5 Important Benefits of Workplace Counselling

Most of us will be familiar with counselling. If we haven’t engaged with it personally, we’ll at least have an idea of what it involves from TV shows and movies.

But what about workplace counselling? The good news is that it’s essentially the same thing. Except in this case it’s usually focused on issues involving the workplace, or at the very least on improving the mental health of those in your business.

So keep reading to learn more about exactly what workplace counselling is, how it works, and 5 key benefits that it can provide your organisation.

What is Workplace Counselling?

Workplace counselling can take many forms. Primarily, though, it consists of one-to-one sessions where an employee can talk to a trained workplace counsellor about a mental health problem they’re going through.

The employee could bring any problems they’re having to the counselling session. But, based on the reason that a business has chosen to offer counselling, it could be about specific topics, including:

• Workplace stress and anxiety
• Burnout
• Depression
• Loss of a colleague or loved one
• Relationship difficulties

Additionally, as a business, you might choose to offer employee counselling on a positive and proactive basis. These sessions might cover:

• Strategies to prevent stress
• Promoting personal awareness and growth
• Building strong workplace relationships
• Or just having a third party to talk to.

Ultimately, there’s no real restriction to what a workplace counselling session can cover – but it’s up to you as a business to meet the needs of your employees.

How is Workplace Counselling Different from Regular Counselling?

The term ‘regular counselling’ here is a bit of a red herring. What we’re talking about is just workplace counselling versus counselling that someone might undertake privately. They can both cover the same topics and take the same format.

The main difference is that workplace counselling is just that – counselling that is offered by a business to employees. As mentioned above, it can sometimes be the case that employee counselling is offered in response to a specific workplace problem or event, but the format and approaches are still the same.

How Employee Counselling Works

Here at New Leaf Health, we have an incredibly simple counselling process.

1. You Reach Out to Us: Whether an employee has requested support from you, or you’ve decided to offer counselling proactively, you can reach out to a member of our team. We’ll assess your business and employees’ needs, then match you with the right counsellor.
2. We Facilitate the Appointments: We’ll work with you to agree on how many sessions are needed and to set up appointments. We take on the admin duties so we can talk to your staff directly to set up the appointment.
3. Your Employee Attends the Appointment: They’ll meet with our counsellor for their session. They’ll go over expectations and outcomes, and the counsellor will take the appropriate approach for the individual.
4. Followup Sessions Organised: If your employee requires more sessions we can arrange further appointments.

Other employee counselling providers may offer different approaches to the counselling process, but we find that this works best for both the business, as well as the employee.

Workplace Counselling Services Support your staff with specialised workplace counselling – suitable for both workplace and personal problems alike. Support your Staff

Workplace Counselling Services Support your staff with specialised workplace counselling – suitable for both workplace and personal problems alike. Support your Staff

The Benefits of Employee Counselling for Businesses

Even though employee counselling is designed to benefit your staff directly, it offers plenty of measurable benefits to a business, too. In other words, counselling can be a win-win scenario for staff and employers alike.

Improved Mental Health

Counselling is structured in a way that is designed to help the attendee. If they’re dealing with a specific mental health problem, such as stress, anxiety, or depression, talking therapy could focus on tackling the root causes. Ultimately, this will help the person improve their overall mental health.

For a business, employees who are in good mental health will be able to perform well consistently.

Think of a time when you’ve been anxious about something at home. Were you truly able to focus on your work that day? Giving your staff the support and tools to manage poor mental health is an obvious win for any business.

Building Resilience and Self-Awareness

In addition to tackling problems directly, counselling also helps attendees become more resilient. Through a counselling session, you might learn about certain personal triggers that affect your mental health, and how to overcome these instances.

A therapist can provide you with the skills to challenge negative thoughts, and even pre-emptively address them before they start to affect you.

In other words, the skills you could learn in a counselling session could help support you for life.

Lower Employee Turnover

Long gone are the days when mental health support was seen as a benefit or reward for staff. Supporting the mental health of employees is now an expectation. This is more important than ever in terms of attracting and retaining talent.

The EAP industry is booming in the UK, with almost 14 million UK workers now having access. In reality, though, only around 5% of workers actually engage with the service. In our experience when talking to employees at our events, this is often because staff don’t know about the service, or don’t understand what’s available to them. Clients often ask us to promote their EAP service when we run workplace health checks, for example (which of course, we do).

The benefit of promoting an in-house counselling offering is that everyone will know what employee counselling means. Additionally, because you’re booking sessions for people to utilise, the engagement rate will be 100% versus an EAP.

Happier Workplace

At the risk of stating the obvious, most employees who engage with workplace counselling are happier. That’s because they’ll be tackling issues and addressing worries, becoming more resilient as a result.

One secondary benefit, though is that by offering counselling to your employees, you’ll be communicating that you’re a safe, supportive organisation to work for, and that you care about the wellbeing of your staff. As a result, this might mean that employees are more willing to share that they’re having mental health problems without fear of being stigmatised. This means that you can support your staff properly, helping them feel happy and productive in the workplace.

Save Your Company Money

Speaking of being productive, did you know that 52% of workers report feeling more productive when their employer offers mental health support? The likelihood is, that if your business is more productive, you’ll be making more money.

Additionally, mental ill health is still one of the biggest causes of long-term absence for UK workers. But if you’re supporting your employees with workplace counselling, allowing them to look after their mental health, they’re less likely to take time off sick.

Signs Your Organisation Might Need Workplace Counselling Services

It’s fair to say that most organisations don’t proactively offer counselling to their employees. The likelihood is that most businesses will begin a workplace counselling programme reactively, in response to an incident or a variety of different factors.

Some of the reasons a business might choose to offer counselling reactively include:

• Decline in employee performance.
• Low morale in the workplace.
• Increase in sick days related to mental health.
• High staff turnover (citing mental health issues).
• Workplace conflicts.
• The death of a colleague.
• Or a combination of multiple factors.

There’s no specific reason a company should use to decide to offer counselling services. The decision should be made based on a variety of factors, but ultimately, you should make sure that it’s something that your employees want – by asking them.

New Leaf Health as Your Workplace Counselling Provider

When looking for a personal counsellor, it’s common for people to go through multiple counsellors before finding one that fits their needs. In fact, doing this is encouraged, or you might end up with a counsellor that just doesn’t work for you.

The same can be said for workplace counselling. When choosing a provider, you need a flexible and cost-effective service for your business, that your colleagues are comfortable with.

Here at New Leaf Health, that’s our approach to workplace counselling services. We don’t want to just sell you some counselling – we want your staff and your business to thrive. We approach our counselling services with some core principles in mind:

• Confidentiality – your staff will have the time and space to share their thoughts privately.
• Flexibility – we don’t tie you into a contract, our services are available as and when you need them.
• Quality – our counsellors are fully qualified and highly experienced in workplace counselling.
• Cost-Effectiveness – we don’t push you to free up more budget for our services, we work to your budget.

Interested in our employee counselling services? Click below to find out more about how we can help.

Workplace Counselling Services Support your staff with specialised workplace counselling – suitable for both workplace and personal problems alike. Support your Staff

Workplace Counselling Services Support your staff with specialised workplace counselling – suitable for both workplace and personal problems alike. Support your Staff

Workplace Counselling FAQs

Here are some of the most common questions around employee counselling, along with the answers.

What do workplace counsellors do?

Counsellors will work with employees on a one-to-one basis to work through whatever issues your staff member is experiencing.

The counselling could be solution-focused, where the participant looks at ways to solve their problems and improve their mental health. Alternatively, it could take the form of talking therapy, where simply giving the staff member the opportunity to talk could help improve their mood and emotional wellbeing.

Is workplace counselling confidential?

A counselling session will always be confidential between the participant and the therapist.

According to the BACP, there are situations in which a counsellor would need to break confidentiality. This is either because they are required by law to, or they are permitted by law to.

Examples of legally obliged disclosures include:

• Acts of terrorism.
• Drug trafficking and money laundering.
• Court orders or subpoenas.

Examples of permitted (discretionary) disclosures:

• Child protection and safeguarding.
• Protection of vulnerable adults.
• Risk of suicide or serious self-harm or harm to others.

Can you get counselling through your workplace?

Yes – hopefully! If your employer has an Employee Assitance Programme (EAP) in place, telephone counselling sessions may be offered as part of this. You should consult with your employer.

Otherwise, you could ask your organisation to look at offering workplace counselling services like ours!