Corporate Wellness : The Cost of a Drunk Worker.
Posted by Corporate Wellness | Posted in Corporate Wellness, Wellness Programs | Posted on 02-10-2010
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Having even one problem drinker on your medical plan – including a covered family member with abuse issues – can cost your organization big.
Some estimates place the potential cost as high as $35,000 a year per case. What’ your company’s risk?
Many health promotion programs are geared toward managing employees’ health risks associated with illnesses like diabetes or asthma.
But unless the health promotion program is integrated with an employee assistance program (EAP), chances are alcohol abuse-related risks go undetected. Here are two strategies that’re getting good results.
1. Include alcohol in health screenings
When you already sponsor confidential worker health-risk assessments, it’s easy to screen for alcohol risks, too. This may be as simple as making sure three questions are added to the current appraisal –
• Just how often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
• Precisely how many alcoholic drinks do you’ve on a typical day? And
• Precisely how often in the last month have you’d six or more drinks?
For male employees, more than 14 drinks per week, or one or more episodes of heavy drinking suggests a possible problem. for women, more than seven drinks in a week, or one or more episodes of drinking four or more drinks, is a red flag.
Alternative – When you don’t offer appraisals, you are able to refer workforce to a free, confidential online screening.
Benchmarking tools
Many specialists say drug-free worksite policies and staff member assistance programs (EAPs) are the two most proven solutions within companies’ grasp for minimizing the risks and costs of alcohol abuse by medical plan enrollees.
To see if sponsoring an EAP makes financial sense, you are able to calculate your own firm’s current cost risk for free here. Plug in your organization kind, locale and number of personnel.
You’ll get a customized estimate of annually direct (absenteeism, disability, ER visits) and indirect (presenteeism, turnover) costs from alcohol misuse by a covered staff member or family member.
To design a drug-free workplace policy – or check when your existing one is up to par and compliant with the law – more guidance is available here.