Blog

Freya Cooper, FEI Account Manager

Last month, Florida legalized the use of medical marijuana statewide. However, the associated bill’s limitations on workplace accommodations concerning marijuana use invites confusion and court challenges.

As multiple states continue to work through legalization and context, managers, supervisors and human resources are left to navigate an evolving landscape of drug-testing and compliance policies directly impacting workforces nationwide.

Carol Hill, FEI Crisis Management Associate

The woes of travel are well-known: Lost luggage, stolen credit cards, misplaced reservations or confirmations—the list goes on. Yet, while some aspects of travel are beyond your control—your flight lands in Los Angeles, but your bags land in New York City—others are more easily navigable.

With a few tips and tools, you can avoid becoming a victim of travel by staying prepared, knowledgeable and safe.

Nancy Vogt, FEI Account Manager

How a client perceives a service can sometimes shift from perception to belief about a provider’s ability to satisfy client needs, especially if the provider does nothing (or very little) to address the situation.

With strong quality assurance measures such as regular surveying, your organization can collect the necessary information to quickly identify, isolate and resolve issues of client dissatisfaction before perception becomes reality.

Heather Lukaszewski, Systems Administrator and Supervisor

The fallout from data being breached often causes feelings of exposure, distrust and insecurity. Adding the interconnected, hyper-reactive world of social media into the mix can quickly escalate situations from bad to worse.

Regular review of your organization’s disaster recovery plan, crisis response protocols and information security practices will create a position of control and sense of continuity when addressing data management challenges.

Sumaya Kroger, FEI EAP Counselor

The workplace is not immune to the effects of traumatic events, and organizations must be prepared to respond when a traumatic incident takes place. Understanding the effects of trauma, allowing time to recover and offering support to employees—including through employee assistance programs—are all part of successful post-incident management.

Ted Uczen, FEI President and CEO

Recent crises in the United States and England have rocked the world and called upon ordinary civilians to assume extraordinary roles in response to traumatic situations.

Heroic action is sometimes a result of necessity during a sudden tragedy, but small-scale incidents of violence and conflict happen every day. Preparing and training your workforce to take on critical roles before a crisis event establishes resiliency when addressing trauma.

Emily Merritt, Director of Intergenerational Initiatives for the Alliance for Strong Families
and Communities

Workplaces are facing unprecedented generational and demographic shifts, requiring employers to rethink traditional human capital strategies. Unfortunately, ageist misconceptions and biases often permeate our thinking. It’s time to break down the challenges of ageism and explore compelling opportunities for employers to build an intergenerational workforce.

Terri Howard, FEI Senior Director

The turbulence of 2017—both in the U.S. and abroad—is taking a toll on American workplaces. Multigenerational environments of differing viewpoints and opinions, the workplace must respond to increasing civil unrest with attention to three critical areas: Diversity, expectations and supervision.

Amara Lang, Junior Account Manager

Traditional notions of work and the workplace have been fluctuating for years. Organizations continue to seek a magic bullet that will transform company culture into millennial magnets with professional pull, but workplaces are nuanced environments that require thoughtful consideration of team dynamics, employee engagement and management styles to achieve resilience.

Are the times truly changing? We think so, but we can help navigate your workforce to its fullest potential.

Daniel J. Potterton, FEI Chief Operating Officer

As with Samsung or Wells Fargo in 2016, airlines such as United and Delta are in the midst of viral consumer crises that highlight the ongoing struggle between businesses and effective communication in the age of social media. Organizations must pay close attention to their crisis communications plans and prepare accordingly in a world where immediate information is given high priority.

Amber Meulendyke, Marketing and Public Relations Manager

Coverage of prescription opioid addiction continues to dominate the news. There’s a reason, of course: The CDC reports that emergency rooms see over 1,000 individuals every day for the misuse of prescription medications.

FEI is committed to educating organizations on the widespread abuse of prescription drugs. We’ve collected several resources and free tools so managers and other supervisors can begin evaluating the potential impact of this epidemic on their own workforces.

Michael Bugenhagen, FEI Business Development Manager

From health care to the ongoing opioid epidemic, the workplace landscape is changing at a radical pace. Knowing your organization has a dependable partner for employee assistance—one that offers more beyond the typical EAP—fosters peace of mind when creating an engaged, resilient workplace culture.