Faculty and Staff Issues

1. Faculty and Staff Issues Floyd Sylvester Employee Assistance Program

2. Faculty Stressors • Teaching • Research • Publications • Grant writing • Managing grant money effectively • Working towards tenure • Managing staff and students • Working with colleagues • Personal life

3. Staff Stressors • Economic Uncertainty • Dealing with Evolving Demands on Campuses

4. UNL Employee Assistance Program • Internal program, housed on-campus • Benefits of healthy employees • Happier • Higher work performance • Works more cooperatively • Serve entities simultaneously • Employee/client/family member • Organization • No cost

5. EAP Counselors • Licensed MH Practitioners or Counselors plus work performance specialists • Understand underlying issues • Develop a plan • Short v. long-term process • Chemical dependency • Psychological issues

6. Roles of EAP • Manage an Employee Emergency Loan Fund • Employee evaluations • Employee terminations • Reduction in Force (RIF) assistance • Secure new employment • Maintain emotional/psychological stability • UNL Threat Assessment Team • Disaster Behavioral Health • Educational training (i.e., dealing with stress)

7. Benefits of EAP • Help employees and family members resolve issues • Beneficial for both the university and the individual • Employees who utilize services are less likely to pose a threat

8. EAP Interventions • Offer employees assistance through: • Education • Solution-focused coaching • Counseling and/or referral as needed • Evaluate safety concerns and develop a plan

9. Strategies for Assisting Faculty and Staff • Creating a detailed vision of how they want their life to be. • What are the steps needed to get to where they want to go? • Break it down to daily tasks, if possible • Recognize each step accomplished • Avoid self-criticism. Life gets in the way and there will be days

10. Key Roles • Partnership-Supervisor/EAP consultation and training • Work performance focus • Communication Liaison • Supervisor/employee • Referral source and organization re: work performance • Micro/Macro intervention • Conflict Resolution between employees/departments • Training-educational topics regarding life and/or work challenges

11. Integration: Threat Assessment Team • Managing Employee Termination • Assisting with voluntary terminations • Managing Conflict • Coordination of outside mental health resources

12. Floyd Sylvester LMHP, CEAP Director, UNL EAP 402-472-3107 FSylvester2@unl.edu ©2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved.