An Open Letter To Human Resource Managers

Anger is a pervasive problem which is costly to businesses large and small. Anger Management in contrast, is A Cost Saving Intervention.

Today, I received two inquiries regarding the cost of instituting an organizationally-based anger management program. My initial response was that the cost depended on the size of the organization and the specific needs to be addressed.

A much better response may be, a well organized anger management program designed for prevention will pay for itself over time and prove to be a profit rather than a cost. Such a program was established for one 16,000 employee district of the U.S. Postal Service as a Pilot and resulted in a saving of 1.7 million dollars over a twelve month period.

There are four topics which are the core of most structured anger management programs. These topics can be taught together or separately. They are anger, stress, communication and emotional intelligence. Knowledge and practice of skills taught in these subjects tend to lead to improvement in an employees' level of functioning in these same areas.

If the four components of anger management intervention is made available to all employees of an organization, it results in an increase in morale, increase in productivity and decreases in sick day usuage, accidents, interpersonal conflicts, aggressive behaviour and violence. Anger management is indeed, a cost saving intervention.

George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF