Helping Employees Navigate Personal Challenges Without Undermining the Company

Find time to talk. If the problem is acute, don’t wait for review time; invite the employee to meet privately with you and his/her direct supervisor, if appropriate. Close the door and be respectful.

“We’ll ask, ‘Is there something else going on that’s impacting your performance?’” Deimler says. “‘This is atypical, and we may be able to help you.’” He also maintains what he calls “a very open door policy,” telling everyone that they’re free to talk to him any time — unless, of course, the door is shut because he’s talking with someone else.

Krokover holds weekly meetings (separate from job-specific meetings) to address performance issues, good or bad, without singling anyone out. “If someone is really in the dumps, I’ll pull him in the office and talk about it privately,” he adds.

Not sure how to have these discussions? Sign up for sensitivity training, or get in touch with a consultant who specializes in management training.

Model vigilance. Since you can’t be everywhere, encourage supervisors and co-workers to be on the alert for signs that employees’ personal lives might be unraveling. Help them understand that they can share these observations without being identified or pulled into the discussion.

Confidentiality and trust are key, as is consistency. Braun suggests appointing a trusted point person as a repository for these concerns. “Having a protocol will give people a clearer path” to speaking out in confidence, she says.

One of Krokover’s managers, a recovering alcoholic himself, was the first to recognize another employee’s serious drinking problem. The two sat down with the man, who “admitted that he had a drinking problem and just didn’t have the strength to get through a program.” The manager mentored the man successfully through a 12-step program.

Draw boundaries, and refer out as needed. Many serious issues, such as severe depression and addiction, cannot (and should not) be resolved by even the most sensitive boss. Instead of washing your hands of the issue, however, point the employee toward help.

If you don’t have an EAP (read more about “Employee Assistance Programs,” at right), assemble a list of resources, such as Alcoholics Anonymous ( www.aa.org) or Narcotics Anonymous ( www.na.org) and trusted therapists.

“I can’t tell somebody how to fix their problems,” says Krokover, whose many degrees, ironically enough, include one in child and pre-adolescent psychology. He maintains a list of recommended attorneys and therapists who specialize in various issues, and tries to recommend at least three when appropriate.

“My job is to be a listener … to say, ‘You will get through this, and we will try to help you,’” he says. To a reasonable degree and within certain parameters, that is.

Leah Thayer is a senior editor for Remodeling.

Employee Assistance Programs

Long used by Fortune 500 companies, employee assistance programs (EAPs) are making inroads with small businesses as a surprisingly cost-effective component of overall benefits programs.

In essence, EAPs are a one-stop provider of outsourced, confidential counseling by trained and certified professionals. Costs vary, but in many cases the employer prepays a per-capita annual fee that entitles each employee to a certain number of sessions, either over the phone or in person. Additional sessions may be covered by health insurance or other means.

The employer never knows what an employee discusses with his or her EA professional. “It’s like the doctor-patient relationship,” says Tony Sidiropoulous of the EA Professionals Association.

Bennett Contracting, in Albany, N.Y., recently began working with a local EAP and finds it “a wonderful resource,” says Paul Gutman, co-owner. He pays $35 per employee for up to three counseling sessions, per issue, each year. He doesn’t know the issues that have been broached, of course, but he does know that employees — and the company, in turn — have benefited.

There is a protocol for using EAPs, but often it’s no more involved than referring an employee to the EAP. Interestingly, although men tend to be less inclined to ask for help, they tend to be “great clients” once they click with a counselor and see that their heavy drinking, for instance, is affecting their relationships, says Susan Swan of Reach-EAP.

To learn more about EAPs, visit www.eapassn.org or www.easna.org. —Leah Thayer