Beyond EAP…

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Beyond EAP, Northstar helps partners and clients with various projects, strategy planning, trainings and more. 

Here is a quick summary and list of what our team has been up to this past summer and fall to also help you understand where we can fit in with your team and goals. 

Hi Everyone. This blog will have a different tone. Our team has been VERY busy these past few months! Tis the season for benefit renewals, end of quarters, end of year, seasons changing, and holidays around the corner. Additionally, our team has taken on a few extra projects this past summer/fall and now we are working our way into winter.

We wanted to give you a quick summary of the work we have been doing so you know what we can help you with, how we support your organization at every level, entry level employee to CEO and so you can get to know Northstar a little bit better, and how we operate as a true stand alone Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Pulling from the Employee Assistance Professionals Association site, we want to remind everyone the goal for EAPs that operate holistically and according to the 8 technologies defined by the industry, "Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) serve organizations and their employees in multiple ways, ranging from consultation at the strategic level about issues with organization-wide implications to individual assistance to employees and family members experiencing personal difficulties. As workplace programs, the structure and operation of each EAP varies with the structure, functioning, and needs of the organization(s) it serves."

What this can translate and look like is slightly different depending on each organization and the partnership they have with Northstar. We are a strategic partner and HR for HR, we are also a mental health intervention and a resource and tool for employees and their families. Some company leadership leans into our offerings and services greatly and consistently and some call as needed.

As we have discussed in other blog posts, we do use our Utilization Review meetings to consider what each organization could use in terms of proactive and reactive options. Here is a list of what some of these initiatives has looked like for our team over the past few months:

  • Human Resources Development and Coaching: Professional development for new HR pros, guiding and helping, being a listening ear for all HR contacts who have questions and concerns. Assistance with Mandatory Referrals are a huge part of this item.
  • Leadership Training for all Company Management with our partners. This is a customized series for each group that digs into fundamentals, communication, and positive work environments. 
  • Anti-Harassment Training. One of these offerings this fall was in-person per the request of the group. They had gone years watching videos to check that compliance box and with changes in law and recent times, so much taking place virtually, they wanted something personal and interactive for their manufacturing line workers.
  • Lunch and learn presentations on Managing Depression. We have designed this discussion with one of our licensed EAP Counselors and partner Nurse Practitioner. This thirty minute, content packed, presentation is especially helpful as we head into dark winter months.
  • Mental Health Panel participant and activity on Therapy Journaling. We had the honor of presenting as part of a panel at the Connect Marquette Conference this past month. The focus of the entire conference was Building Resilience, which is the primary goal of EAP and so that was a fun opportunity to connect with local young professionals, many of whom work for partner organizations.
  • Open Enrollment Employee Orientations. Both virtual and in-person, we have been giving EAP 101 and how employees and their families access this crucial benefit.
  • Strategic Planning, SWOTs, and Compliance reviews oh my. This is always going on with a handful of partners. Everything from providing templates and designing Employee Handbooks, Operating and SOP Manuals, Onboarding and Orientation audits, to full on Strategic Planning, Conducting SWOTs and Personality Assessment Workshops.
  • Conflict Resolution and Guidance for Organizational Leadership. We help guide our managers and leaders through situations where their employees and team are having challenges and third-party perspective is helpful. Not only helpful but bringing in subject matter experts regarding employee relations will help you learn what possible tools could help, what tactics are needed and how we can appropriately develop and educate our team so they know we care about them and want to see them excel in the workplace

At this point as we near year end, are you sitting down with your team to celebrate? Look back, look forward, plan, budget, and decide on priorities for the new year? We wanted to share this blog to give you the time to get that date scheduled. Or, to use an overused corporate term, circle back after the holidays. 

A term we recently discussed with a client was 'COVID Hangover' ™ (Haha) This encompasses all the issues we are dealing with post-pandemic or in our current phase with COVID that affected issues like, supply chain, staffing, employee retention, the great reshuffle and resignation, all these data points get us to today and we keep moving forward.

P.S. Check out a 'Mental Health Links' resources page and see a few of our friends that we have been referring lately. We want to highlight the group forHaley.com and the 'Mental Health Search Engine' they are working to share. We will promote a few more groups coming up and let you know about partners and friends we have worked with and feel good about telling you to also use! Good luck to the deer hunters we know and get ready to close out 2022.

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