A former HR director gives her expert view on how to deal with drug and alcohol misuse
As a former HR director with large global companies, I’ve had a lot of experience dealing with employees affected by substance misuse.
It’s more relevant for me because I was a high functioning alcoholic for many years, at times drinking over a bottle of spirits a day. As a result, I had serious health problems and was hospitalised on several occasions because of it. So I understand the difficulties that employees face.
Now that a number of years have passed and I no longer use alcohol, I can reflect on my experiences as an HR director and look back at how businesses should be identifying and approaching substance misuse among the workforce.
Nobody ever thought that I had an alcohol problem – not at least in the last 26 years. I’ve always been careful – my performance was always stellar. I chose not to tell my employers because there seemed to only be one outcome of going public at work – being ‘supported’ out of the business.
Problem alcohol – or drug – use is a difficult topic to approach for many managers because they’re unsure how to deal with it.
In my experience, they believe that an individual no longer has a use within the business if they’re affected by substance misuse, that they won’t recover, and they’re labelled a problem employee – which is often not the case.
For me, it’s about HR and the business having a relationship with an employee that is at a level where you can have a difficult conversation.
It’s relatively easy to spot someone who has an alcohol problem for example. You’ve probably got a change in behaviour; you can smell alcohol; there’s the absence pattern – are they regularly having the Monday’s off? Are they regularly having the Friday’s off? Has their performance deteriorated? Are they taking longer to complete a task than they normally would?
Have they lost a lot of weight? Do they look ill? Do they look dishevelled? Then, it’s about having an open and honest conversation – it shouldn’t be threatening.
The employee needs to feel confident that what they’re telling their manager or the HR team will remain confidential, unless there’s a safety risk to themselves or others.
It needs to be shown there are alternatives, other than a P45 and a compromise agreement. Access to support services, such as an Employee Assistance Programme or organisation geared up to help people affected by problem alcohol and drug use, is essential.
So is training for managers. If managers are made aware of addiction and understand it can happen to anyone, they’ll know that recovery is possible and that employees will still be positive members of the organisation, to society; that they’re no different to you and I.
- The author has more than two decades of experience in HR and finance working for large global medical and defence firms
- This post was anonomised at the request of the author