Staff Welfare Program

Here’s a sobering fact: international humanitarian aid field workers and HQ placed administrative staff spend more time working and traveling than they do with their families. And, each year, one out of five employees faces a significant problem that disrupts life at home and reduces productivity at work. Additionally, a high majority of workers take their work home with them, both literally as well as figuratively. The time field workers do spend with their families tends not to be leisurely. Catching up, celebrating missed holidays and major events, making sure food is on the table, running errands, and taking care of financial and personal issues in their home country take up the majority of time when a staff member is on leave.

If field workers or employees placed outside their home country are lucky, they may be able to grab a day or two of quality time with loved ones while they are on leave. More often than not, this is an unrealistic, idyllic setting. Real life has additional stresses - financial issues, teenage rebellion, aging parents, etc. This type of stress is difficult to manage when we are home full time. Now imagine a field worker doing it over and over again at warp speed?

But, none of this should be surprising. It is a well known fact that an employee who is stressed-out is not as productive and tends to be more at risk for illnesses and injuries. The World Health Organization (2002) reports hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological and substance use disorders. For example, estimates showed that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia; 91 million people are affected by alcohol use disorders and 15 million by drug use disorders. When these kinds of statistics playing out across the globe, work productivity and output is going to be affected.

While big corporations and insurance companies in the West have started to realize a healthy lifestyle is one of the most important tools in preventing disease later on, international aid organizations have yet to formulize similar programming for their international staff.

SalusWorld is here to help your organization support mechanisms for your staff so they remain healthy, productive and happy. In addition to advocating for healthy living, SalusWorld also advocates for mental fitness — through stress-management and self-care retreats.

Four Ways SalusWorld can help you support your staff:

1. Place SalusWorld contact information, credentials and information about our quarterly re-entry retreats into your end of contract / mission information packet or on your website so that your employees and volunteers are aware there are people they can contact in case they are in need of support.

2. Disseminate material on stress and wellness and include information about SalusWorld’s counseling services in case they feel the need to talk to a professional.

3. Utilize a SalusWorld consultant for critical incident debriefings, experiential workshops and/or or in-service trainings on topics of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout.

4. Establish a set amount of counseling sessions available for staff members to access per contract. Your organization can then outsource much needed emotional and mental health support to an outside neutral organization. SalusWorld is here as an alternative to internal mechanisms of staff support as issues around dual relationships and concerns about confidentiality are common when staff counseling is kept internal.

Confidentiality is easy when all staff members are pre-approved for a certain amount of therapy sessions. For instance, if you decide every staff member will be pre-approved for ten sessions with a counselor, the utilization of services becomes easy and straightforward. Upon completion of the first session the referred client and therapists will determine if the indentified issue(s) can be resolved in the ten sessions (or however many were given). If it can be resolved in ten sessions, you can use your pre-approved sessions and everything is kept private and confidential and no one is for the wiser. If it needs to be on-going long-term therapy, the therapist will see the client for one or two support session and then refer them to either their insurance organization or establish a private self paid agreement to continue sessions past the pre-approved ten sessions available to them free of cost by their employer. These options will be described to the client at the time of referral so they can make an informed decision about participation and what is available to them.

Types of Contracts with SalusWorld:

Outsourced contracts with SalusWorld come in a variety of shapes and sizes and the cost will vary accordingly. Factors include the types of services provided, the number of employees, availability, regulatory requirements and location.

Fixed-Fee Contracts
Employers contract directly with SalusWorld provider for a variety of services, e.g., counseling, employee assessment, on-site debriefings and re-entry retreats. Fees are usually based on the number of employees and required time commitments.

Fee-for-Service Contracts
Employers contract directly with a SalusWorld provider, but pay only when employees use the services. Because this system requires employers to make individual referrals (rather than employees self-referring), care must be taken to protect employee confidentiality.

SalusWorld - Counseling Benefits

When one of your employees is facing a significant personal problem, he or she can call for assistance and set up a free consultation. At a minimum you can refer end of contractors to counseling as an option to help them unpack the emotional baggage that comes home with them at the end of a mission. It might also be helpful to know our network is staffed by experienced counselors with a Master's or Psy.D who are open and willing to take counseling referrals. One helpful component of our referral network is the fact that our provider network that either has international experience or is being supervised by someone who understands the unique issues of international work.
Some Common Issues

We offer counseling, help, tools, and resources to employees and their family members to address a wide range of problems and issues. Just some of these include:

• Reentry issues and debriefing
• Alcohol and substance abuse
• Balancing work and family
• Health issues and illnesses
• Children with special needs
• Eating disorders
• Family violence
• Gambling addiction
• Mental and behavioral health issues
• Stress management
• Loss and grief
• Personal development and training
• Separation or divorce
• Stress and coping with change
• Wellness
• Adoption
• Interpersonal skills with family and coworkers
• Family violence

Top 10 reasons to let SalusWorld help you help your staff

Companies who outsource some of their HR and staff welfare responsibilities, especially tied to sensitive personal issues like mental health, do so in order to maintain a productive, effective and functional working environment. The primary goal of a partnership with SalusWorld is to ensure the mental health of employees so that they can consistently contribute to the growth and health of the organization.

SalusWorld can help with everything from mental illness, stress-related illness and drug and alcohol addictions to family related stress and marital problems. Programs like ours have proven highly effective for the wider success of companies that employ them and for the individual employees of those companies. The aim of a SalusWorld Staff Welfare program is to reduce the amount of time employees take away from work and to ensure that when they return they do so with renew strength and optimal mental health.

So why outsource to SalusWorld? Here are the top ten reasons why your organization needs a successful staff welfare program.

#1 Improved Productivity
Our program is designed to improve the productivity of your employees. When an employee is dealing with personal issues such as mental illness, family problems or substance abuse, to name a few, the result is often a drop in productivity at work. SalusWorld’s Staff Welfare program can provide the organization with prevention techniques, assessment protocols and mental health management services. This means that while helping your employees deal with all of life’s little ups and downs and we all know these are unavoidable, you are also ensuring effective organization growth and development.

#2 Reduced Organization Costs
When one of your employees is suffering personally it is likely their work will suffer too. The bottom line is when this occurs the organization incurs financial loses. SalusWorld’s program is designed to reduce the impact that social, psychological or physical problems have on the employee in order to reduce the financial impact on the organization.

#3 Third-Party Assistance
SalusWorld is a third-party agency that specializes in supporting individuals in psychological distress. SalusWorld works with the organization to provide employees with the best possible mental health support. SalusWorld assesses individual employee needs, refers employees to suitable services and provide them with confidential access to professional mental health services. Essentially SalusWorld can manage the overall health and safety of your employees so that you can get on with helping your beneficiary populations.

#4 Increased Morale and Work Place Harmony
Human resources are the most invaluable of all resources so it makes sense that as an employer you need to look after your employees. A happy and healthy employee is a productive and effective one. SalusWorld ensures that your employees are well taken of as individuals so that they can perform as part of your team. SalusWorld can also provide prevention services that ensure employees are happy and healthy and are highly conducive to a harmonious work place. The added advantage here is that the employees know that the organization supports them therefore they feel a connection to the work they are doing and are more committed to the achieving desirable results.

#5 Reduced Absenteeism
Absenteeism costs the organization money. Frequent absenteeism can be devastating to business. SalusWorld can help reduce the amount of time employee’s take of work for personal reasons. In the event that time of work is required the amount of time is greatly reduced and the employee is able to return to work with renewed strength.

#6 Reduced Turnover
A high turnover of employees can be costly for any organization. SalusWorld can help to effectively reduce the turnover of employees by managing work related and personal stress. SalusWorld can also improve the working environment in terms of morale and organization support ensuring employees are well looked after and less likely to leave their jobs.

#7 Reduced Accidents at Work
It is easy to see how accidents can happen at work when you’re stressed. A person suffering from stress-related symptoms will often experience difficulty with concentration, mental focus and physical function. This can be a dangerous combination in any environment, no imagine it occurring when someone is placed at a hardship post or highly insecure environment. SalusWorld consultants are equipped to prevent this from occurring or at least prevent it from reoccurring. SalusWorld looks after the mental health and ability of your employees ensuring that they are able to function at the required level.

#8 Resolution of Work Related Problems
External stress often results in a reduction in work place performance. Problems within the working environment lead to absenteeism, high turnover and low morale. SalusWorld consultants look after the psychological health of employees developing strategies for coping with external stress as well as work related stress. SalusWorld will also help employees develop the skills they need to cope with all types of work related stress. In turn this reduces the impact of work related stress as there is a quick resolution.

#9 Professional Services
SalusWorld connect troubled employees to professional services. The great thing about SalusWorld is they are able to connect employees directly with these services and the first appointment will usually occur within a few days. This means that your employees are getting the help they need quickly, dealing with and averting crisis situations.

#10 Improved Work Performance
Companies employing the services of a professional psychological consultant not only experience increases in productivity but also in quality of work. Work performance is greatly affected by stress and personal problems often escalate into personal problems. SalusWorld can help manage problems and ensures employee issues are quickly resolved. This means fewer mistakes at work, high quality output and an overall increase in work place performance.

Outsourcing some of your human resource needs to SalusWorld supports not only employees but also your HR department. The services offered are considered a fringe benefit by employees and HR staff alike and it often facilitates increased loyalty and allegiance amongst your staff. Mental Health services can range from career planning to counseling on personal issues and substance abuse.

If you haven’t considered it already consider outsourcing as a potentially complex decision that has been associated with both the development of strategic advantage and the loss of strategic capability. Taking care of your employees mental health is not only good for your employees it is also good for you; it can save you money, improve overall productivity and decrease absenteeism.

Contact us directly to explore options and request consultant availability at gvogel@salusworld.org.