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E-mail: info@merlinia.com

Assistance: Safety provided by your coworkers

In the Danish municipality of Odder the IT Process Manager says Assistance is "economically attractive when compared to a traditional alarm system" but adds that you cannot possibly put a monetary value on Assistance when comparing it to the absence of an employee on sick leave.

- There is no need to get into flashing lights and howling sirens when you can handle a threatening situation by holding down a key on a computer keyboard for a few seconds. By doing this you summon a colleague who can help to calm down flaring tempers, merely by quietly showing up. These are the words of IT Process Manager Bent Olsvig of Odder, whose municipal administration in 2004 became one of the first to install Merlinia Assistance. Almost 100 employees in the Job Center, the Social Services department, the Children and Families Center and the Civic Information Center now have Assistance available.

Bent Olsvig further explains that Assistance, as seen by an IT manager, is very flexible and can easily be tailored to a specific organizational environment.

- It is discreet and effective, and so simple to understand that a new employee can be taught to use it in a matter of seconds.

Merlinia provides prospective buyers of Assistance with some ideas for how the users can best help each other in tense situations. And Bent Olsvig's positive attitude towards the program is to a large extent due to the fact that the installation and use of the program encourages employees to turn to each other for help when they are feeling threatened.

The Civic Information Center at Odder city hall

- We have held an in-house meeting where our IT personnel, our employee safety representative and an external work environment consultant told us about the technical and social aspects of this type of conflict management. It is important that everybody feels there is cooperation with the employee safety organisation so that everything doesn't end up being all about technology. The employees gave lots of positive feedback, and they do feel secure in having a fixed set of procedures that are activated if a client becomes angry and threatening.

- investing in Assistance is sort of like buying fire insurance, so that you have some coverage if a fire breaks out

- an economically attractive alternative to a traditional alarm system

Bent Olsvig relates how municipal employees in the past have encountered clients who tossed furniture around. In recent years, though, they have been spared episodes quite that violent.

- Investing in Assistance is sort of like buying fire insurance, so that you have some coverage if a fire breaks out. During the years we have had Assistance, nobody has actually had to call for help from their coworkers, but fortunately somebody accidentally triggers an alarm from time to time, says Bent Olsvig.

When he says "fortunately" about the false alarms it is because they have demonstrated clearly to the employees that both the program and the procedures actually work: when "Jane Smith" has accidentally started the chain reaction, coworkers close to her can see on their PC screens that she has requested their help. As planned, they casually come by her office and ask to see a document or offer a cup of coffee.

- Here at our location, the managers of the individual departments have decided which groups of employees will cover each other in an emergency. Such support groups need to be big enough to allow for absences among the members, of course. In addition, when the Citizens Shop has late opening hours we have arranged for a message to be sent to the local fire brigade and police in case an employee needs help, says Bent Olsvig.

He sees Assistance as an economically attractive alternative to a traditional alarm system and adds: "If you look at it in the light of an employee ending up on sick leave, I don't think you can really put a price on the value of the program."

Odder Kommune

• Has used Assistance
  since 2004.
• Assistance has been installed on the PCs of 100 employees.

"Investing in Assistance is sort of like buying fire insurance, so that you have some coverage if a fire breaks out."

"Economically attractive when compared to a traditional alarm system."

IT Process Manager Bent Olsvig of Odder Kommune