I AM often asked whether companies, large or small, have to offer counselling services to employees. I do not believe there is any specific legislation requiring them to do so, but more and more now offer such a service normally under the umbrella of an Employee Assisted Programme, or EAP.

Put simply, this means a company has in place arrangements with an organisation who can provide counsellors should a member of staff require such a service.

It is a benefit offered under a 'general well-being' banner and companies who offer such schemes will normally pay for a limited number of sessions which can be held at the office or home of the employee.

Sessions being held in the office of the individual is one of the drawbacks of such a scheme, especially if the root cause of the employee's problem is work related.

Then there is the question of how much information the company insists the EAP provides on those sessions.

Do they simply need to know that the member of staff attended, or do they want updates on progress? Also, if the counsellor working for the EAP keeps notes on the sessions, does the company insist on seeing or owning them?

At a difficult or emotional time it can be a minefield sorting out who will or will not know about the contents of a session you have with a counsellor. My stance on this is that the most a company should be made aware of about one of it's employees entering into such a counselling arrangement, is whether they have or have not attended and when the sessions have been completed.

For counselling to be at it's most effective, a client must feel that confidentiality is upheld at all times, so although it might be very generous of a company to offer such a scheme, does the benefit become diluted if there are all sorts of provisos for the individual to have to weigh up before entering into counselling?

Some people might not even want their employer to know that they may be contemplating counselling, but hopefully in the 21st century, any HR department worth it's name should not have a narrow view on such a service, whether they offer it or not.

So, if you want to know if your company offers such a scheme, why not ask your HR department or your boss? And if they say they don't, ask them why. After all, by helping you, they could be helping themselves.

Imagine the days that could be lost if an individual was off work with stress. Waiting times for NHS counselling can be too long for most people, so it would make sense for an employer to offer such a service to reduce potential costs of having to temporarily fill a role while someone is off sick. Companies do not have to use EAPs, they can simply approach a qualified counsellor.

Perhaps there is an important issue here for the employer too. If you see a trend in staff taking time off due to stress etc, maybe it is time to check to see if the working conditions are such that more and more staff will need to take time off in the future.

A qualified counsellor can help evaluate such a situation and the potential savings for the company are enormous.

So, be you the boss or the employee, what counselling arrangements do you have in place?