Meet Kathleen Greer of KGA in Framingham

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathleen Greer.

Kathleen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started a few small businesses as a teenager so it was quite natural to do so as an adult. Starting an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) was different than my previous enterprises but made perfect sense as my interests developed.

After getting an undergraduate degree from Babson College and a graduate degree in counseling from Northeastern University, I worked in the public mental health and substance abuse system for a few years. Then I heard about the EAP industry! EAPs had been around since the 40’s but only in large corporations which were large enough for an internal program. In the early 1980’s contract EAPs were emerging and they were very appealing to me. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and started selling EAP to small companies in my neighborhood.

I started researching organizations and making cold calls. At that time, some human resources professionals hadn’t heard of EAP so I did a lot of education. After 7 months, I got my first client and we began looking for clients of any size that really care about their employees. We now serve almost 150 organizations, some of which are considered workplaces of choice. Employees and their family members can call for assistance with everything from psychological stress, substance use, depression or a myriad of work-life issues. Every day employees call for help finding child care, eldercare, legal consultation, financial assistance and even pet care! We find vetted resources for people, offer advice, and generally make life easier. Employers pay for the service because they know that people get back on track faster if they get assistance. All of our work is confidential, but we share valuable data with our client organizations.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been a fairly smooth road because I always kept some principles in mind:
– Practice what you preach.
– Provide excellent customer service.
– Follow up with people to see if they got what they needed.

I had a tendency to overwork because there was always more to be done. I had to wear many hats at the beginning and as I hired people, I was able to manage the stress of business ownership better.

Financially, I stayed away from debt and made sure there was extra money in the bank. I think we could have grown faster if I was more comfortable with debt but borrowing to grow can be a double-edged sword.

When the dot.com bubble burst in 2001 and the recession in 2008 were challenging however in some ways EAP and Work Life programs are recession-proof. We just grew a little slower during those times but helped many people and organizations through troubling times.

Please tell us about KGA.
KGA is a wonderful company. We are an HR services firm that helps organizations create and sustain and health, engaged and productive workforce. We serve organizations in the Northeast, many of which have employees across the country. We also have a global partner so we can help with problems in other parts of the world.

We are well known in our field for having a high level of customer service. We treat people as people, knowing that asking for help is difficult. When people call, they get to talk to an experienced counselor as soon as the phone is answered. They only need to make that first call because we know how hard that was. From there, we will take the initiative to stay in touch as long as it’s necessary.

In addition to helping individuals, we also help organizations. These are turbulent times and we know that many employees are distressed by a climate of political and international unrest, natural disasters and violent shootings. Employers are challenged with rising health care costs and the opioid epidemic, and all of the fallout thereof. KGA is honored to help organizations through crises of all types and participating in prevention efforts. There is no time more challenging for businesses today.

I am proud that we personally help over 10,000 employees each year as well as the 150 organizations we serve. I am proud to have a team that always goes the extra mile with each caller. I am happy to have a leadership team that is positioned to lead KGA forward and create a legacy in the EAP field.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I probably would hire a President earlier. Seven years ago, I decided to hire Seth Moeller to be my successor. This helped me to focus on a more external role for which I was well suited. I still enjoy networking and business development after all these years!

Contact Info:

• Address: KGA, Inc.
  161 Worcester Road, Suite 409
  Framingham, MA 01701
• Website: www.kgreer.com
• Phone: 508-879-2093
• Email: greer@kgreer.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KGAINC/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kgainc?lang=en
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kga/

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