Pilot Program to Help Employers Support Workers in Recovery

A dozen Granite State companies will take part in a pilot program to provide support in the workplace for people recovering from substance use disorders. The Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative, announced March 1 by Gov. Chris Sununu, will provide tools and resources to help employers engage these workers.

Through the initiative’s website, workplaces can apply to be designated a Recovery Friendly Workplace and access tools and resources to help employees or new hires who are in recovery from substance abuse. To earn the designation, businesses must demonstrate a commitment to creating a recovery friendly environment; promote a culture that addresses the stereotypes associated with substance use disorder, and address behavioral health issues head-on to enhance workplace safety and productivity.

Recovery Friendly Workplaces are willing to hire and work intentionally with people in recovery.

Among the early adopters of the program is Turbocam, a manufacturer of turbomachinery flowpath components in Barrington. Peter Hanson (pictured), director of talent development, says the company is already using some of the strategies identified. “Our mission tells us we should be looking at this person as another human being who is struggling, and we should help them,” Hanson says.

Turbocam has more than 500 employees, many from Rochester, Dover and Somersworth where the drug crisis has hit hard, he says. “It’s a challenge getting workers, so when we start to think about meeting the needs, objectives and goals for our customers, we have to be open-minded, and at the same time manage risk so at the end of the day, the product going out the door is safe,” Hanson says.

Turbocam recently collaborated with ONE Voice for Strafford County, a regional prevention and recovery network, to host an awareness event that was open to the public. “It was just an effort of ours to show that we are a community-focused employer and understand that this is a community-wide issue,” Hanson says. The participants spoke about the stigma associated with drug misuse.

Hanson says that sort of open, honest dialog he goes on within the company, too. “We had luncheon, and I shared that we adopted four of our five children… and I spoke about my youngest son. His [birth] mother overdosed and died,” Hanson says. “My family has been directly affected but sharing that at work would have been taboo years ago.

Getting up in front of everyone and sharing changed the conversation. Back at my desk an hour later I had several emails from employees sharing their personal stories.”

Hanson says Turbocam still has a policy of pre-employment drug screening, but if a problem arises after someone is hired, they will work with an employee as long as he or she is willing to work on the problem.

“One of the biggest things people in recovery need is structure,” Hanson says. “A job provides that.”

Hanson says a young man, incarcerated in Massachusetts, wrote to him after he saw an article in the Wall Street Journal about Turbocam taking part in a recovery-friendly job fair. “This guy is a convicted felon,” Hanson says. “Are we going to be open to him applying and working here? The answer is yes.”

One of the big challenges in hiring people in recovery is transportation; often they won’t have a license or a vehicle.

Turbocam is exploring options from grants or donations to employer-sponsored transportation. “We are taking the time to do those things, not just saying this is somebody else’s problem,” Hanson says.