Workplace Counselling – The Positive, Undeniable Impact It has on Employee Well-Being

Workplace Counselling is a powerful, effective and regular component of employee benefits in several countries. Companies in The United States and UK offer Workplace Counselling to their employees.

In Singapore, workplace counselling was not widely offered as an employee benefit, until recently.

The high level of stress, anxiety, competition amongst several factors make the corporate environment a high stress environment. Employees of companies face several challenges everyday which take them to the brink of mental breakdowns.

From disagreements, sealing deals, meeting deadlines, business challenges the corporate environment can be a boiling pot for anyone. Several firms and well established entities employ the services of counsellors and mental health professionals for the benefit of their employees.

Why Workplace Counselling, how does it help your employees?

Dealing with challenges issues at the workplace, be it harassment or other work related problems, is excruciatingly tough for almost everyone. And at the same time, employees need to show results. Maintaining work-life balance, a health mind and preventing mental breakdowns, while facing the challenges of a corporate environment – Not easy. Which is where we come in.

The UK EAPA (UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association) published a commissioned research to show the effectiveness of counselling for employee health and well-being

The UK EAPA, UK EAPA Research Summary: the effectiveness of EAP counselling interventions [1]

A Research Study commission by the UK EAPA (UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association) in the year 2012, published in the year 2014 found that the recovery and improvement rate of employees receiving counselling intervention was on par with interventions in the primary care setting.

The Reason for EAPA’s study

The recent economic downturn put significant pressure on employees, leading to increased sickness
absence, presenteeism and stress in the workplace. And with mental health problems being the largest
single source of disability in the UK at 23% of the burden of disease (Department of Health (2011), the
financial impact of employee mental ill health is a strong incentive for organisations to tackle this problem.
As a result, organisations are keen to explore and source ways to minimise this and workplace counselling is
one of the most popular solutions currently in the marketplace

UK EAPA [1]

It is has been well established, through several studies and well documented research, that workplace counselling ;

• alleviates and reduces the occurrence of mental illness and psychological problems
• significantly reduces sick leave,
• Improves attitude towards work

There are several such studies which have measured the effectiveness and positive outcomes of workplace counselling.

Workplace Counselling alleviates and reduces the occurence of mental illness and psychological problems, significantly reduces absence due to sickness, and improves attitude towards work.

John McLeod, The effectiveness of workplace counselling: A systematic review [2]

in 2017, a The Straits Times (Singapore) Article [3] wrote that more firms are offering counselling for their staff:

In today’s environment, post COVID-19, workplace counselling has become a need for every organization.

At Centre for Psychotherapy, we have worked with and are working with several organisations to address their needs for Workplace Counselling, with Corporate Packages that address every need. For reasons of confidentiality, we cannot reveal who they are, but we can safely say that they are happy with our services, and their employees are performing well, even during the COVID-19 period. Your employees Well-Being will translate into your Company’s well-being.

Workplace Counselling is a short term “powerful” therapeutic intervention for employees / clients across all working environments. Psychotherapy enhances organizational and employee-employer relationships.

At Centre for Psychotherapy, there has been a surge in the number of requests made for occupational health (workplace counselling).

We work within boundaries and adhere strictly to the “Code of Ethics.” Confidentiality is of utmost importance as in all other fields of Psychological/Counselling work done with clients.

Benefits of Workplace Counselling:

1. Safe Space:

• Employees are given a “safe space” to share without discrimination, about challenges they face.

• Therapist empathy enhances trust and rapport with clients who in turn benefit through “open sharing”.

2. Confidentiality:

• Employees feel safe and comfortable as they know that we observe the “Code of Ethics” strictly.

3. Skillsets and Intervention:

• An assessment is done to assess for needs of client and types of intervention to be used, in the subsequent sessions.

• Around 4 to 8, one hour sessions may be beneficial for client.

• Skillsets and intervention techniques focus on empowering the employee who eventually returns to the same workplace.

• Centre for Psychotherapy uses integrative models and core therapeutic approaches.

4. Importance of Work Place Counselling

• Trauma and difficult life-crisis experiences, experienced in the past, may surface, when one least expects these to do so. These memories may affect the present undertakings, may it be work self well-being or relationships.

• Re-experiencing trauma could lead towards absentees from work.

5. Expertise

• It is important to have qualified, experienced Therapists to attend to clients.

• Closures to issues and trauma experienced need to be given.

Talk to us today on how we can help your company and employees. Centre for Psychotherapy has worked with individuals and firms effectively for many years.

References:

1. Mellor-Clark et. al., (2012), Benchmarking key service quality indicators in UK Employee Assistance Programme Counselling: A CORE System data profile. [1]
2. John McLeod, (2010), The effectiveness of workplace counselling: A systematic review. [2]
3. Toh Wen Li, (2017), More firms offering counselling for staff. [3]