In 2012 I took the first steps in undertaking a course in Counselling and Psychotherapy.
This part-time study on top of a full time career as Human Resources within a Global company, was at times exhausting. However, the fact I was already in a people focussed line of work, driven and passionate in helping others develop and feel motivated and engaged in the workplace, stretching myself into the arena of Psychotherapy did not feel so removed from the skills and techniques needed and practiced in coaching my Business people.
Can Counselling approaches make a valuable contribution in business?
I believe that with the increasingly stressful social, technological and economic environment across the globe, business is slowly recognising the need for improved skill in the workplace to enable its people to feel supported with their mental well-being and emotional resilience. Hand in hand with Professional business or life coaching, a counselling skill can be adapted and utilised in many different situations where an HR professional comes into contact with a member of staff or member of the company’s leadership team. The tacit skill and ability to work with individual’s on a respectful, authentic and non-judgemental level builds trust which in turn is key to helping people to find a route to solve their issue – whether it be personal or professional. This trusted position where people feel safe and not fearful of reprisal (flight syndrome), enables a person’s progressive journey towards self-actualisation (potential and peak performance). As a culture of talking therapies roots itself and builds, mental health can be appreciated as needing understanding, acceptance and treatment, the same as with physical illnesses. A practical intervention of people managers being given greater training on how to identify when someone may need a programme of assistance and what steps can be taken to sign post people to get the help and treatment they need is a great start and many businesses are embedding this training in the organisation as part of their Well-Being culture shift.
The Benefits of Counselling in Business.
The lines are now very much blurred between work and home, and I believe, corresponding to this is the fact that coaching and counselling, are now being viewed as much more affiliated to one another, evidence that together they can promote maximum benefit to both people and industry.
In a survey of 270 company line managers:
- 88% claimed a moderate or high level of stress in their work, which 39% claimed had got worse over the past year
- 77% thought stress in the workplace ‘will happen to everybody at some time’
- 52% said they knew someone who had suffered stress severe enough to stop them working and require long-term medical treatment.
It is a fact, that 1 in 4 people in the UK currently have experienced or will experience or know someone in their family or close social network with a Mental Health issue.
In the business context, a further accessibility and embedding of counselling skills in the work place will undoubtedly assist with:
- Increased productivity
- Increased employee morale
- Increased levels of job commitment
- Increased levels of job satisfaction
- Reduced costs as a result of: reducing staff turnover;
- reducing sick leave
- reducing absenteeism
- reducing job site accidents
Reputation
Counselling is already accessible in many organisations via third party Employee Assistance Programmes, and has for a long time been considered as the most appropriate form of intervention by employers to support mental health or resilience problems in the workplace. But whilst independent Employee Assistance Programmes are a valuable reputational message and benefit to employees, accessibility and duration of counselling provision can be restricted based on budget and a per capita arrangement and stigma can still get in the way of people accessing the service.
My vision for the future, based on growing evidence both in the media and from talking to other HR professionals, is that companies would do well to increasingly build an environment and culture which embraces the idea of on-site access to counselling, open-ended and supported financially in the same way as Business Coaching. Executive coaching, as is often referred to, has been accepted and invested in as proven to grow and help retain talent and skill in the workplace. It does however carry with it a form of status and entitlement, often seen as being reserved for the high potentials and more senior leaders & executives. But if Counselling and Coaching were labelled together and made more accessible to staff, the stigma of counselling will soon start to fall away as people will feel a culture where Counselling is supported, normalised and accepted in the workplace. People will also start to feel equally valued, by experiencing investment in their well-being and development.
By integrating the coaching and counselling offering and approaches based on the individual’s needs, this will be a cost effective and mutual value add proposition to the employee and employer. Imagine being the company renowned for its internal focus on helping to reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety, lowering sickness absence and improving attendance in the workplace and being a company where people could choose to leave, but choose to stay – because the company value is one of caring for and nurturing its people, whatever the position held in the company. The one distinct difference between counselling and coaching which needs to be considered with any communication plan or introduction of on-site counselling services, is that (unless you are a qualified GP or Medical professional) you do not send people to counselling. It has to be a personal choice and given the stigma that exists currently about Mental Health, companies need to remain sensitive to this. But on-site counselling, as with Coaching can work if you have a dedicated area and retained services on site, reminiscent of the Occupational Health/Nurse that at one time would be part of the internal structure of organisations, where people could make appointments to get support.
On site vs Outsourced
I am already hearing about some of the big City firms awakening to the fact that a greater investment and importance should be placed on an internal well-being culture and supportive environment that I envision above. In creating a working environment that fosters a climate of support and guidance, the bi-product of improved productivity, engagement and performance will have more chance of building and pumping its way through the veins of the organisation. It’s about being visible, accessible and safe. EAP provision has for years been a positive effort from organisations in messaging a variety of support and welfare options available to staff – but if people have easy on-site access to therapies, discounted or company paid, I believe people will see this as a great Employee Value Proposition
The movement
In starting any movement, you need a handful of motivated and passionate change agents and this can start with assigning HR professionals; giving them a tool kit of a level of skill and knowledge, both theoretical and practical to work with their people to:
- identify stress and resilience issues before they take root negatively and to coach Managers on how to manage mental health issues effectively and supportively in the workplace, but not to diagnose.
- To educate the business on understanding what counselling is so that the language and feel of it starts to change and negative myths dissipate.
Mental Health should continue to be included as a diversity and inclusivity agenda item so that prejudices and biases can be tackled from within. If a space for Counselling can eventually be regarded no differently to a space for prayer, physiotherapy or a meeting, wouldn’t it be a great measure of a positive culture shift. A world where we all can unconsciously accept mental health problems like we do when people have a physical ailment.
I believe the stage is set and the shift is already happening; but it is the business world that has the power, the resources and the investment to be able to make the biggest difference in changing this belief system.
Above all else, the really business savvy thing about Counselling in the workplace is this. Industry will get the biggest return on investment through its increased productivity, engagement, performance and reputation as an employer of choice. As we keep telling ourselves (but sometimes words aren’t enough) people really are our business.