How Businesses Benefit from Employee Counselling
I’m all for the idea of counselling becoming an established part of an organisation’s offer. In this month’s blog, I take a closer look at managing workplace wellbeing through offering employees a counselling and therapy service.
Find out more about Hypnotherapy for anxiety here. I am also currently offering a free initial consultation you can book here.
Introducing an online supportive counselling and therapy service to your workplace can make all the difference to your employees’ mental health. Employee counselling can also benefit your business, reducing issues like absence and turnover.
Mental health issues in the workplace
We often speak of absenteeism, and attendance is a common measure in most workplaces. According to 2017’s government-commissioned report, Thriving at Work mental health absence costs the UK around £8 billion a year. That’s a shockingly large sum – and it’s made up from people who reach a point where their stress or depression or anxiety means they can no longer go to work.
A less-discussed issue is “presenteeism”. This is simply coming into work when you shouldn’t. Yes, we’ve all gone to work with a headache/cold/hangover, and this is probably because we didn’t feel quite ill enough to justify time out. Mental health-related presenteeism is a bigger concern. It could be because of the stigma still sadly attached to mental health, or because the workplace has a “stiff upper lip” culture.
No employer wants to be in a situation where mental health-related illness affects their colleagues – and their bottom line.
The Thriving at Work standards
The Thriving at Work report set out six core standards for workplace mental health. Organisations should:
- Have a mental health at work plan, and make sure it’s communicated
- Develop mental health awareness among the team
- Encourage an open culture about mental health, and have support available when it’s needed
- Provide good working conditions, and make sure employees have a healthy work-life balance and opportunities to develop their careers/skills
- Promote effective people management
- Monitor employee mental health and wellbeing
Making counselling provision part of your people plan goes a long way to answering these six standards. As part of your workplace plan, ensure your team has free, easy and confidential access to a counsellor or therapist.
Plan your approach to workplace mental health
External or internal support? Yes, I have to declare an interest here! However, although there will be costs if you engage an external professional, there are definite upsides. Many people feel more comfortable speaking to someone they don’t know. There won’t be the same (often unfounded but understandable) fear of confidentiality being breached. They’re also more likely to open up about workplace problems. There’s also minimum disruption to your own (usually HR) team. A professional should also spot any areas for deeper concern, such as depression or anxiety.
If you’re going down the internal counselling approach, please make sure your counsellor has received training. It’s not an easy role, and could result in the new counsellor feeling overwhelmed. Training will enable them to deal with the role, and give them the confidence to handle sometimes-difficult issues.
Create a culture of support – not emergency intervention
Prevention is better than cure – we all know this. If the employer intervenes too late, there’s probably already problems with absenteeism, ill-health and reduced work capacity.
Being aware of the team’s mental wellbeing is a sign of a caring employer. We all spend a lot of our lives at work, and it’s important to note that while the workplace isn’t necessarily the cause of someone’s difficulties, it may be the workplace that picks up on them. Signs such as irritability, loss of concentration, reduced performance, increased absence may point towards a person who’s struggling.
A supportive culture isn’t just about managing workplace-related stress. It’s about acknowledging that having a counselling provision in place is an important to employee wellbeing as the staff gym or the Christmas party. It’s about making people feel valued.
Support your remote workers
When Thriving at Work was written, working from home was barely even a phrase. Now it’s almost the norm. In April 2020 at the start of the pandemic, 46.6% of people worked from home at least some of the time. The employment landscape may never go back to its previous physical workplace focus, which has several implications for counselling.
People will feel more confident to access support. There’s no fear of being “spotted” en route to a session. We’re also more used to working via Skype and Zoom now, so online counselling will feel more natural.
With the change to the landscape, people’s work-related stressors may have changed. Bullying and high-stress cultures are less likely to develop; however, feelings of isolation and poor work-life balance may be exacerbated, together with a general sense of uncertainty and job insecurity. This is a very important time to invest in your team.
Set measurable targets
Any business expenditure or venture needs to be measured. How will you rate the success of an employee counselling scheme?
Survey your team before and after the service is introduced, to see how their attitudes and likelihood to use the service change. Then, look at take-up of the service, and monitor this month-by-month. It may take a while to get going.
Long term, the figures you need to watch are absenteeism (especially for stress-related reasons), and employee engagement. Again, the latter will need to be research based, and there are plenty of tools for managing employee engagement available. Look at areas such as confidence, morale and commitment to the organisation.
Longer-term still, you’re looking at employee turnover and retention. If these are low, you’re doing the right things as an HR team or employer.
The biggest difference you can make to your team’s mental health – make it easy to ask for help.
Find out more about employee counselling
To find out more about how Great Minds can offer support, please contact me. I’m Debbie Daltrey, the founder of Great Minds Clinic and an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist. I am a solution focused hypnotherapist and a BACP Registered Counsellor. I’m a senior lecturer in hypnotherapy and I supervise other hypnotherapists. I run online hypnotherapy sessions for clients locally, UK, and across the World for English-speaking people. Why not book your free initial consultation?
