Along with taking care of the work environment, job satisfaction, growth and career development, organisations also have a bigger responsibility of ensuring the mental wellbeing of their employees. This is the primary reason why workplace counselling has gained prominence over the years.
Workplace counseling is therapy offered to employees of a company, often through an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), that provides employees with a safe place to discuss any issues that they are struggling with or unable to cope. Depending on the strength of employees in an organisation, the Human Resource (HR) department develops a comprehensive EAP programme that includes employees’ access to professional counselors. Employee counseling has infact emerged as one of the HR tools used to increase the quality and productivity of the workforce and to attract and to retain the best talent.
In today’s fast-paced corporate world, there is every possibility for organisations to have a number of employees who are mentally stressed, struggling with workplace-related or personal issues. There is an increase in anxiety and stress related cases arising not only out of workplace factors like managing deadlines, meeting targets but also issues like family pressures, unable to maintain work-life balance, coping with a bereaved family member or a friend, among others. These problems in turn can affect an employee’s work performance and lower productivity levels, increase absenteeism and may result in troubled relationships with co-workers.
Counseling in the workplace typically comprises face-to-face counseling, a telephone helpline, legal advice and critical-incident debriefing. Some counselors are embracing new technologies and offer email, instant messaging and online counselling. This can help employees in more remote settings, or those who travel frequently as part of their job. Workplace counseling services can play a powerful role in supporting a healthy work environment. One of the recent study that looked at the outcome of over 28,000 clients who participated in counseling in their workplace showed that 70% showed improvement after leveraging counseling services.
Workplace counseling has clear benefits for both employees and employers. Research has proven that there is a strong link between an employee’s psychological well-being and their productivity at work. When companies offer an EAP that includes confidential workplace counseling services, everybody wins. Employees can work through challenges in their life that may be affecting their performance, and employers can enjoy productivity gains while knowing that they are helping to improve the lives of their employees.
The benefits of workplace counselling to both employees and employers are plenty.
Some of them include:
Easy access to trained counselors
A safe space for employees to express their issues or feelings
Helps employees to better understand themselves
Improves coping mechanism
Developing effective solutions to problems
Learning to look at issues with a more positive outlook and different perspective
Improved employee performance, leading to productivity gains
Decreased employee absenteeism and attrition rate
Organisations need to be aware that workplace-counselling process is about providing a sounding board or a listening ear for an employee, giving them a safe place to talk about issues that trouble them, and allowing counselors to help them find their own solutions to problems or develop better ways to manage issues. It is not about giving advice, but about providing a non-judgmental, empathetic and accessible means to allow an employee to find a way forward. It should never be used as a conditional requirement or as part of a disciplinary process. Also, strict confidentiality needs to be maintained when an employee reaches out to the counselor for help.
Workplace counseling has proven to alleviate the root cause of the problem faced by an employee within a reasonable amount of time in an effective manner. It has clear benefits to both employees and employers. Hence, it is vital for every organisation to make this part of their Employee Assistance Programme. Needless to say, mentally happy employees are more productive and contribute well to the success of an organisation.