Stevens Wellspring Group: A Whole New Approach To Employee Retention and EAP.
Northeast Business Journal - July, 2000

Today's tight job market and accompanying shrinkage of the available labor pool make it imperative for companies to work smarter. Working smarter means more than equation. Stevens says the procreating new strategies and streamlining production processes. It means paying attention to what is going on in the factory, at the job site, in the cubicle.

This new attitude has given rise to new employee assistance programs. These EAP's are designed to aid employees in dealing with everyday issues affecting their job performance, boost morale, assist employers in employee retention, and reduce workers compensation claims. Steve Stevens of the Stevens Wellspring Group (SWG) in Portland has seen how outside factors can impact productivity. He's familiar with the studies and research that show that in any company 30 percent of any workforce, regardless of size, has some type of issue outside the workplace that negatively affects their productivity by as much as 25 percent.

Not that long ago, Stevens was approached by the Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company to
design a model that would provide an employee retention program and an employee assistance program that could be adapted to a firm of three employees as well as a company employing 30,000.

"It was designed on a fee-for-service basis whereby it would allow the smaller companies a full blown employee assistance program. " Stevens said. "It would allow the companies to access a benefit initially for roughly 50 to 60 percent less than what they would normally have to pay. At the same time there may be a cap, so they know that they would never have to pay more than this figure, regardless of the amount of utilization."

This project got the wheels turning for Stevens. If a big insurer is concerned about problems besides just clear-cut safety issues in the workplace, it stands to reason that these concerns are paramount to the business owner as well.

"When a company like MEMIC looks at issues they want to address in the workers' compensation marketplace, they know that they can effectively create a safety training program, which is very aggressive but can only positively effect 20 percent of the workers' comp claims. It's been documented clinically that the other 80 percent of those claims really are behavioral. Initially, Wellspring, in partnership with MEMIC, provides a vehicle for the employer to address that 80 percent," Stevens said. "If you have a full-time employee assistance program in place that is very pro-active, not just a clinicial situation, you will always have fewer workers' comp claims. That 80 percent I mentioned earlier can be anything from marital issues, legal issues, financial issues, substance abuse, all the things people have to deal with in living their everyday life."

The programs are designed to give employees the help they need to stay focused on the job. A focused workforce means better productivity and enhances the profitability of the company.

"Although the immediate benefits are subjective," Stevens said, "you basically show employers that they will have fewer workers' comp claims, fewer health care claims, that they will have better employee attendance, fewer terminations, better morale."

Another benefit from an employee assistance program from SWG is that it immediately becomes a valuable tool for any company's human resource department. "It gives human resource a way to address situations ranging from a death in the workplace to just being able to help find an attorney who can assist in the purchase of a house," Stevens said.

"We can provide legal services, screening programs; we can provide audits for companies that want to know if they have an issue in the workplace and how to deal with it; we provide a resource for a company," he said.

These company audits have nothing to do with the firm's books but rather a checkup on the health of the workplace. It measures employee morale, how management interacts with workers, other management systems, and how the workers feel about their job and employer. In this aspect, it becomes as much an employer assistance program.

Selling the benefits of the various EAP's is only one part of the equation. Stevens says the programs have been designed to be very user-friendly, and can be delivered telephonically, electronically, or face-to-face.

The fee structure for SWG's services is another selling point. Instead of charging a set fee per employee, as other firms have done, a fee that would entitle the firm to a specific amount of visits or training sessions, SWG offers these services for a low management fee and firms only pay for the program as they use it.

Any item that contributes to the cost of doing business makes owners nervous ... unless there's a definite limit on the expense. SWG has that covered.

"What's unique about it is that we cap it on the other end," Stevens said. "We're telling the business owner that we're going to provide you with a vehicle to address these issues and we're going to provide you with the opportunity to do it for 60 percent less than what you're currently paying in the marketplace. We're also going to guarantee you that, regardless of the utilization, it's only going to cost you "x" amount of dollars."

A company can purchase any one service or any combination of services offered by SWG that best fit its requirements, whether it be creating a more cooperative operating culture; legal support services; credit counseling; depression and alcohol screening; drug testing services; health care options; medical case management; behavioral risk audit; or leadership training.

"The other part of the program that we feel makes Wellspring unique is that it's a single-access system," Stevens said. "A company can purchase any of our services, up to nine different services, and everyone of those services will be accessed with a single 800 number. What happens is, that if you're in crisis for example, you don't get a secretary, you don't get an administrative assistant, you don't get somebody who's on call, you get a masters-level clinician every time you pick up the phone."

To provide this on-call service, SWG has partnered with counseling firms and respected providers all across the country to ensure that a trained professional is always available.

"This allows us to bring some of the leading companies in the United States to provide services, up to as many as 4 million resources." Stevens said.

In addition, the same service is provided over the SWG's Internet site where a company official can be connected to the appropriate resource, get the information, print it out and have it as a ready reference.

Stevens Wellspring Group was formed in December 1999 and hit the marketplace at the beginning of this year. The company currently serves 40 different firms throughout New England and the Atlantic seaboard and is currently in negotiation with companies totaling over 85,000 employees.

The tremendous response from the Maine business community has prompted Stevens to expand the operations of SWG throughout the region. There are plans to open office in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the next few months to bring their services to a wider market. He said the company is developing programs geared specifically to firms employing 500-1,000 people.

"The companies who contract with us are trusting us to take care of their employees. We take that trust very seriously." Stevens said.

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