How Companies Can Provide Immediate Assistance to Employees Impacted by COVID-19 and Other Disasters
This blog was originally posted on March 24, 2020, and was updated on July 31, …
Childcare. Utilities. Medical bills. To many of us, these are just typical, everyday costs of living and working. For others, these are a few common causes behind serious financial hardship, often forcing someone to choose between medicine, electricity, food, or shelter. In some dire situations, these can even be the make-or-break reasons that lead to someone becoming homeless.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has only compounded these existing hardships, which employees nationwide have been grappling with for years.
When I first published this article in March, the unprecedented ‘shelter in place’ and ‘social distancing’ restrictions across the country were just starting to be enforced. Some individuals immediately found themselves jobless, while others faced a temporary pay cut.
Now, with several months of navigating this new reality under our belt, we’re realizing there is nothing “temporary” about any of this. And there is still a great deal of uncertainty – both for employees unsure about their long term job outlook and for employers steering the long-term sustainability of their workforce and business.
Fortunately, there is a remedy employers can use to demonstrate how much they really care about their employees’ well-being and mitigate the financial hardship those employees may be facing. That solution is called an Employee Assistance Fund (EAF).
