|
ComPsych 500
EAP by Design: Architectural Giant SOM Supports Its Unique Employee Population with a Customized Program from ComPsych®
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has contributed some of the most important architectural accomplishments of this century, including America's tallest building, Sears Tower in Chicago, as well as Lever House in New York and the 1 million-square-foot Bank of America World Headquarters in San Francisco.
The Issue
Setting the standard for excellence in architecture, engineering, planning, interior design and graphics doesn't come without a price. SOM's employees work long hours under the pressure to meet client expectations and, like many employees, often struggle with balancing the demands of work with the necessities of life.
Meeting deadlines, traveling and achieving the standard of excellence for which SOM is known often leaves employees with little time to focus on personal issues such as financial and legal concerns or care giving. This challenge often forced SOM employees to use their personal time and energy to deal with these issues. SOM recognized the need to assist employees with such work-life issues and began searching for a company that could provide confidential, professional and accessible resources to its diverse population. To support its talented and hard-working employees, SOM looked for an integrated employee assistance and work-life program that would appeal to all ages and would be helpful for its highly mobile workforce.
"We wanted to provide a resource for our employees, whether they needed help with elder care, child care, relocating or buying a house, financial questions or stress and relationship issues," said Suzanne Pennasilico, chief human resources officer for SOM. "We chose ComPsych for their ability to provide a customized, integrated program that catered to our employees."
A Customized Program Makes a Difference
ComPsych's first step was to identify SOM's unique challenges and learn about their corporate culture. With this input, ComPsych then tailored a comprehensive GuidanceResources® program especially for SOM. Knowing that SOM's employee base spans all age groups, ComPsych built a program with both elder and child care services as well as unlimited access to financial planning and legal experts. The program was then integrated with a crisis intervention and phone counseling component, providing all employees and their families with centralized 24-hour access to counseling staff through a single 800 line.
Finally, ComPsych's contemporary GuidanceResources Online service was added, giving SOM's tech-savvy population online access to counseling providers and thousands of interactive tools and articles on issues related to behavioral health, relationships, caregiving and financial/legal concerns.
A Great Design Nets Results
According to Pennasilico, SOM's human resources department has received a wealth of positive feedback on the new EAP and work-life program. "Our employees have saved so much time in using ComPsych's work-life services," she said. "Many of our employees have called for financial assistance, particularly for tax and mortgage help. They are also impressed with expert help in personal issues. ComPsych is invaluable — I don't know how we managed without them."
ComPsych® Corporation, the worldwide leader in GuidanceResources®: EAP, behavioral health work-life and wellness programs.
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network, Inc.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved
|
