Corporate
There are two areas where TARA Health Solutions can help in terms of corporate service. One is in stress management and the other in performance enhancement, covered respectively below:
Stress Management
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), work-related stress now accounts for over one third of all new incidences of ill health and that each case of work-related stress, depression or anxiety-related ill health leads to an average of 30.2 working days lost. In 2006/2007 a total of 13.8 million working days were lost to work-related stress, depression or anxiety-related illness. The HSE has also indicated that stress is likely to become the most dangerous risk to business in the early part of the 21st Century.
With the above in mind and with the changes to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in 2005 showing that mental illness no longer has to be clinically well recognised to be covered (although it must be long term and substantial), not to mention the potential claims for work-related stress under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, it is now more important than ever that employers recognise their implied duty of care within the contractual employment relationship and take appropriate steps to ensure the welfare of their employees.
Much has been done by the HSE to highlight the need for stress awareness as well as many major companies developing policies, procedures and systems in order to raise awareness and put measures in place to ensure there is self-recognition, and recognition in others, as well as support mechanisms in order to tackle this increasing dilemma. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) recommend four main approaches that organisations can adopt to address stress in the workplace, They are:
1. Policy, procedures and systems audit;
2. Problem centred approach;
3. Well being approach; and
4. Employee centred approach.
It is this latter area where TARA Health Solutions thrives in helping businesses and one which is often missing, even in large companies where resources are greater.
Many companies employee human resources and occupational health professionals to tackle the above but there is often a gap on a more 1:1 basis with the employees. Some employee assistance programmes cover this gap but often this is done only when severe problems have occurred and individuals can be referred to counselling or directed to a telephone helpline by larger outsourced companies. Occupational health departments don't always have the resources to tackle workplace stress or individual's problems the way they would like to.
Having worked in a number of companies as an HR professional/consultant, Caroline Cousins has experience from both sides of the field. Working in an in-house HR capacity, working as an independent HR consultant and also working as a stress management professional. Through TARA Health Solutions, she is able to offer the following services to business that can help to tackle workplace stress, employee absence - short or long term, personal difficulties that impact on the workplace:
1. One to one consultations with employees/management using NLP, stress management counselling, hypnotherapy techniques, as appropriate, to assist employees in the workplace or to assist employees back to the workplace after a period of absence. Workplace, home or clinic visits, as appropriate.
2. The design and delivery of bespoke stress management workshops at a level that suits the business and the audience.
3. Advice and guidance on policy and procedures surrounding stress management in the workplace, including the identification of any issues or problems that have arisen to cause stress and ways of reducing or eliminating that risk.
Performance Enhancement
Do you know if you are getting the best out of your employees? It is a difficult question to answer. You have all the systems in place, you have an HR team with excellent skills but with a wide remit and increasing workloads, you have developed training courses but always with a fixed budget and training several employees at the same time. There has to be an element of trust at the top that the managers you employ, through their training and their "apprenticeship" are going to recognise what their employees need and develop their abilities through mentoring and by example. But we all know that doesn't always happen in practice and many of us in the workplace are not working to the very best of our ability or capability.
TARA Health Solutions not only deals with the problem side of reducing or eliminating stress but it also works with more positive forms of service such as:
Removing obstacles to performance
Increasing motivation
Building confidence
The above can be achieved on a one to one basis in private consultations with individuals and using a variety of techniques from counselling/coaching and NLP to hypnotherapy and positive suggestion, visualisation techniques.
TARA Health Solutions challenges any business who can confidently say that every single manager or employee is working to their individual best capacity and at their highest performance and confidence level. The tools are out there to be used to your advantage, the question is, is your business prepared to recognise there is scope for improvement and prepared to invest in your employees and management to make it happen? If you can say confidently, yes, we have done everything possible to ensure that our employees, at whatever level, are performing at their highest level, are at their most motivated and have absolutely no obstacles to their performance, then there is no need to investigate this area further. We can all, always, strive to improve and perform better. There is always something to learn.
Caroline Cousins has a solid HR background coupled with specialist stress management and therapist expertise and has worked across sectors as well as SMEs and blue chip companies. TARA Health Solutions can provide a dedicated team of specialists, as appropriate, to provide the services above.
Real change starts here...contact Caroline to discuss further.
"Determination, with an optimistic attitude, is the key factor for success" - His Holiness The Dalai Lama
