Welcome to Ask an Adviser, EBN’s weekly column in which benefit brokers and advisers answer (anonymous) queries sent in by our readers. Looking for some expert advice? Please submit questions to askanadviser@arizent.com. This week, we asked Cheryl Brown Merriwether, VP and executive director of ICARE, to weigh in on the following: How can an ERG support a recovery-ready workplace?
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are company-sanctioned, employee-led voluntary groups that benefit both employees and their employer. Many support a company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals. According to Forbes Magazine, 90% of Fortune 500 companies sponsor ERGs and DiversityInc’s 2022 Top 50 Companies for Diversity all have ERGs.
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are the new normal as employers and employees navigate a post-pandemic VUCA world. The result is an unprecedented mental, behavioral health, substance misuse and addiction crisis affecting everyone.
As many as 70% of illicit drug users are employed, according to a 2022 Mental Health America report. Substance misuse alone costs employers an estimated $81 billion annually in lost productivity. Because of stigma, workplace addiction has become a DEI issue. Fortunately, ERGs are emerging to promote a healthy, recovery-ready workplace environment.
Read more: Supporting sobriety at work: How Salesforce created inclusion with ‘Soberforce’
Recovery-friendly workplaces exist in more than 25 states and encourage collaboration between government, employers and other recovery care providers. These workplaces recognize that individuals who are in recovery possess powerful characteristics that can create positive change in workplace cultures by eliminating barriers for struggling individuals.
Recovery supportive workplaces do not require formal collaboration between external entities. It could emulate Salesforce, whose former regional vice president enterprise service, Marin Nelson, actively promoted SoberForce, an employee-led ERG. Another example is Belden, a cable manufacturing plant that created Pathways to Employment, a community-based solution blending drug rehabilitation with the promise of employment.
Peer recovery support is a low-cost, evidence-based program where services are provided by people who have lived with mental health and addiction. The benefits of peer support groups can be traced back to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. Peers receive formal training qualifying them to answer co-workers’ questions and help navigate complex corporate or community-based systems of care.
The Sober Curious movement, which emerged in 2018, is based on Ruby Warrington’s book of that same title. It is a lifestyle for those who are concerned about their drinking, desiring to make mindful choices about their alcohol use. Sober curious employees are well-suited to identify and rally like-minded individuals willing to form an ERG to promote engaging, non-alcohol related employee experiences.
Read more: As addiction rates soar, employers can offer a lifeline
Companies seeking innovative solutions to help struggling employees should encourage recovery champions to self-identify if they are willing to help the company form a recovery-ready, recovery-supportive, sober curious or similar type ERG. Doing so will ignite a grassroots movement, which will transform lives and create a corporate culture to sustain recovery-ready, friendly, or supportive workplaces.
Companies can further support this recovery-ready workplace movement by providing recovery champions with specialized training and certification. The International Association of Professional Recovery Coaches (IAPRC) offers a Certified Facilitator in Addiction Awareness (CFAA) train-the-trainer program that helps recovery champions deliver relevant workplace initiatives and guide safe conversations around workplace addiction to break the sickness of silence.
