Helping Employees Overcome Adversity In Their Lives - Is It Worth It?

Why the heck is helping individuals overcome adversity so important to organizations today? After all, isn't this an employee issue that employers should just ignore? Besides, isn't getting involved in helping people through their personal problems taboo in the corporate world?

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Running into questions like these are natural when it comes to organizations being concerned about investing in their employees' well-being. After all, many of them already invest in employee's health by providing them with some sort of health benefits, why would they want to invest additional dollars and time into helping their team address challenges in other areas of their life?

As a person who is known for overthrowing adversity in her life and teaching others to as well, I LOVE helping organizations realize that when we help individuals overcome adversities in their life, we are really helping build stronger organizations, communities, and families.

How is it worth it for my company to help my employees overcome their challenges you might ask?

Lets walk through some stats on what employes face when it comes to one of area are of their lives...financial:

70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck
Money issues are the #1 cause of divorce
Medical issues are the #1 cause of bankruptcy
Employees who struggle with finances can cost their employees 200+ hours each year as they deal with financial issues while at work

Can you see how just this one area of one's life can overlap into other areas?

I mean really, when we look at the above stats, we can see that each one of these does more than just affect the employee's bank account numbers when we are taking about financial struggles. We can see that adversities that surround things such as our finances, relationships, career, and our health many times will have a ripple affect into other areas of our life which in turn does affect the quality of the work we do for our organizations.

Why is this?

Because organizations are made up of people with real problems they are facing everyday...people who have real thoughts, feelings and emotions. When we address helping people we are really addressing the heart of our organizations which in turn affects our communities and families.

So is it worth the investment of organizations today to help their employees gain tools to overcome challenges in their life? I will let you decide the answer to that.

Question: What are some challenges your team members face that could save their organizations time and money if they were given the tools to help them overcome adversities?

Live Beyond Awesome

Jen McDonough

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Tags: how to help people, overcoming adversity, team support

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Comment by Jen McDonough "The Iron Jen" on March 6, 2013 at 8:40pm: Thanks Ann! A win:win indeed.

Hi Sarah, you are so right in that many companies have EAP programs which is awesome, HOWEVER, you hit it on the head as far as consistently promoting it. In addition, programs such as "finance" are geared at helping those with financial planning of their investments. What people really need most often is the steps on gaining control of their finances. There is something about calling a 1800 number that is REALLY intimidating...I know it was for us when we were going through our trauma and drama. It took us "seeing" people struggling like us to make us get connected to really learning how to fix our problem rather than fearing it. MANY thanks for your note!!

Comment by Sarah Foote on March 6, 2013 at 2:20pm: Many companies offer an Emlpoyee Assistance Program that give employees access to counselors, financial planners, etc, but I wonder how many employees actually take advantage of these programs. I think the key is how the employer or company promotes it on a consistent basis and how easy and accessible it is to use. I think it's worth the investment if a company thinks "outside the box" and really offers a program that is truly helpful.

Comment by Ann Musico on March 6, 2013 at 11:45am: I think it's a great idea - from both sides - for organizations to get involved with helping their employees overcome various adversities they may be facing. It's a win-win - the employee finds relief from a pressing problem - financial, health - whatever it may be - and the organization gains an employee focused 100% on their job again. A win-win!