April 2004   In This Issue...   Front Page   Value Model   Toolbox   Integrated Program   Risk Management   Outcomes Connections Regulatory   Update Research   Review Interact   Member     Exchange     Forum Feedback	Proving Value Through Assisting Risk Management Jim Crockett, Manager, Risk and Employee Benefits, Denver Water, Denver, Colorado If an employee has a problem, that problem doesn’t cease to exist when s/he walks through the plant doors, and it doesn’t start up again when s/he leaves. Whether the problem is marital or financial in nature or related to an illness or any other issue, it exists 24 hours a day. As a risk manager, I see first-hand how such problems can affect a person’s safety and productivity. Sometimes these problems can affect others in the workplace as well. This is especially true with respect to violence in the workplace. When a battered spouse or a stalked spouse comes to work, the violence can follow this person to the door and, at some companies, it has resulted in innocent people being hurt or killed. Because I’m in the human resources area, and workers’ compensation and the EAP also happen to be in human resources in my organization, I enjoy a sort of cross-relationship between employee benefits, workers’ compensation, risk management, and employee assistance. For example, I have access to quarterly reports showing the number and types of EAP contacts. These reports are extremely helpful to me in my role as a risk manager. Let’s say the quarterly EAP report shows they’ve received a lot of calls from the customer service area, and the calls are all related to the same subject--stress created by a supervisor, say, or an unsafe condition. As a risk manager, when I learn about these complaints, I certainly want to get to the bottom of what’s happening. I don’t want to learn about the problem later, when it begins to show up in the form of workers’ compensation claims. Unhappy employees are more likely to file workers’ comp complaints than satisfied employees. They’re also more likely to file other types of complaints, such as for racial discrimination, sex discrimination, or any number of other reasons. More often than not, employees’ complaints will relate to an individual supervisor or a supervisory policy. These types of cases call for tact and discretion--you have to find a way to explain to a supervisor that a number of employees have been complaining about his/her management style. You want to do it in a way that motivates the supervisor to improve his/her management style, not seek retribution or withdraw into a shell. It’s difficult, but it’s something that has to be done. As a risk manager, I want to prevent small problems from becoming big problems. That’s where an EAP can best prove its value to a risk manager--by identifying and helping resolve issues and problems as they arise, not after they’ve been allowed to fester for weeks or months. For example, stress is often a key factor in many workplace illnesses and injuries. Our EAP tries to reduce stress levels through brown-bag programs and by discussing relaxation techniques in our wellness newsletter. In these and other ways, the EAP helps keeps stress from become a risk management issue. Unfortunately, risk managers in a lot of other companies aren’t in the human resources area, so they don’t have the degree of access to their EAP that I have. It becomes a jurisdictional challenge for them to establish a strong relationship with the EAP staff, so a lot of times it doesn’t happen. I think risk managers and EAPs share a common goal and ought to be in a position to work with each other for the good of the entire organization. DISCUSSION (Member Exchange Forum)   Back Issues   Top of Page   Contact EAPA   © 2004 Exhange On-Line is a publication of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, Inc. (EAPA). Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly prohibited. Publication of bylined articles does not constitute endorsement of personal views of authors. Appearance of paid advertisements does not constitute endorsement by EAPA.	Vol. 2    No. 1