HR departments struggle to respond to opioid epidemic
Despite the financial toll opioids are taking on employers, only a third of employees believe their company's HR policies and procedures do enough to help employees.
The opioid epidemic isn’t just hitting families and communities hard—it’s also taking a toll on employers both large and small.
So says Opioids in the Workplace, a new survey from The Hartford, which finds that 67 percent of HR professionals say that their companies are impacted by opioid use today or will be in the future. Not only that, but 65 percent of HR professionals say opioid addiction is having a financial impact on their company today.
Related: Addressing opioids in the workplace: Why altering your benefits isn’t enough2018/
Knowledge about the situation is a big problem, with 64 percent of HR professionals and an even bigger 76 percent of employees saying they don’t feel well-trained to help employees addicted to opioids. In addition, just 24 percent of HR professionals and 18 percent of employees feel very or extremely confident that they could identify the signs of opioid addiction, and only 19 percent of HR professionals and employees feel very or extremely knowledgeable about how to cut the risk of opioid addiction.
Despite that, a third of employees believe that their companies’ HR policies and procedures do enough to help employees with addiction, and 34 percent say their companies have the resources necessary to help such employees. Only 35 percent of HR professionals and 31 percent of employees say that their companies are making opioid addiction in the workplace a top priority.
There are other disconnects between the reality of the situation and what employees or HR professionals believe, with 59 percent of HR professionals saying that they’re aware of addiction resources at their companies, but only 38 percent of employees doing so. And while 54 percent of HR personnel say their companies could do better at communicating opioid addiction resources, 66 percent of employees think their companies should up their game on such communications.
And HR professionals have one view of the actions a company takes with an employee with an addiction, while employees have another. For instance, 46 percent of employees believe an addicted employee will be terminated, while just 31 percent of HR professionals do; 44 percent of HR professionals say that such employees will be put on probation or suspended, while 42 percent of employees believe that to be the case.
While just 31 percent of employees believe such an employee will come back to the job after treatment, 45 percent of HR professionals do, and 37 percent also say there will be close monitoring of the employee—just 22 percent of employees believe the latter.
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