Jan. 20, 2011

NPR Marketplace

Target Hires Counselors to Help Employees

Target aims to cut absenteeism and high staff turnover by helping workers with problems such as financial stress and poor health. For the past two years, a Target store in East Los Angeles has its own workplace counselor to help employees with such personal issues.

“Employees are spending time at work trying to contact banks or credit card companies. Or lawyers. Or they’re just missing work because these things are so overwhelming to them that they can’t even focus on their job,” said Richard Chaifetz, founder and CEO of ComPsych, the firm that supplies counselors to Target and other companies. “They want to target the issue of turnover in the stores and the best way, we felt, to address that was by resources on site for these people. For financial counseling, emotional counseling, legal counseling,” he said.

Adding a counselor does mean an extra expense. But in the long run, that position could save the company money. According to Steve Laffery, director of health benefits for Target, the on-site program has reduced workplace accidents by 24 percent and boosted attendance 17 percent.

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