Sage Sage Academic Books

© Michael Carroll 1996

Understanding Workplace Counselling

The role of the organisation is to support the process of employee empowerment through promoting
mental health education, counselling and other information services to the workforce.

N. Tehrani, Counselling Psychology Quarterly

Approximately 30 years ago, Alvin Toffler (1970) predicted the rise of leisure time and his Future Shock en-
visaged employees with two-thirds of their time devoted to leisure pursuits. Not only has this not happened
(except for unemployed people most of whom have not chosen to be unemployed), quite the reverse is true.
The modern workplace seems to demand more employee time than ever before, there are fewer resources
with which to do the work and more and more employees are suffering from ‘presenteeism’ (needing to be
seen to be at work while overstressed doing the job). Levels of stress seem to be at an all-time high. A Na-
tional Opinion Poll (The Daily Telegraph, 11 September 1995) reported that a third of workers feel so insecure
in their jobs that they are afraid to take time off sick, 70 per cent feel more in jeopardy than they did two
years ago, and 44 per cent are afraid to criticize their bosses. As employees struggle to cope, more and more
employers, as well as health experts, are struggling to find new ways of managing workplace stress and its
inevitable implications.

The Workplace Today

Statistics bombard us daily on how stressful the workplace has become. Not only have learned journals pub-
lished their research studies, but stress has become such a constant feature in the popular press and glossy
magazines that Newton (1995: 3) remarks wryly, ‘Copy on stress would seem to be located in almost every
editor's filing cabinet. Production is easy: include a stress check questionnaire, offer a ten-point plan to help
readers attain “stress fitness”, and make a few telephone calls to some academic luminaries on file.’ Sto-
ries abound about ‘twice the work in half the time’, about ‘downsizing’ (or ‘rightsizing’ if you want to give it a
positive bent), about ‘flatter’ organizations, about massive redundancy and what happens to the survivors of
redundancy. There is a constant reminder that the changes in organizations are putting extra stress on those
employees who remain and that employers are becoming worried by the legal implications. O'Leary (1993)
and Cartwright and Cooper (1994) have documented some statistics around mental illness in the workplace:

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• One in five of the working population suffers some form of mental illness each year (approximately 6
million people).
• Some 90 million working days are lost each year as a result of mental illness.
• When asked about the ‘true’ reason for absence from work, over half the employers felt that emo-
tional/personal problems and stress were to blame.
• Between 30 and 40 per cent of all sickness from work involves some form of mental illness or emo-
tional stress.
• Alcohol abuse is estimated by Alcohol Concern to cost about £2 billion per annum, with the cost to
industry being put at approximately £1 billion.
• Approximately 20 per cent of any workforce are affected by personal problems that impact on their
work performance.

There are several reasons why employers should be closely involved in the physical and mental well-being of
employees (O'Leary, 1993, 1994). It makes sense to have a healthy and high-performing workforce. Not only
does it create happier individuals who provide quality service, but it contributes to overall profits. Combining
care for employees with the drive for profit ensures that both objectives can be met. However, there is some
incongruence in this. While 94 per cent of companies surveyed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
in 1991 felt that mental health should concern them, only 12 per cent actually had a policy (O'Leary, 1993).
Further-more, the legal and ethical responsibilities for managing the welfare of employees has come to the
fore. A number of cases regarding ‘unreasonable’ stress have made employers acutely aware of their legal
responsibilities in the area of helping employees deal with mental health issues (Health and Safety Execu-
tive, 1995). There are reasons to believe that there may be an increase in the number of employees making
stress-related claims against employers.

What are employers doing to face the effects of mental illness/stress/physical illness in the workplace? More
employers are providing facilities to help employees increase their level of physical fitness and reduce in-
stances of physical illness (colds, back injuries, coronary heart disease). These may be either in-house fa-
cilities or the use of other facilities in the locality (O'Leary, 1994). There has been a large increase in the
provision of counselling facilities for employees and their families. This includes employee assistance pro-
grammes (EAPs) with a variety of provision, including personal, couples and family counselling, legal and fi-
nancial services, information and advice. Some companies offer in-house counselling, others external, and in
some instances there is a combination of internal and external. Health education organized in the workplace
is increasing. Workshops, short training sessions, and days on specific topics, including alcohol awareness,

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stop smoking campaigns, stress management, taking care of your heart etc., are all ways of helping employ-
ees to manage their physical and mental well-being.

Why Workplace Counselling?

There are various reasons why employers are turning to counselling as one method, among others, of caring
for their workforce. Employers' responsibility for the welfare of their employees is one reason. More and more
employers realize that illness and productivity do not go well together. A healthy workforce produces. Further-
more, as more and more health services have longer waiting lists or have limited availability on the National
Health Service (like counselling and psychotherapy), companies are moving in to provide it speedily. The fact
that employees are taking legal action is another reason for the introducion of counselling. A number of legal
cases have made history on these points. Employers have three responsibilities towards employees, breach-
es of which can result in employees suing successfully: (1) a duty to take care (which inevitably arises in the
employment situation), (2) a breach of that duty, and (3) foreseeable injury. In the US there has been an in-
crease of 5–15 per cent in compensation claims for work-related stress, and in Australia it is reckoned that
35 per cent of the cost of compensation pay-outs to government employees followed stress claims (Labour
Research Department, 1994). One way of anticipating risk and providing relief from it is to offer counselling
services. Employers are turning to counselling as one way of helping to manage the mammoth changes tak-
ing place in organizations. Change is never easy: it disrupts, disorientates, causes grieving and takes time.
Support is needed for individuals and teams as transitions in organizations are managed. Counselling is one
way of supporting employees as they cope with organizational change. Counselling can be seen as a way
of improving mental health. Employees do not leave their problems aside as they turn to face their working
day. Egan (1994) has noted the financial cost to organizations of psychological and social problems, and
lists the kind of everyday problems that can be costly to the organization: a poor relationship between two
key members of a production team, a middle manager who is becoming dependent on alcohol, a high-level
manager distracted by an impending divorce who loses a significant account, a secretary grieving for a dead
relative who mislays an important letter. When these individual problems (and when are they not the order of
the day?) are seen in the context of a large workforce, and when they go unnoticed and undealt with, then,
collectively, the cost can be immeasurable.

Counselling also highlights the value of people as organizational assets. More and more organizations are

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becoming aware that people are truly their best assets. Most have said it for years; perhaps they are begin-
ning to believe what they have inscribed in their mission statements. Pfeffer's (1994) research into successful
organizations showed clearly that the most important ingredient was the way they cared for their employees.
The direct link between care for people and the drive for success and/or profit is a major factor in convincing
employers to install counselling services as a further way of managing their workforce constructively.

Counselling services within the workplace are being viewed not just as ‘crisis’ points or for severely disturbed
individuals, but also as a preventive service. Counsellors are in a unique position within the organizational
setting to offer the kind of training and education that prevents mental illness. From their work with clients,
they can gain an overview of the ills within the organization and can create training packages to forestall fur-
ther injury to employees. In the long run, preventive measures are more cost-effective.

When surveyed, top executives insisted that ‘corporate social responsibility’ was the main reason why they
wished to install an EAP (Corneil, 1985). Obviously, they saw such programmes as beneficial to themselves
and to the wider community. Organizations are realizing that a ‘wholeness’ approach needs to be adopted to-
wards employees: that physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being go together and that people need
to be worked with as people. Emphasizing one element is not enough. Counselling provision is part of that
overall package, where it is accepted that individuals need professional counselling help at stages of their
lives and that for the majority this is a worthwhile venture that enables them to deal with transitions and crises.

Overall, counselling can be cost-effective. Although it is difficult to ascertain what financial investments are
made and what money is saved, it is possible to work out the economic cost to industry if the mental health
of individuals is not sustained. We know the cost to industry of alcoholism, of absenteeism, of stress: we
have never costed the effects of depression or broken relationships, never mind the day-by-day emotional
and mental problems faced by most individuals.

Counselling can itself be a source of organizational change. Rather than being just an appendage to a com-
pany, counselling can bring the values, the energy of change, the vitality of acceptance, a realization of who
we are and what we can be, to the very dynamics of workplace life. Counselling values are about the impor-
tance and process of change, how people are empowered to manage their lives, how social responsibility is
built into life, and how decisions can be made. Counselling can influence organizational culture to work to-
wards the ideal strong and adaptive culture that serves the company.

These are some of the reasons why employers introduce counselling into the workplace. Cooper (Magnus,

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1995) has divided the reasons into three categories: according to his research, 76 per cent of employers see
counselling as a caring facility; 70 per cent expect counselling to help employees deal with workplace change;
and 57 per cent view counselling as a means of managing stress. Workplace counselling makes sense when
it is realized that employees spend about one-quarter of their lives in work settings; that, for many, key re-
lationships are part of their work; that personal identity is often bound up with jobs; and that almost all peo-
ple integrate personal and professional lives to a great extent. Having counselling available in the workplace
means that problems can be dealt with fairly quickly and can be worked through in the very environment from
which they often emerge.

The History of Workplace Counselling

The historical development of employee counselling gives an insight into the various reasons for establishing
counselling provision. In brief, there have been three phases in the history of workplace counselling.

The Human Relationship Era

The history of workplace counselling begins in the US and is intertwined with the arrival in industry of medical,
psychiatric and social work provision. Oberer and Lee (1986) trace the relationship between industry and the
management of resources to the early nineteenth century where the basis for the relationship between man-
agement and workers was first laid.

Counselling in the workplace, specifically, has existed since the early 1900s though in quite different formats
from those we understand by workplace counselling today. By 1913 there were about 2,000 welfare workers
in industry (Carter, 1977). There is some evidence that the first counselling programme in industry was initiat-
ed by the Ford Motor Company in 1914. The Engineering Foundation of New York commissioned a research
survey of emotional problems among employees before 1920. The discovery that 62 per cent of employees
were discharged because of social rather than occupational incompetence resulted in the introduction of pre-
ventive measures. Two companies, Metropolitan Life Insurance (in 1922), and R.H. Macey (in 1924), em-
ployed full-time psychiatrists. Anderson, who was the first psychiatrist for Macey, provided the first book con-
necting psychiatry with industry, simply entitled Psychiatry and Industry (McLean et al., 1985). Even though
psychiatric services were available in and to industry from the 1920s, it was not until 1948 that the first training

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programme in occupational psychiatry was introduced (McLean et al., 1985).

This first era in employee counselling emphasized human resources and human relations as key factors in
effective management. It also focused on the link between the working problems of employees and orga-
nizational behaviour (Swanson and Murphy, 1991). Tehrani (1995) has traced the roots of British employee
counselling to the late nineteenth century with the introduction of welfare officers whose job it was to monitor
the physical and mental well-being of employees.

The Alcohol Awareness Stage of Workplace Counselling

A lull in mental health provision seems to have taken place between these endeavours and the 1940s. Mayo
was a key figure in researching employee needs, criticizing industry for not paying adequate attention to the
psychological needs of employees and himself establishing a counselling service in 1936. It is interesting,
today, to note some of the characteristics of this service, before Rogers (1961) outlined his client-centred ap-
proach. Dickson, the head of the counselling service, described it in 1945:

Our personnel counseling program has been set up in our Industrial Relations Branch as a service
to our employees and supervisors. At the present time we have forty counselors equally divided be-
tween men and women … every counselor is assigned a territory comprising some 300 employees
to whom his entire time is devoted. He has no other duties or responsibilities. Each counselor has
access to the shops and office locations to which he is assigned and spends a considerable part of
each day contacting people while they are at work … their contacts with employees are of two kinds:
off the job interviews, and on the job contacts. The off the job interviews are held in an interview
room where the employee may talk in privacy … the on the job contacts take place at the employee's
work place, in the aisle, at the drinking fountain, or in the rest room … we began this work back in
1936 … as this work progressed, we became more and more aware of two things. First, frequent-
ly the complaint as stated was not the real source of the individual's trouble. Consequently, action
based upon the manifest content of the complaint did not assure us that the difficulty would be elimi-
nated. Secondly, our attention was arrested by the observation that, given an opportunity to express
themselves freely, many complaints were restated by the employees or disappeared entirely … we
decided that the counselors should devote their attention exclusively to bringing about adjustments

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and changes in employee attitudes through the interviewing method itself. As we saw it, the coun-
selor's role should be at all times that of a neutral party. It was seen that in order to maintain such a
role in an industrial situation, the counselor had to be free from all activities which were incompatible
with this position. This meant that the counselor should not take action upon complaints or griev-
ances nor should he at any time intercede on behalf of the employee, supervisory, or management.
Only in this way could he maintain his role of interviewer and keep himself from becoming entangled
in the system of personal relationships with which he was dealing.

In the interview situation our first objective is to put the employee at ease. We accomplish this prin-
cipally by being at ease ourselves and occasionally leading the interview during the warming up pe-
riod. As soon as the employee starts to talk, the interviewer encourages him to continue by an occa-
sional nod of the head and displaying real interest in what is being said. Occasionally the counselor
will restate what the employee has said in order to encourage him to continue his train of thought or
reexamine what he has said. These restatements are always addressed to the feeling the employee
expresses rather than to the logical content of what he says. The counselor never interrupts, he nev-
er argues, he never gives advice. His function is that of a skilled listener and the attitude he displays
encourages the employee to talk about anything which may be of importance to him. The counselor,
when he listens, is seriously trying to understand what the person is revealing about himself. (1945:
343–45)

This programme began in 1936. In 1940 there were 20 counsellors, in 1948 there were 55.

When a new phase of interest emerged directed at employee health, the earlier emphasis on ‘attendance,
production, health and disciplinary problems’ gave way to issues of ‘alcoholism, accident, psychosomatic ac-
cidents, the ageing worker, executives’ emotional problems, techniques of management, and structuring of
the work environment’ (Lee and Rosen, 1984: 277). In fact, alcohol concerns dominated much of the coun-
selling provision from this stage until the 1960s. The term ‘employee assistance programme’ (EAP) was
coined by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as a way of widening provision to include
problems other than alcohol. The 1940s witnessed the beginning of the EAP era of workplace counselling
with such provision centred principally on alcohol issues in industry.

During this era, a whole range of people became involved with employees: ex-alcoholics, psychiatrists, social
workers, occupational and industrial psychologists and personnel officers, covering a variety of approaches

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from psychometric testing to job appraisal, and from alcoholism to family problems. Presnall (1985: ix) sum-
marized the trend: ‘Employee Assistance is a phrase now used to describe a unified approach to intervention
and assistance for a wide variety of related human problems in the workplace.’

The second era in workplace counselling put in place services for helping employee growth. There was still
an emphasis on ‘unhealthy’ employees and how to help them return to effective work, and the main providers
of help tended to emerge from ‘medical’ backgrounds with the ‘medical model’ uppermost in their minds. Ac-
cording to Reddy (1994: 62), ‘managed care’ characterized the EAPs of this era. He outlines some of the
movement:

Thus, although EAPs were originally a shopfloor initiative with strong support from labour unions, it
was not long before they were adopted by management. They were next converted by natural evo-
lution into the now conventional ‘broadbrush’ service. Alcohol, like any form of substance abuse, is
rarely due to a single cause, nor is it the sole symptom of distress. The new service changed its
name from OAP (Occupational Alcohol Programme) to EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) and
covered a wide range of mental health conditions.

Presnall (1985: xv–xvi) saw the ‘persistent’ and ‘pervasive’ workplace needs which give rise to employee as-
sistance programmes as fourfold:

1 To do more about problems in the workplace.

2 To act upon the realization that the workplace is both a human problem breeder, and a problem-re-
solver.
3 To humanize the workplace.
4 To develop new work practices based on the awareness that areas are interrelated in the workplace,
i.e. health, wholeness, work, relationships, etc.

Internal and External Counselling Provision

The third phase in employee counselling was ushered in with the advent of employee assistance programmes
(EAPs) which moved beyond dealing solely with alcohol issues. Still with an emphasis on drink and drug prob-
lems, they moved swiftly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to provide a range of services, legal and financial
help, stress management, telephone counselling and face-to-face counselling. It has been estimated that

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there were in the region of 10,000 EAPs in the US by the late 1980s (Swanson and Murphy, 1991). Reddy
(1994) suggests that around 1 million UK employees, and in many instances their families, were covered by
EAP provision by the end of 1994. Counsellors and counselling psychologists were now part of mental health
teams, and individual counselling became a major part of EAP services. So rapid, and successful, have been
EAPs that Tuthill (1982) depicts this as ‘a hundredfold increase in a quarter of a century’ (quoted in Lewis
and Lewis, 1986: 3). This increase is not confined to the private sector alone. In the US it is not unusual for
educational institutions and voluntary/nonprofit-making sector companies to provide counselling for their em-
ployees.

Despite the rise in the number of EAPs, there is still little agreement on what constitutes an overall pro-
gramme. Services differ from one to another as providers adapt to different organizational needs and cultures.
Sonnenstuhl and Trice (1990: 1) suggest a description of EAPs that they see as applicable in most instances:
‘We define EAPs as job-based programs operating within a work organization for the purpose of identifying
troubled employees, motivating them to resolve their troubles and providing access to counseling or treatment
for those employees who need such services.’ Others would view this definition as rather narrow, concentrat-
ing, as it does, on the individual. They would prefer that EAPs, while working with troubled individuals, would
work also with the organization and management within the organization to prevent employees reaching the
stage of needing individual care. Lewis and Lewis (1986: 11) list the differences which distinguish traditional
and contemporary EAPs (see Box 1.1).

However, other changes are taking place within EAP provision that more closely ally counselling with orga-
nizational culture, management and performance appraisal. For too long counselling has been an adjunct to
organizational life rather than an integral part of it. Reddy (1994) has been foremost in showing how EAPs
can move from the periphery of organizational life to the heart of it, recommending that they be viewed not
as programmes to be administered but as concepts and philosophies about health in the workplace. This is a
significant change in conceptualizing EAP provision, moving it away from what is done to employees towards
a more general concept of EAP as creating organizational change. Now EAPs are connected to employee
performance, to management practice and style of leadership, to training for supervisors, to support at all
levels and to training. From here, it is a short step towards seeing EAPs as a help towards individual and
organizational change.

Throughout the history of workplace counselling, EAPs have been the most visible form of counselling provi-

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sion. They were set up as either ‘internal’ or ‘external’ services, the former as part of an organization and the
latter usually as a service specializing in providing EAPs to a number of organizations. There has been some
debate on the relative merits of each of these, though latterly Hoskinson (1994) has argued for a movement
away from this artificial adversarial approach towards seeing the advantages of both.

Box 1.1 Traditional and Contemporary EAPs

Traditional programmes Contemporary programmes

Emphasis on alcoholism as the basis of the

Broad-brush approach: any issue appropriate for service
problem

Emphasis on supervisory referrals Combination of supervisory referral, self-referral, and referral by others

Problems identified at late stage in develop-

Services offered at earlier stage in problem development
ment

Services offered by medical or alcoholism Services offered by generalist counsellors with expertise in chemical dependency

specialists and other areas

Focus on troubled employees with job perfor- Focus both on employees with work problems and on employees/family members

mance problems with no performance problems

Confidentiality for referred employees; anonymity for self-referred employees or fami-

Confidentiality for referred employees
ly members

Source: Lewis and Lewis, 1986: 11

What has existed, in the third era of workplace counselling, alongside EAP provision, both internal and exter-
nal, has been the ‘in-house’ counsellor. Here, rather than opt for a range of services, companies have hired
counsellors to work with their staff. Britain is presently in the pioneering stage of this and the first generation
of in-house counsellors has laid the foundations for counselling in organizations (Carroll, 1994). The present-

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day practice of counselling in the workplace places emphasis on an array of services for the employee, on
confidential settings and particularly, on a holistic approach to emotional well-being at work.

The history of workplace counselling is bound up with legal and economic as well as humanitarian concerns.
While employers have come increasingly to accept that ‘counselling may well be the most economical means
of improving performance’ (Reddy, 1987: 1), the law has intervened to speed up the processes of introduc-
ing counselling provision. US legislation made employers responsible for ‘emotional damage’ to employees;
and there is some concern expressed today about whether or not stress-related illnesses are valid grounds
for litigation against employers. Buckingham (1992: 38) predicts the future: ‘Legal action against employers
is expected to replace uncomplaining pill-popping as the remedy for occupational stress.’ This has already
taken place in the United States, where Offermann and Gowing (1990: 103) claim that ‘between 1982 and
1986, employee damage suits for stress-related illnesses in California increased five-fold.’ The introduction
of counselling provision by industry is one way of ensuring that employers are taking reasonable care of their
troubled or potentially troubled employees. A recent publication by the Health and Safety Executive (1995),
while acknowledging that there is no specific legislation on managing stress at work, uses two foundation
laws to guide its advice:

1 employers have a duty … to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that their workplaces are
safe and healthy
2 employers are obliged to assess the nature and scale of risks to health in their workplace and base
their control measures on it (1995: 8).

From these premisses the Executive draws the conclusion that employers have a legal responsibility to make
sure that health is not at risk through unreasonable stress levels arising from work. They recommend a num-
ber of practical steps for employers to meet their legal duties in respect of stress:

• maintaining good management (which excludes inconsistency, indifference or bullying)

• creating an attitude to stress that takes it seriously where individuals are not punished for what can
be an organizational issue
• ensuring that individuals know their job/jobs and have the skills to do it
• setting up stress awareness and stress management courses
• aiding line managers to work with their employees to get help for stress

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• providing counselling services

• encouraging employees to consult doctors for help with stress

The history of workplace counselling unveils a progressive movement towards greater employee care on the
part of employers. Today, those companies who utilize counselling provision, either internal or external, tend
to combine counselling with a broad range of other helping facilities. Perhaps the next stage in workplace
counselling is to see it as a helpful mode of organizational change and not just an aid to individuals within the
organization.

The Many Faces of Workplace Counselling

It would be wrong to think of employee counselling as a uniform concept with the same meaning wherever it is
applied. There is no single model covering all instances. Workplace counselling has a number of faces, each
face with its own features. Five approaches are presented here (see below) but even they have nuances and
differences within each approach which introduce new relationships and cause particular dynamics (e.g. each
could be implemented onsite or off-site). The five approaches are:

1 Counselling for an organization that employs both counsellor and worker

2 Counselling for an organization where the counsellor is employed by an EAP provider

3 Counselling for an organization where the counsellor is employed to work with consumers
of the organization

4 Counselling for an organization where the counsellor is employed to work with members
of the public

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5 Counselling for an organization which provides a range of specialist services to other or-
ganizations and individuals within organizations

The Organization Employs Both Counsellor and Client

Various organizations employ counsellors, either full-time or part-time, to work with their employees. Called
‘in-house counsellors’ where they are full-time, such counsellors can be part of an existing department (e.g.
personnel, human resources, occupational health) or work independently. What characterizes them and their
relationships is that both they and the employees with whom they work are paid by the same organization.
However, even within this broad remit, there are variations.

Case Example

Carole is employed by the British Council as their full-time staff counsellor. Her main task is to offer
confidential counselling for all UK-based staff and those working overseas who have been appointed
in London – approximately 1,800 employees. Family members may also use the service. Clients refer
themselves by telephoning directly to Carole for an appointment. She is free to agree with individual
clients the number of sessions required, how she will work with them and whether an outside referral
would be appropriate. Carole works under the umbrella of Corporate Personnel in Staff Advisory Ser-
vices and her line manager is the head of that unit. However, the sessions are held in complete con-
fidence and her room/office is in a different part of the building. Carole produces an annual statistical
report which includes number of clients, number of sessions and presenting problems. This is circu-
lated to members of the Board of Management. The figures are used in conjunction with casework to
monitor general levels of stress and anxiety in the organization and Carole may liaise with manage-
ment in departments where there seem to be particular difficulties.

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Case Example

Nigel, on the other hand, is a counsellor in private practice who is employed by a large company to
work with their employees on a sessional basis. Employees approach their personnel officer (one is
designated as the counselling contact) who gives the goahead for them to contact Nigel for coun-
selling. Nigel is restricted to eight sessions with each client and has to negotiate with the personnel
officer if there is a suggestion that this time be extended. Usually, with the agreement of both client
and Nigel, a further eight sessions can be utilized. After this, clients need to pay for their own coun-
selling. Each year Nigel draws up a set of statistics which he returns to the company showing number
of clients, number of sessions, presenting problems, etc. He meets with the personnel officer to dis-
cuss findings and see how the organization can implement policies and strategies to overcome some
of the issues brought by individual clients.

The Counsellor is Employed by an EAP Provider

EAP providers have increased in Britain in the past few years, e.g. Employee Assistance Resources (EAR),
Employeecare, Independent Counselling and Advisory Services (ICAS), Personal Performance Consultants
(PPC). Organizations make contracts with EAP providers. They, in turn, employ counsellors, either full-time
or part-time, to work with the employees of the various organizations.

Case Example

Judy is an example. She is an affiliate to two different EAP providers who refer clients to her. She
has a clear contract with the EAP provider whereby she is limited to eight sessions with each client.
In particular instances this can be extended. Judy has no contact with the organization itself: the EAP

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provider does all negotiations. Judy is paid by the EAP, which is in turn paid by the organization.

What characterizes this approach is the fact that the counsellors are once-removed from the organization; all
negotiations with the organization take place through the EAP provider.

The Counsellor is Employed to Work with Consumers

Some organizations employ counsellors (full-time and part-time) to see those who use their services (e.g.
counselling services in educational institutes).

Case Example

Margaret works in a student counselling service in higher education, which she and a colleague were
instrumental in setting up. She is employed by the Institute to see students, and where appropriate
staff, for counselling. The line manager is the Pro-Rector responsible for Student Services. The coun-
selling team have their own counselling suite, and by and large are free to run the service as they
choose. They assess all students who come to the service, work with a number of them themselves
and refer others to counsellors on placement with the service (who are frequently counsellors in train-
ing). In order to ensure accountability both to their employers and to the students who come for coun-
selling, they supervise all the placement counsellors themselves, thereby maintaining managerial re-
sponsibility for the counselling work carried out.

They are free to decide what is needed by clients, whether to work with them short-term or long-term
and can refer clients for outside medical and/or psychiatric help. Staff who come are usually referred
for counselling outside the Institute, as they are also colleagues. They run a therapy group for stu-
dents, listening skills workshops for both academic and non-academic staff and workshops for stu-

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dents, such as assertion training and sex education.

The Counsellor is Employed to Work with the Public

Some organizations set up counselling provision for needy members of the public. Often self-financing, some-
times within public services such as education or social work, this counselling targets particular groups in the
community, for example, young people, children (Childline), abused women, etc.

Case Example

Kevin is both director and counsellor with a youth counselling agency. The agency operates a drop-in
centre for young people who can refer themselves for a variety of reasons, one of which is counselling.
The centre also takes referrals from social workers, from schools, from parents and from GPs. The
agency gets most of its funding from the Local Education Authority, employs two full-time staff both of
whom are trained as counsellors, and has a number of volunteer counsellors whom they have trained
themselves. Kevin has a small case-load of five young people whom he sees on a regular basis. He
can work with them either short-term or long-term and is able to see two young people on a long-term
(minimum of six months) basis.

Some organizations are set up to provide counselling training and counselling provision as their primary task
(for example, the Tavistock Clinic, child and family consultation centres). What characterizes such establish-
ments, and what differentiates them from organizations in the first approach considered above, is the fact that
they have been established specifically to provide counselling. Sometimes profit-making, sometimes not, they
employ counsellors to work with their clients. Kensington Consultation Centre (KCC) is an example of the for-
mer. Set up as a training establishment in systemic counselling and psychotherapy, and a private business,

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the organization sees clients and employs counsellors to work with them.

Counselling Which Provides a Range of Specialist Services

Some organizations exist to provide a variety of services, one of which is counselling, to other organizations.
Counselling is often combined with other services, for example, outplacement counselling services, executive
search, career counselling.

Case Example

Cavendish Partners, who specialize in providing outplacement services, work with clients referred by
companies who are offering them a redundancy package, to help them find a new position. Coun-
selling is part of that work (Carroll and Holloway, 1993), though combined with a number of other roles;
for example, CV writing and presentation skills. The firm is so organized that each member supports
every client's effort to find the right job. Cavendish counsellors provide the teamwork to advise on spe-
cialist subjects, conduct video role plays, give input to brainstorming sessions and cover for the lead
counsellor's absence.

Counselling time is spent listening to clients before the launch of the job-search campaign. Follow-up
sessions, about every 10–14 days, sometimes reveal the need for more coaching, counselling, mod-
elling, etc. The multiple roles and relationships that an outplacement counsellor has to perform make
the task more difficult, and counsellors have to be clear about the tasks, the management of the role
and how to integrate counselling with other roles without damaging any of them.

Each of these different approaches has its own dynamics, its redflag points, its particular relationships. This
book is concerned principally with the first and second approaches discussed above.

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What is Workplace Counselling?

A general definition of employee counselling includes one major component: the organization pays for coun-
selling provision for its employees. By doing so, it creates a dynamic between three participants: organization,
client/employee and counsellor. That dynamic changes according to the relationships involved. Figure 1.1.
shows the relationship when both counsellor and client are full-time employees of the organization. In this
situation, both client and counsellor are inevitably involved in the whole interplay of relationships, politics and
organizational culture that finds its way into, and moves out of, the counselling room.

Figure 1.1 Counsellor and client are full-time employees of the organization

Two other kinds of relationship occur when the counsellor is not a full-time employee and is either (a) inde-
pendent of the organization but not employed by an EAP provider; or (b) employed by an EAP provider. Fig-
ure 1.2 shows the relationship when the counsellor is employed to work with employees as an independent
agent: different negotiations need to take place here. Figure 1.3 shows the relationship when the counsellor
is supplied by an EAP provider who contracts with the organization. The four main relationships at work within
this overall system are:

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Figure 1.2 The independent counsellor who works with employees of an organization

Figure 1.3 The counsellor employed by an EAP provider

1 The relationship between the employee/client and the organization.

2 The relationship between the employee/client and the counsellor from the EAP.
3 The relationship between the counsellor and the EAP provider.
4 The relationship between the organization and the EAP.

To these can be added:

5 The relationship between the employee/client and the EAP provider.

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6 That between the counsellor who is employed by the EAP provider and the organization.

If we add a further system to this complex web of relationships, that of supervision where the supervisor may
or may not be a member of the EAP provider, then we have:

7 Two further relationships: that of the supervisor to the counsellor and that of the supervisor to the
organization.

Counsellors, by and large, need to take one of four stances when working with workplace clients, i.e. where
clients are paid for by their employing organization:

1 Counsellors who work as if the organization did not exist. Counsellors taking this stance engage in
counselling as if they were in private practice. They see their responsibilities to the individual client
alone. Confidentiality is usually viewed as absolute within the counselling relationship, and clients, by
and large, are empowered to deal with their problems, work-related or not. Under no circumstances
would the counsellor contact the organization. Many EAP counsellors work in this manner, leaving all
contact with the organization to the EAP personnel.
2 Counsellors who work as allies of the organization, intentionally or unintentionally. Viewing their pri-
mary role as upholding the welfare of the organization, they see their task as ensuring that employees
are working effectively. Such counsellors make it clear that they will refer back to the organization
when issues emerge that affect it adversely. They view their counselling as connected to work-effec-
tiveness and their role as supplying a forum in which clients can deal with whatever issues are block-
ing them from working most effectively.
3 Counsellors who work as allies of the individual against the organization. These counsellors consider
themselves as advocates of the individual against the organization, which is sometimes viewed as
the enemy. Often occurring in power organizations, where both client/employee and counsellor suffer
similar repressive regimes, the tendency is for them to combine to combat abuse by the system.
Counsellors will rarely contact the organization except to get a ‘better deal’ for their client.
4 Counsellors who work at the interface between individual and organization. Here, counsellors see
their role as one of trying to mediate between varying needs. Counsellors move between the organi-
zation and the individual.

Before beginning their counselling work with employees, it is important that counsellors clarify their philosophy
of intervention and state clearly how they see their role. Considering the organizational dynamics of their
tasks may help them clarify responsibilities.

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Criticisms of Workplace Counselling

Despite its many advantages for the workplace, criticisms have been levelled at introducing counselling as
part of workplace life. Some see it becoming part of the politics of the organization and used by factions for
their own ends. There is no doubt that politics play a large part in workplace life and, given the opportunity,
certain individuals and departments would make capital out of owning or not owning the counselling service.
I know one organization in the public sector which had great fights about where the staff counselling service
should be sited. Human resources had thought up the idea and wanted it placed within their department.
Personnel were adamant that it should be placed under their authority and occupational health argued that it
seemed most at home close to the medical department. Territoriality (whose turf is it anyway?) can enter the
fray, and the fight for space and scarce funds can make the counselling service an unwelcome competitor.

A further criticism of workplace counselling is that it can be too easily used by an organization to shelve its
responsibilities towards employees, especially regarding stress. Magnus (1995) brought this to the public's
attention recently:

A report by the London Hazard Centre last year claimed that workplace counselling is being used
to get companies off the hook over organisational factors which are the root source of stress. The
report says counselling shifts the burden of having to cope with a stressful environment from the
employer, who is creating that environment, to the individual, who is cracking under the strain.

Stress at Work: A Trade Union Response (Labour Research Department, 1994) is equally sceptical about
the use of individual methods of managing stress and points to 19 international case studies to conclude that
person-based methods of dealing with stress, such as counselling and relaxation techniques, were the least
useful since they ignore the environment and do not deal with the causes of stress.

It is true that an organization can ignore its corporate responsibility by creating a section to represent what
should be the human face of the organization. Sometimes counselling provision absolves the full organiza-
tion from being compassionate (send them to the counselling service), from facing the implications of what it
has done (and when we give them their redundancy notices we will whisk them off to the counselling service
to deal with the bad news), and even from avoiding legal action (we have installed a counselling service to
help people deal with stress). As Newton (1995) has pointed out, much writing on stress has emphasized the
individual's responsibility for recognizing it and managing it, which takes away the focus from organizational

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responsibilities:

There is no suggestion in this article (or in most others like it) that you should see work overload as
a source of legitimate grievance, or say to your superiors that your workload is impossible. No, you
should ‘buckle down’ and ‘own your own stuff’, but in our modern world this can be helped by stress
management techniques such as time management, prioritizing or delegation. The likelihood that
you may be so overloaded that time management and prioritizing are an irrelevance is not seriously
considered. (Newton, 1995: 4)

From this perspective, Newton moves to criticize current theories of stress and the use of such provision as
individual counselling as a method of managing it. In brief, he criticizes workplace counselling on two counts.
First of all it individualizes problems (such as stress), decontextualizes them, and makes them apolitical. New-
ton looks to the history of EAPs to justify this and sees the Hawthorne Works where counselling was intro-
duced in 1936, as a prime example of employee problems becoming individualized and made the responsibil-
ity of the individual. The second criticism of workplace counselling is its way of ‘managing emotions’ where it
could be viewed as a method of organizational social control dictating to individual clients which emotions are
permissible and which not within the organization. Newton summarizes this: ‘Rather than expressing prob-
lems and grievances through a collective channel, through stress management practices they become indi-
vidualized, a personal problem rather than one which may be shared by a large number of employees’ (1995:
146).

Allied to this criticism, a further indictment of counselling in the workplace is that it becomes a tool of man-
agement. In the early days of EAPs in the US, especially when they were alcohol-related services, they were
viewed with suspicion by unions and workers. Care has to be taken to publicize their confidentiality when
counselling services are being introduced. In some organizations, there is great anxiety that going for coun-
selling will be seen as a weakness that will take its toll on career and promotion. And there is some validity in
the criticism that counselling helps individuals deal with emotions that ought to be more appropriately directed
outwards towards injustice. Several years ago I was involved in a counselling project for unemployed people.
The same criticism was raised; perhaps in offering counselling, justified emotions, such as anger and resent-
ment, would be siphoned off rather than directed towards the injustices that caused the unemployed state in
the first place.

A final criticism is that counselling is not integrated into the organization but remains on the outside. This can
happen all too easily in certain kinds of companies which relegate counselling to the periphery of the organi-

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zation. If inadequately introduced, the counselling service itself can become dysfunctional. On the other hand,
over-involvement of the organization in its counselling service can lead to its becoming a form of social con-
trol. In their critique of Western Electric's counselling service, written in 1951, Wilensky and Wilensky make
this point quite dramatically: ‘The company has developed a network of lower-level functionaries to drain off
hostility and has integrated into its structure those forces which represent a potential challenge to its control
over the worker’ (1951: 280).

It is important to take the criticisms of workplace counselling seriously and to isolate the underlying philoso-
phies that drive the implementation of counselling services. It is naïve to see them automatically as of value
to employees. Organizations are certainly not beyond introducing counselling to control their employees or
above making organizational problems the responsibility of individual employees. Deverall (forthcoming) sug-
gests that if 10 per cent of personnel in an organization need counselling then the organization is itself in need
of help and that individual counselling may be a diversion from the real organizational problems.

Workplace Counselling in Britain

In the UK in 1971 the British Institute of Management, from its survey of 200 firms, discovered that 5 per cent
offered some form of personal counselling to employees. Orlans and Shipley (1983) surveyed 35 large UK or-
ganizations and discovered that all but three had occupational health facilities and, whereas nurses employed
within these departments had undergone short-term counselling training, there was not a single case where
extensive counselling training had been provided.

Two later surveys (Hoskinson and Reddy, 1989; Reddy, 1993b) indicate that counselling provision in Britain
has grown recently. Conclusions drawn from the 1993 survey are quite impressive:

• From 400 replies from companies, 85 per cent saw themselves as providing some form of coun-
selling service.
• About twice as many organizations offer in-house counselling and related activities as those that de-
pend on external counselling provision.
• Nearly 60 per cent of companies provide stress counselling by personnel departments or line man-
agers, or both. The other 40 per cent offer stress counselling in addition or as an alternative.
• EAP have been adopted by some 4 per cent of UK companies. This represents a sharp increase
since the 1989 Report. Most of the growth took place during 1992. Indications are that total figures

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