Family Dollar Supports Employees Following Trauma

In 2004, Family Dollar began efforts to improve employee retention and reduce worker’s compensation claims that resulted following traumatic events, such as robberies, assaults, or natural disasters. Crisis Care Network (CCN) was engaged to deliver on-site and telephonic psychological first aid for impacted employees, resulting in significant Return-To-Work improvements.

In 2007, the process they put in place with Behavioral Medical Interventions (BMI) in addition to CCN’s support increased the number of employees returning to work where serious injury had occurred or the employee had not returned to work after CCN’s intervention.

If team members receive professional support within 2-24 hours after a traumatic incident, the company experiences 86% retention, and only 6% of cases progress to a worker’s compensation claim. For retained team members, work comp claims are 15% less costly. Projected year one return-on-investment (ROI) is in the high 6 figures in work comp disability claims savings plus indirect costs, which according to the American Society of Safety Engineer’s (ASSE) Council of Practices and Standards may run as much as 20 times the direct costs.

Supporting Employees Following Trauma

Family Dollar wanted to increase their efforts to help team members (employees) who have experienced potential trauma, such as a robbery, assault, accidental death, or natural disaster. They began working with Crisis Care Network (CCN) in 2004 and added Behavioral Medical Interventions (BMI) in 2007 to provide comprehensive services both immediately and up to six months after an incident has occurred to help team members cope with potential emotional, physical, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to the trauma.

When a robbery occurs, the employer calls CCN, a crisis support service based in Grandville, Michigan. For on-site services, CCN has a nationwide network of 5,000 behavioral health professionals specially trained to deliver psychological first aid to the workplace. Most Family Dollar employees are served by CCN telephonically through their TeleReach support service. CCN places a proactive phone call to identified employees on behalf of Family Dollar, acknowledging the incident, expressing concern, providing an opportunity to talk (or not), normalizing traumatic stress reactions, and providing psycho-educational self-care information—including return-to-work strategies. Employees are encouraged to call back anytime during the next 10 days for support. On the 10th day a follow-up call is made to strategize additional self-care, affirm progress, and ascertain work status.

If an employee is still experiencing symptoms at a level that prevents them from returning to work after 10 days, CCN calls the employer to inform them. BMI provides the next level of support to facilitate return to work. In case of severe initial trauma, BMI is immediately involved. Headquartered in Minneapolis, BMI maintains a panel of more than 125 actively practicing physicians and psychologists across the U.S. and Canada to provide clinical expertise on complex medical and behavioral health issues, including trauma recovery. The employer/representative calls BMI, discusses services needed and the current status of the employee, and if agreed that BMI will provide services, calls their employee to let them know BMI will be calling them.

Last Updated: September 2009