National EAP’s EAP Supervisor, Meghan Beck, will be speaking at the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2022 ForWard Annual Conference – the premier event to promote women’s leadership and diversity throughout the industry. Join us in Chicago May 10-11, where we’ll network, strategize, and share knowledge to help our industry – and our female leaders – make the next leap forward.
As seen in Newsday, October 14, 2021
Victor Ocasio | October 14, 2021
It’s more important than ever for employers to keep the workers they have, and that means
paying attention to employee needs, experts say.
Over the last 19 months, workers in a wide range of sectors have been harder to come by,
leading to new challenges for Long Island businesses.
In the chase for staff, it’s important for employers to recognize the collective mental stress
current workers have been under, said Aoifa O’Donnell, chief executive of National EAP, a
Hauppauge-based employee coaching firm.
‘The world has changed’
“The world really has changed regarding focusing on mental health,” said O’Donnell, a speaker
at a Wednesday virtual panel on the worker shortage sponsored by HIA-LI, the business group
formerly called the Hauppauge Industrial Association. “The reality is that [employee] mental
health was stressed and strained, and their wellness was stressed and strained, and for some
very significantly.”
Isolation, mounting workloads, and the trauma of losing loved ones have all weighed heavily on
the workforce, she said.
“We need to continue to prioritize employee well-being and show as a company in your hiring
practices that it is top of mind,” O’Donnell said. “It’s hard to find new people. Let’s take care of
the ones we have.”
Panelist Stephanie Curry, human resources director at Sherwood Lumber Corp., said the hiring
crunch has forced a lot of firms and their workers to rethink their priorities.
“It’s not just a Long Island problem. We are seeing it everywhere,” said Curry, adding that
recruitment for blue-collar jobs at her firm has been especially challenging.
“We thought that once the unemployment subsidy was going to end for at least New York in
September we would have people, we would have a candidate pool to choose from,” Curry said.
“And we don’t.”
Despite the challenges, Curry said employers must do a better job of selling potential hires on a
company’s corporate culture, in addition to looking at factors like pay and benefits.
Caution over signing bonuses
While panelists discussed the usefulness of the incentives like sign-on bonuses, they cautioned
against ignoring current employees who may have stayed with an employer, especially over the
last year.
“You have to be careful with sign-on bonuses,” said panelist Ray Irizarry, director of human
resources at D’Addario & Company. “If we increase our starting pay, we have to cascade that
downward to show appreciation for those employees who have remained with us.”
The company, a manufacturer of guitar strings and other music accessories, has felt the effects
of the tight labor market in its hiring. Still, focusing on the core employee base and being
responsive to their needs has helped keep staffing levels steady.
“You have to listen … and then react to their concerns,” Irizarry said.
This year, National EAP’s CEO, Aoifa O’Donnell, was invited to be an expert presenter at the SHRM-LI 30th Anniversary Conference to address the critical issue of workplace mental wellbeing. In this presentation, Aoifa addresses the reality pandemic living has had on individuals’ mental and behavioral health and outlined several key strategies businesses can take to ensure a stronger and healthier workforce post pandemic.
Check out National EAP’s Erin McKown featured in Newsday, where she discusses what steps employers can take to ease workers’ post-pandemic anxiety and how a top-tier EAP can play a role in assisting during this time of transition.
To read the full article click here.
National EAP launched its new Mindfulness Online Platform – eM Life. This virtual mindfulness tool is available to help you create healthier connections with yourself and others while building skills to manage stress, anxiety, improve focus, and enhance your overall well-being.
To help you better understand how to enroll and use this new program, National EAP did a demo webinar to teach the ins and the outs of the program so you can find the best content to fit your personal needs. To watch the demo click here
We encourage all members to download the mobile app for eM Life to their mobile devices so that they can access their programming easily, wherever they are.
For a step by step guide to register on the web or download the mobile app for eM Life, Click here
On Thursday, May 13th, National EAP hosted an educational event: Collective Trauma: How to Support Your Teens While Taking Care of Yourself, with mental health expert, Kristin Wilson, MA, LPC, CCTP. As a result of the stress and anxiety of COVID-19, National EAP has invited Kristin to talk over the mental health needs of parents and adolescents that have appeared during the pandemic, as well as signs and symptoms parents can look for in order to recognize when they should be seeking outside support for their children.
Kristin holds a Master’s degree in psychology and Creative Arts Therapies, is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and presents workshops which discuss the impact of trauma on the adolescent brain and reviews ways to use the creative arts to foster authentic connections with teens and build resilience in the face of collective trauma. Kristin is passionate about the integration of holistic care in the treatment milieu to address the myriad of stressors that today’s teens face. She believes that higher levels of emotional resilience allow teens to more easily adapt to stressful situations or crises, with fewer negative effects.
| ©2023 National EAP, Inc. All rights reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | Website Designed and Developed by Progressive Marketing Group, Inc. |
