A new program available to Tennessee employers is aimed at helping them control workplace costs associated with reduced productivity and absenteeism by employees going through a divorce. The program, developed by Middle Tennessee Divorce Financial Expert Rosemary Frank, combines employee group seminars with individual consulting as well as referral services to allied divorce professionals like attorneys, therapists and child specialists who also specialize in divorce.
Rosemary Frank says, ?Other than parenting issues, if minor children are involved, divorce is all about money. Everything else, the love, hopes, dreams and plans are gone.? She adds, ?If we can alleviate the worse points of anxiety during divorce with financial information and insight, employees will be more focused on work, more productive, and less distracting to other employees, than if they were in a constant state of distress.?
As businesses look for ways to reduce expenses during a difficult economy, divorce among employees continues to impose a share of the cost upon employers. Recent surges in divorce filings during 2011, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and noted by courthouses around the country, ABC News, and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, mean that more employees will bring their problems to work with them and become less productive for a while.
Findings of the Life Innovations Study ?Marriage and Family Wellness: Corporate America?s Business?? concluded that relationship-related stress costs employers about $ 300 billion annually. Divorce is the culmination of such stress. Other studies have shown that divorce impacts an employee?s productivity and effectiveness in the workplace for three to five years, or longer.
In addition to productivity issues for divorcing employees, and other workers around them, higher health-related costs due to stress and depression are also borne by the employer. Assisting employees in some way to mitigate the financial distress caused by divorce is becoming a high-priority item.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) most often address the symptoms of divorce with mental health services. However, since money and family finances have long been recognized as the number one cause of divorce, it follows that financial issues would be the most contentious during divorce. Assistance focused on the financial issues of divorce, with intentions to decrease the stress, duration and uncertainties of divorce are a meaningful addition to traditional EAP services.
Restoring normalcy in the workplace is every employer?s wish following the disruptive forces of divorce. Unfortunately, with the divorce rate at a steady 50% and no changes expected, disruption in the workplace due to divorce becomes a constant condition to be managed, just the players change.
An optional component of the program is a management seminar, Dollars of Divorce: Workplace Impact. Ms. Frank says, ?The material is intended to help managers better understand the effects of divorce upon employees, how to control its impact upon job performance and overall productivity, and how to create more loyal employees for having cared in some way. Frank adds, ?In the hierarchy of life?s tragic events, divorce is said to be second only to the loss of a child.?
More about Rosemary Frank, MBA, CDFS, CFDP, CFDS
Rosemary Frank is a financial services professional with a specialty in the finances of divorce. As a leader in this specialty, she has earned the designations of Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) as well as Certified Financial Divorce Practitioner (CFDP) and Certified Financial Divorce Specialist (CFDS). She has the distinction of having been the first divorce financial professional in the Nation to earn all three certifications in this specialty. Additionally, she is also qualified to provide services as a Collaborative Divorce Financial Neutral. Rosemary writes and speaks frequently on topics related to divorce finance and has authored and presents a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course for attorneys on the topic. She is a member of numerous professional organizations and contributes regularly, on an international level, to the development of professional standards and practice protocols. She maintains her divorce financial practice in Brentwood, TN.
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