Grant Will Help Establish Recovery-friendly Workplaces

By Bridget Bauer

With the help of a $7,000 grant from internet and cable provider Sparklight, Ascent Recovery Residences and the Recovery Outreach Community Center (ROCC) is going to help businesses establish recovery-friendly workplaces.

The Peer Recovery Center of Excellence (housed at the University of Missouri-Kansas City) produced a toolkit titled Recovery Friendly Workplace. It notes that recovery is a good thing for business, and that employers are realizing the value of being better informed about substance abuse. By becoming proactive, employers are recognizing the economic and cultural benefits of supporting those who are in recovery or seeking help.

Here are some facts from the toolkit: Employees who get effective substance use treatment and recovery support can, on average, avoid $8,817 in annual costs.

Employees in recovery take less unscheduled leave than their colleagues. On average, they miss 13.7 fewer work days than employees with an active substance use disorder and 3.6 fewer work days than an average employee.

Employees in recovery stay with their employers at almost identical rates as their coworkers. And, compared to those with active addictions, employees in recovery can save their organization up to $4,000 in turnover and replacement costs.

Employees in recovery save an average of $536 per year in healthcare utilization costs compared to those with an untreated substance use disorder.

Teddy Steen, executive director of ASCENT Recovery Services, said the money would be used to develop videos and printed material to inform businesses of the value of recoveryfriendly workplaces. The grant will also help facilitate a new endeavor by The ROCC to work with local businesses as both a recovery resource for employees and to help create a recovery-friendly work environment.

“We want to reach out to those small and medium businesses that don’t have a full HR department,” Steen said. “I don’t know that businesses realize how much money they lose on substance abuse over the course of the year like missing work and accidents. We’re going to try to bring in businesses and help them to build more recovery-friendly workplaces.”

Employers have felt the impact of substance misuse for decades through absenteeism, loss of productivity, safety issues and poor job performance. Through recovery-friendly workplaces, a number of things can be accomplished. Stigma associated the disease can be fought along with encouraging employees to get help sooner by providing resources. Those resources can include meeting people where they are and supporting their own unique recovery path. It’s important to find the right path and encourage employees to find what works best for them.