EAPA 2006 Annual World Conference SOS Consultants

“Jamming with EAP”Nashville, Tennessee USAOctober 6-8, 2006

Human Behavioral Risk Management SOS Consultants

Robert B. Johnson Ed.D., CEAPReidar Hansen LCSW, CEAP

EAPA – NashvilleOctober 7, 2006

SOS Consultants

The Abilene Paradox Jerry B. Harvey

The Abilene Paradox SOS Consultants

“Organizations frequently take actions in contradiction to what they really want to do and therefore defeat the very purposes they are trying to achieve”

The Abilene ParadoxSOS Consultants

“The inability to manage agreement is a major source of organization dysfunction”

Codependency SOS Consultants

“We lose the ability to confront, challenge, or intervene on each other – seduced by the temporary pleasure of agreement and meeting someone’s perceived needs”

Codependency SOS Consultants

• We Lose:• Ourselves• Our ability to risk• Our ability to challenge• Our opportunity for thinking “Out

of the box”• The possibility of a useful

paradigm shift

SOS Consultants

OrganizationalCodependency

Historic EAP SOS Consultants

• Designed to identify, confront, treat, and RTW alcoholic employees

• Holistic flavor

• Part of the “fabric” of the organization

Next Generation EAP SOS Consultants

• Expanded Problem Base

• Expanded Client Base

Managed Care Generation of EAP SOS Consultants

• Becoming just “X” free counseling visits

• EAP external to the organization

• Not integrated into the fabric of the organization

Employees as Assets SOS Consultants

Three kinds of assets in all organizations

Physical Financial

Human

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - SOS Consultants

Stephen Covey

P/PC Balance

Human Assets SOS Consultants

Predictable Maintenance Risks Risks

Human beings are either useful contributions to the organization or

accidents waiting to happen

Behavioral Risk Management

“Behavioral risk management applies to risks connected with the workplace behaviors of employees and organizations that have a (potential) negative impact on the productivity of an organization”

Rudy Yandrick, 1996, Behavioral Risk Management

Historic approach to Human Behavioral Risk Management

SOS Consultants

• Ignore

• Minimize -“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

• Blame the Employee – HR Example

KRAKATOA (Theory of Management)

Managing Human Behavioral Risk SOS Consultants

• Identify risks

• Develop plan to address

• Identify resources within organization

• Develop proactive maintenance schedule

Human Beings in the Workplace SOS Consultants

What are the potential risks?

Human Behavioral Risks in the Workplace SOS Consultants

Predictable Risks of Human Assets in the Workplace SOS Consultants

• Relationship issues• Physical health• Emotional health• Safety on/off the job• CISM• Problem Solving / Conflict Resolution

Predictable risks – (continued) SOS Consultants

• Threat of Violence• Sexual Harassment• Discrimination• Diversity Issues• Drug and Alcohol Abuse• Stress – at home and work

Predictable risks (continued) SOS Consultants

• Worker’s compensation• Union Grievance/arbitration• STD management• ADA – disability issues• FMLA – dealing with family health

issues

Predictable risks (continued) SOS Consultants

• Lost time and productivity as a result of a safety incident

• Health insurance benefits design, utilization, and claims

• LTD Management• Absenteeism

Systems Thinking SOS Consultants

“Thinking in terms of wholes

rather than parts”Peter Senge

“The Fifth Discipline”

Systems Thinking SOS Consultants

A conceptual framework that allows consideration of overall patterns

rather than individual events or parts in order to address and provide support when needed.

Systems Thinking SOS Consultants

We tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system, and wonder why our

deepest problems never seem to get solved

SOS Consultants

Moving From Parts to Wholes

Oil Refinery – OTJ Accident Rates SOS Consultants

• EAP clients followed for 5 years• Control group matched to EAP group• EAP clients 7 x OTJ accident rate of

control group at point of EAP entry• Average OTJ accident rate same as

control group 2 years post EAP referral

Conoco, Inc – Systemic approach to Mental Health Managed Care SOS Consultants

• Behavioral Health $$ increased 18-27%/year over several years

• IHC Created – Integrated Health Care teams for Medical, Wellness and EAP at each worksite

• EAP managed MH benefit and participated in its initial design.

• $12 million savings over 5 years

EAP is NOT: SOS Consultants

• A solution for poor management practices

• A condescending service for weak humans

• Just free counseling to appease the employees

Re-engineering the EAP function SOS Consultants

• From “Parts to Wholes”

• From reactive crisis management to PROACTIVE HUMAN BEHAVIORAL RISK MANAGEMENT

EAP has always had two clients: SOS Consultants

The individual Employeeor family member

The organization

or workgroup

The Individual EmployeeOr Family Member

The Organization orWorkgroup

What are Our Resources? SOS Consultants

Who can we partner with in the organization in order to move

from parts to wholes in Human Behavioral Risk Management?

What are our Resources? SOS Consultants

Human Beings (Employees) as a resource not a liability SOS Consultants

Human Behavioral Risk Management Program

1. Identifying the organization’s behavior related risks

2. Reviewing programs, policies and services that affect risk

3. Compiling data to measure impact of current risks on the organization

4. Introducing programs to address HBR holistically

A Human Behavioral Risk Management Program provides:

1. Focus on behavior, not healthcare2. Global management of behavioral

risks3. Organizational “Ownership” of risks

and management of solutions4. Computerized information

management5. Integration of organizational and

individual problems and solutions

The Potential EAP of the Future SOS Consultants

“A PRIMARY and VISIONARY IMPLEMENTING force to EMPOWER

MANAGEMENT, WORKGROUPS, and EMPLOYEES to address

HUMAN BEHAVIORAL RISKS together”

When Employees are valued as part of the solution – they become:

SOS Consultants

• Proactive

• Creative and flexible

• Responsible and Accountable

• Healthy, Safe, and Productive

SOS Consultants

“We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploration

will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time”

T.S. Eliot

SOS Consultants

“It is better and braver to engage and inquire than to assume there is nothing we do not know or that it is not important to know that which we do not know”

Plato

Uncertainty is Fertile Ground

Uncertainty is the fertile ground of pure creativity & freedom. Uncertainty means stepping into the unknown in every moment of our existence. The unknown is the field of all possibilities. Without uncertainty & the unknown, life is just the stale repetition of outworn memories. You become the victim of the past, & your tormentor today is your self left over from yesterday - 7SLOS