect consequences of this substance. Employees with teenagers may be impacted by this at home and that can affect their work performance.
Finally, be alert if you hear employees or family members talking about it. The substance goes by several names, including:
- Black Magic
- Black Mamba
- Gonjah
- K2
- Mr. Dutchy
- Mr. Smiley
- P.E.P. Pourri
- Proze Smoke
- Warlock
Workforces with younger populations and parents with teens are probably at the greatest risk.
If you need help, or you think you have employees that need help themselves or for their family, contact your EAP. We can assess the situation and provide counsel to the people in need – whether that means individual employees, or helping you address the challenge from a human resource perspective.
We’re well versed in helping people and organizations manage substance abuse issues. But we need you to make that first call.
Rick Kronberg, Director of Clinical Services at Perspectives Ltd, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with more than 25 years experience leading professional work teams, directing strategic planning and growth and managing operations of behavioral health and human capital organizations.
Tags: black majic, black mamba, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, gonjah, k2, marijuana, Mr. Dutchy, Mr. Smiley, P.E.P. Pourri, parents with teenagers, Perspectives Ltd, Proze Smoke, Rick Kronberg, substance abuse, Warlock, workplace
Recently, I opened up my “Google Alerts” and saw a story about Federal benefits being extended to same-sex domestic partners. I was immediately excited to see the President of the United States opening up benefits beyond traditional family members – and that an employee assistance program (EAP) was included.
Although I’m delighted by this decision, it occurs to me that this expanded definition of “family members,” when limited to “covered beneficiaries” as it is with many EAPs, is not really maximizing the full benefit of an EAP.
At Perspectives, a stand-alone EAP company, we believe that EAPs should be provided to covered beneficiaries as well as those who may not be covered by health insurance. This includes adult children, parents, siblings, significant others (whether of the same or opposite sex,) etc. This more expansive definition of “family” for EAP is based on the premise that anyone close to the employee can affect their life and therefore their work performance.
Unfortunately, EAPs offered for “free” or at a nominal fee through group health insurance often limit access to those covered by the health plan. That’s where the type of EAP an organization offers really delivers different results – high touch EAPs provide better services to more people. And, in order to do this effectively, it can’t be free. With EAP services, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” is very true.
High touch EAPs provide significant value as a workplace tool. EAP translates into dollars saved in terms of accident prevention, less absenteeism, lower health care costs to name a few. In fact, EAP provides preventative and rehabilitative services that enable employees to be more engaged and therefore more able to contribute to the overall productivity and profit of any organization.
In order to be most effective, however, EAP must be accessible and available to anyone who may have an effect on the employee.
If, as an employee, you are worried about a teenager, an elderly parent or a 50 year old sister who lives 800 miles away, it affects your performance. This is where EAP can be extremely helpful; by providing resources to your sister or assistance in dealing with care logistics. The EAP can also help you – and her – deal with the personal stress.
Isn’t it logical that the more access you and your “family” have to help, and the more help you receive, the more likely you are to be able to continue contributing by effectively performing your job?
So, thank you Mr. President for recognizing the importance of EAP and the need to provide these services to a broader array of individuals who may have an impact upon those employees.
I do believe that if you are truly concerned about getting this economy back on track, then encouraging the use of high touch, quality EAPs as a tool for keeping employees engaged and developing a loyal workforce should be a key component of your strategy. What’s even more compelling is that this service can appeal to everyone because it won’t cost the government anything.
Tags: benefits, Bernie Dyme, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, family, Obama, Perspectives, same sex
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