Keeping Your Workforce Engaged During Layoffs

eni rises to the economic challenge by supporting employees, management, and Human Resource through uncertain and stressful times.

eni, a national leader of corporate wellness and productivity solutions including Employee Assistance and Wellness Programs, provides services that educate, engage and empower your workforce.

In this time of uncertainty, corporations need the support of a proactive EAP such as eni to keep their workforce functioning at its maximum potential. Layoffs create an undeniable amount of stress on everyone involved, and attention must be paid to keeping your surviving employees engaged and productive to avoid future layoffs.

The natural reaction to stress is to turn inward rather than reach out for help. Withdrawn employees will struggle with relationships, health and motivation. The result; employees that were once considered top talent are now absent, more susceptible to illness and depression, and far less productive than this economy will allow. Your employee suffers, your customers suffer, and ultimately, business suffers.

Now is the time to be proactive before anxiety escalates. To help our clients lead their workforce through this stressful time, we work in partnership to establish two-way communication by creating special promotions or newsletters. To avoid harmful gossip, we establish confidential HR hotlines where employees receive valid answers to their questions.

This is a good time to conduct a quick survey where we assess issues and concerns, with the confidential protection employees’ trust from their EAP.

We also suggest increasing the awareness of your EAP benefit to your employees and their family members who share the stress. We often send our counselors and trainers for on-site support or stress management training, dedicating time to the ever-important frontline supervisors.

Most importantly, we believe in supporting HR Executives, who often incur the most stresses during the layoff process. By understanding our customer’s situation, expectations and pressures, we work to provide a full spectrum of support – professionally and personally – to keep you at your best during this difficult time.

The Mental Health Parity Act

With the passage of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, many employers are wondering what the ramifications will be, and how they can manage higher costs for mental health and addiction benefits.

As a leading provider of EAP benefits, eni is well acquainted with these concerns. Nation-wide, our clients are doing more with fewer resources.

The Mental Health Parity Act calls for mental health and addiction treatment benefits to be as accessible and as affordable as medical/surgical benefits.

As many as 5 percent of companies may react to this legislation by dropping mental health coverage altogether, rather than finding ways to make the coverage comparable to medical coverage.

A well-coordinated EAP provider can be a company’s best ally in terms of managing these costs. For companies that continue to offer mental health and addiction treatment benefits, an EAP can help reduce costs. EAPs focus heavily on prevention of not only physical ailments but mental health and substance use issues as well. By implementing a comprehensive wellness program, EAP programs can lower a company’s health care utilization costs across the board.

At eni, we employ a staff of skilled mental health professionals to conduct thorough, confidential screenings when employees seek mental health and addiction treatment services. Acting in this role as “gatekeepers,” EAP professionals can identify issues sooner, suggest pro-active approaches and, as a result, reduce company costs.

For companies that choose to discontinue mental health benefits, an EAP with a rich and comprehensive work/life program (e.g. 10 instead of 3 sessions for instance) can provide employees at least a measure of mental health care.

Perhaps the most important role that a well-managed EAP plays is as a strategic partner to both organization and individual employees’ wellness initiatives. We have found that, with a highly engaging and customizable wellness program, employee participation skyrockets, productivity increases, and organizations get a clear picture of risk factors. By removing the guesswork and conjecture from the process of choosing benefits, every dollar is spent the most efficiently.

If you would like more information about a customizable EAP with work/life solutions click here.