march 13, 2008 consulting skills update part ii presenter: alex mackenzie, ma, mft, ceap director,...

March 13, 2008March 13, 2008

Consulting Skills Update Part II

Presenter: Alex Mackenzie, MA, MFT, CEAPDirector, Health and Performance Solutions

With gratitude to and affection for

HPS Policy Number: H301

2 Health and Performance Solutions

Presenter Bio

Alex Mackenzie has worked for ValueOptions for four years as an Advisor, Account Manager, and HPS Director.

Prior to ValueOptions, Alex held positions as an HR Director, specializing in Organizational Effectiveness in a Fortune 100 Financial Services Firm, as a Senior Consultant for a large, international HR consulting firm; and Manager of Organizational Services for an internal Employee Assistance Program.

Little known fact: Alex’s first professional career was as a FORTRAN computer programmer

A fan of continuous learning, Alex has taught MBA and masters-level Organizational Psychology classes through UC Berkeley Extension, and Golden Gate University, and is coauthor of a textbook chapter on Group Therapy for Domestic Violence Offenders.

Alex is an avid reader, and a rabid skier.


Presentation OutlinePresentation Outline

• Policies as resources

• Poor EmpIoyee Performance

• Drug Free Workplace

– DOT

– Non-DOT

• Fitness for Duty

• Threat of Violence

• Critical Incident Response

• Training Requests


Purpose and Importance

• The consulting skills presented here are the subject matter expert EAP core

• These interventions directly impact organizational performance

• The relationships built through provision of these services retains and grows accounts


Learning Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will:

• Be able to identify the six most important interventions we provide

• Report having a high level understanding of each of the six

• Identify several important assessment elements in choosing interventions


Policies as Resources

• From StaffConnect Home Page:• Click <Resources>• Click <Policies>• Click <Health and Performance

Solutions)

• H207 EAP Management Consultations Involving Threat of Violence

• H301 Management Consultation/Management Referral

• H302 Critical Incident Response Services

• H306 Topical and Wellness Training • H403 Referrals Involving Violation

of Department of Transportation Drug and Alcohol Regulations

• H406 Fitness for Duty Services • H301 Management

Consultation/Management Referral


Employee Performance ReferralEmployee Performance Referral

May not present as a performance referral.

“My employee has a bad attitude.”

“Her personal appearance has deteriorated.”

“He doesn’t want to pull his weight.”

… Your examples here…


Employee Performance Referral Part II

Conduct your assessment:

Help the manager describe in behavioral terms what he/she is seeing

Identify what has been tried so far to improve performance.

Performance•Number of absence occurrences in the period

•Error Rate

•Customer complaints

•Coworker Complaints

•Productivity relative to goals and history

•Direct Observation

Gossip•Attitude

•Health

•Mental Health

•CD suspicions

•Personality

•Work Ethic

•Beliefs

•Interpretation

•Manager’s feelings

•Manager’s “diagnosis” of employee


Employee Performance Referral Part III

Decide: Is this informal, formal, or mandatory?

• Has the manager documented?

• What does HR advise?

Informal: appropriate when the worksite representative is concerned about an employee but there are no work performance

issues that need to be addressed.

Formal: appropriate when an employee is exhibiting job performance problems and the worksite representative is requesting feedback regarding the employee’s compliance with the EAP’s recommendations. There is no potential for job jeopardy for non-compliance

Mandatory: appropriate when an employee is exhibiting job performance problems and is being directed by the worksite to access EAP services, with potential job jeopardy for noncompliance.

There are two more types

which we will discuss

later in the presentation


Employee Performance Referral Part IV

Prepare the manager:

1. Reinforce and normalize

2. Clarify Roles

3. Coach on Supportive confrontation

4. Send the forms!

5. Have a clear action plan (three w’s)


Guidelines for Information Gathered During Management Consultation

(For Reference…)

– a. Date of call;– b. Caller’s name and supervisory

relationship to employee, and phone number;

– c. Name and Social Security Number of employee being discussed and/or referred;

– d. Department of employee and work phone number;

– e. Employee’s job title and brief description of responsibilities; including whether or not employee fulfills a safety-sensitive position as defined by a company or tie to either state or federal regulatory agencies.

– f. Employee’s date of hire; – g. Precipitant to the request for assistance;

– h. Description of current performance problem(s), including when problem became apparent, severity of the problem, and any attendance issues;

– i. Type of corrective actions that have occurred to date;

– j. List of prior job performance problems (if applicable);

– k. Current employment status (e.g. working, suspended, medical leave, etc.)

– l. If not working, explain, including pay status;

– m. Any initial indication from the worksite representative of the employee presenting with any suicidal/homicidal ideation or threats, alcohol or substance use, previous medical or psychiatric treatment and/or any pertinent psychosocial issues relevant to the referral;

– n. Timeframe for employee to call EAP; and

– o. Person to whom to report compliance


Employee Performance Referral Part V

• Action Plan:– Who

– Will do What

– By when?

• Agreement about follow-up and reporting

• Of course, all should be documented in CareConnect

Paperwork

H301B Attachment B: Authorization for Use or Disclosure of Info. for Formal or Mandatory Referrals to EAP

Workplace Consult.com


Employee Performance Referral Part V: Employee Contact

• Explain the roles• Conduct assessment–

clinically and vocationally. Specifically, employee’s perception of performance/reason for referral, and work history

• Recommend treatment and track compliance.

Non-compliance:• a) Refusal to follow treatment

recommendations; • b) Missed appointments; • c) Three incidents of failure to

either return telephone calls or respond to a written request to contact the EAP;

• d) Positive alcohol and/or drug screens;

• e) Refusal to submit to alcohol and/or drug screens;

• f) Failure to attend required aftercare or 12-step meetings; and

• g) Any additional client-specific compliance requirements.


Drug Free Workplace Cases

DOT: (H403)• Notification by the Designated

Employer Representative (DER)• Assessment by a Substance Abuse

Professional (SAP)• Employee attends treatment with

SAP monitoring• SAP Re-eval• If ready for return, SAP

recommends testing frequency• SAP Letter delivered to DER• Employee returns to work

Non-DOT• Notification to EAP• Referral to treatment • Monitoring• Follow client organization’s RTW

protocol


Critical Incident Response

Definitions: • Critical Incident – is an event that

has a stressful impact sufficient to overwhelm the usually effective coping skills of either an individual or a group, and has the potential to interfere with present or future productivity and/or life adjustment of persons exposed to the traumatic event. Such incidents may include: a natural disaster, serious workplace accident, hostage situation or violence in the workplace, or other events in which a person or work group experiences a trauma.

• Critical Incident Response – a variety of targeted interventions intended to assist individuals, groups and organizations directly or indirectly impacted by a traumatic event. The structured interventions include the identification and normalization of symptoms, familiarization and education regarding the process of recovery and, if necessary, referral to appropriate resources.


Critical Response II

• Don’t be afraid to be directive

• Act in concert with HR and company policy

• Help manager focus by asking open ended questions

• Remember to ask how the manager is doing

• Remember practical, immediate safety concerns (Dead guy scenario)


Crisis Response Consultations, Briefings, and Support for the

Individual • Share in common:• Three Stages:

– Notification

– Response

– Follow-up

• Differ in • Scope• Staffing:

– On-sites

– Affiliates

– Crisis Care Network


Notification Phase (Crisis Response)

• May come to Account Manager, Directly to HPS,

• HPS offers consultation on most effective response. Consider:– Safety– Immediacy– Logistics of bringing group

together– Debriefing versus Defusing– Early reactions– Level of trauma

Information to collect:• (1) Caller’s name, title and

contact information; • (2) date and time of incident; • (3) address of affected location; • (4) description of incident; • (5) number of employees

impacted; • (6) early reaction of employees, if

known; and • (7) any history of prior trauma

events at the location. • (8) appropriate attire for

responders


Response (Crisis Response)

• May include:– EAP Orientation

– Psycho-education regarding range of response to trauma and self-care

– Information about additional MH resources

– Information about

– Information about the crisis situation

– 1:1 Sessions


Follow-up (Crisis Response)

Report back to the worksite contact:

• (1) the number of individuals who participated in the interventions;

• (2) the number of sessions and/or hours spent in total; and

• (3) the number of clinicians utilized for the intervention.

Ensure Satisfaction

Identify additional needs or follow-up


Fitness for Duty

• Essentially out of the scope of EAP (account nuances notwithstanding)

• Differentiate from Return-to work

• We can assist with sourcing and facilitating

• Full Psych eval with testing

• ASAP relationship with ValueOptions

Help frame the question:

Watch out for:

• Advocacy

• Reasonable accommodation recs

• Direct contact


Threat of Violence

• Threat teams• Heavily nuanced by

account• Clarification of HR

Policies• Consultation• Facilitation

Of FFD Eval

• Return-to work planning

• Distinction between threat management and performance management.


Training Requests

• Start with assessment• Make and discuss

recommendations• Custom or off-the-

shelf?• Staff presentation• Evaluate• Follow-up

Assessment• What business problem are we trying to

solve/ opportunity to realize?• What would people have to do differently?• What would they have to know in order to

succeed?• What else have you tried?• Aside from knowledge/skills/training,

what other barriers exist to successful performance?

• Who would be the audience? How many participants/sessions?

• Where and when will the sessions take place?

• What is the appropriate attire?• Who will be the contact?• What audiovisual equipment will be

available?• Beyond evals– how measure success?


Summary:Providing Subject Matter Expertise

• Poor Employee Performance

• Critical Incident Response

• Drug Free Workplace Cases

• Fitness for Duty• Employee Threat of

Violence

• Don’t be afraid to be directive

• Act in concert with HR and company policy

• Help manager focus by asking open ended questions

• Remember to ask how the manager is doing


Additional Resources

• Flawless Consulting by Peter Block

• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

• Organization Development by William Rothwell

• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

• The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge

• HPS Policy and Procedure

• The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes

• Organizational Behavior, an Experiential Approach by David Kolb (or anything by Kolb, really)

• On Organizational Learning by Chris Argyris (or anything by Argyris!)

• See also, anything on Competencies on Lominger or DDIWORLD websites

march 13, 2008 consulting skills update part ii presenter: alex mackenzie, ma, mft, ceap director,...

Documents

organizational performance

performance solutions

performance solutions

work performance issues

job performance problems

h301 slide

hr director

organizational effectiveness