A survey of people who have received counselling sessions through an employee assistance programme, has revealed that over half (52 per cent) claim that without this help their concerns would have caused them to miss work. In addition, only 17 per cent of those questioned felt that their ability to cope with the demands of their job was ‘good’ or ‘very good’ before they had counselling, as opposed to 64 per cent afterwards.

The research was carried out among 4,213 employees from a range of businesses, who have access to counselling services as part of an employee assistance programme from FirstAssist, part of the Capita Group. Importantly, the results also show that counselling has a positive effect on employees’ personal lives, with just nine per cent saying satisfaction with their personal life was ‘good’ or ‘very good’ before counselling, compared to 57 per cent saying the same thing afterwards. Relationships with colleagues were also improved, with 23 per cent saying they were either ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ before, as opposed to only two per cent afterwards.

Capita