The corporate psychologist is becoming a new benefit of today. “Employees are increasingly demanding, they face a frantic pace of work, they often work beyond their means, they lose their illusions, they die out... The problem is that stress has become such a part of our lives that we do not realize its limit until the moment when our mental and physical health is already at risk,” says PhDr. Michaela Miechová, psychologist and owner of online psychological counseling Mojra.cz.
Caring for the psychological health of employees is an increasingly topical issue for companies. Can you say in what period the interest in the services of a corporate psychologist increased the most? Was it with the advent of the pandemic?
Our online counseling center began offering the services of a corporate psychologist in 2017. Since then, a lot has changed, including in the area of employee care, of course. Companies have long been trying to improve the offer of benefits, based on current needs of the company, modern trends, etc.
As for specifically the increased interest in mental support for employees, yes, the pandemic has certainly made a big dent in this and the demand for psychologists has risen significantly.
In connection with the pandemic, the structure of the services sought has also changed — companies have begun to turn their attention to the online form of benefits. Logically, because suddenly we had lockdowns here that made personal contacts impossible.
Employees had to adapt to work in the home office, combine work duties with online teaching, running the household. Many lacked daily contact with colleagues, others felt anxious about being locked up at home, having no personal space, fear of illness, daily influx of negative news... All this soon reflected on the psyche, which companies began to notice. And the HR department began to look for options to help employees. Quickly and efficiently. This is what we can do thanks to our online environment and years of experience.
Are large corporations or smaller businesses interested in the services of a corporate psychologist?
I would say, based on our experience, that the size of the company does not play such a big role. Our consultancy is addressed by both “family” companies with ten employees and large corporations with thousands of employees all over the world. The demand ratio is fairly balanced.
What is different is the range of services that companies want to provide to their employees. Smaller companies, in which the chamber environment prevails, where employees get to know each other well, meet, etc., usually do not deal with how many consultations one will use. They leave options open, do not limit the number of sessions with a psychologist, and often also provide employees, in addition to benefits, for example, gift vouchers for consultations with a psychologist for their loved ones and acquaintances (either to everyone, e.g. in the form of a Christmas gift, or just to certain people when they know it is needed).
Larger companies and corporations are then more conservative in this regard with regard to the number of employees and a certain given budget. They are used to evaluating the benefit and usefulness of services. In this case, the initial limitation of the number of consultations is often, for example, to three consultations/person. Then, together, we evaluate whether the service settings are suitable or if anything needs to be changed. Our system is designed in such a way that we are able to cover, I would say, any requirements that companies turn to us with.
From experience — companies often cancel the number of consultations during a collaboration — simply because they overcome initial fears of a boom that will have this benefit. After all, it is still not about yoga lessons, but about consultations with a psychologist, which are fraught with many prejudices. Therefore, about 5-7% of employees per year actually benefit.
Interest in the services of a corporate psychologist increased with the advent of the pandemic.
Is the work of a corporate psychologist different in a corporation and in a smaller firm? If so, how?
Personally, I think the size of the firm does not play a major role. Important are the requirements and ideas of the company. The work of a psychologist subsequently follows from this. Somewhere they prefer only individual consultations, elsewhere they prefer group consultations. Various webinars, etc., are also in demand. Thus, the work of a psychologist is not so different within a small and large company. Rather, the area of problems that employees in the given companies deal with more often varies.
Does a corporate psychologist only help in the field of psychological counseling? If not, what other areas is the corporate psychologist commonly involved in?
The role of a corporate psychologist certainly goes much further than just consulting. The psychologist in the company also acts as a mediator, soft skills trainer, leads various group activities, seminars, team building, etc.
You often meet a psychologist at an interview, because the qualities and disposition of candidates are very important for companies. In addition, the psychologist helps with adaptation in the company, processes evaluations and stimuli that are important for the operation of the company. Of course, in different fields, the psychologist is also part of the regular employee evaluation. The range of services is huge, it really depends on the preferences of the company.
If I want to use the services of a corporate psychologist for my employees as a benefit, how does it work?
It would take several pages to describe the whole process, so I will try to summarize it. The company can contact us through the form on our website, by email or by phone. A quotation is prepared and we communicate to the company the whole process of the operation of the benefit, setup and integration — most often in the form of an online call with a presentation. The company also gets free test data so that it can test the entire company background — it has both a company profile with an overview of consultations (it sees the number, but no longer data on who ordered it — we rely on the anonymity of clients) and an employee profile through which employee orders are made.
After that, individual requirements and adjustments are agreed, a contract is signed, a promotion for employees is prepared. We must not underestimate this, because if the benefit is not well presented, employees will not use it.
The firm will also obtain access data to execute the order, which it will pass on to employees. Once an employee wants to use the benefit, it is enough to log in to our site with this data, choose a psychologist, the date and method of the consultation (by phone, via Skype, WhatsApp and other freely available applications), create his (even anonymous) password-protected profile, where only he can see the overview and details of his consultations and send the order.
Then you just have to wait for the appointment of the consultation and the psychologist will contact him in the chosen way. With a deadline order, he can also contact telephone support, where they will help him with the process.
What is certainly an advantage is that for consultation the employee does not have to commute anywhere, he does everything from the comfort of his home, from the office, or even from the car. And no one finds out about it. The company does not obtain any personal information from us, the employee can choose to register anonymously and in the case of a video call he can have the camera turned off at all times — but he will always see a psychologist.
The corporate psychologist holds multiple functions in companies. It's not always just psychological counseling.
How can employees tell which psychologist is right for them?
Our counseling team consists of almost 40 psychologists and we are constantly growing. Of all these psychologists, employees can choose. Some are focused more on work relationships and problems, others more on family and marital crises. We also have child psychologists.
The essence is that all our psychologists have a degree in psychology at a university, have completed various courses, trainings and trainings, at least one year of experience in the field or have experience in coaching, for example.
I dare say that this is how we are able to cover most of the problems that clients turn to us with. Of course, we also think that choosing a psychologist is a certain process. The latter is influenced by both the initial sympathies and the focus of the psychologist. Therefore, we leave the clients alone to decide on their psychologist, the final choice is up to them. However, we are ready to help them with their choice and decision making. Both online and telephone support is available for employees — until the evening hours. It is enough, for example, to call the hotline of our counseling center, briefly describe their problem and get a referral to a suitable psychologist. Of course, there is also help with ordering, answering questions and much more. All this completely anonymously and from the comfort of your home or office.
If you can say that, do the employees of companies turn to you more with personal or work problems? What problems did your employees face the most in the past year 2021?
Work and personal problems often go hand in hand. If an employee is dissatisfied at work, this will be reflected on his private life and vice versa. If he addresses the crisis at home, his work commitment decreases. In the last year, we noticed certain interesting phenomena on which the pandemic has to some extent signed.
In the first place, people began to drink alcohol more. So, to put it bluntly, not so much to drink more, but rather to solve problems with alcohol more - so the attitude of alcoholics who are looking for ways to solve their drinking has changed considerably.
The second interesting phenomenon is partner relationships. These are generally one of the most common areas of problems that clients solve. What has changed in the past year is that men are currently turning to us in this regard much more often. According to a survey by our counseling agency, the reason is either trying to save the relationship from a breakdown or the possibility of getting a partner back after a breakup.
At one time, there were many men who “lost their business and thus their illusions” because they discovered that they were partners only for money and abandoned them in the financial crisis.
Men also became more engaged in raising children and solving various educational problems — that is, compared to before.
And in connection with the pandemic, there are frequent depressions, anxieties, fears and fears — not so much about the future, as about current events, changes in society, etc. But not to point out the problems, the demand for personal development has definitely increased in the last year as well.
How big is stress management in companies right now? Is this a topic that clients often discuss with you?
It's certainly a huge and current topic. Na employees are made more and more demands, face a frantic pace of work, often work beyond their means, lose illusions, extinguish.
The problem is that stress has become such a part of our lives that we do not realize its limit until the moment when our mental and physical health is already at risk. Also, the more your stress levels rise, the lower your performance and motivation. Of course, they try to prevent this in companies.
Can you recommend some tips on how to work with stress not only at work?
There are a lot of ways to deal with stress, and everyone has to find their own strategy. In general, I can recommend that you plan your time at work as much as possible. Good time management can do wonders. Try to surround yourself with people you love and are comfortable with. If this is not possible, at least call your partner/partner, parents, friends, children during a break.
Various relaxation techniques can also help you with stress. At work, try breathing deeply or relaxing your muscles. Even a short walk during lunch breaks helps. Or open your window and take a breath of fresh air. You can also try visualization, where you imagine yourself in a quiet, pleasant place.
Keeping a diary in which you write down the positive events of each day is also effective. Most of the time, we tend to remember the bad, so we need to write down the happy and positive experiences. For each day, also write down two or three things that you are truly grateful for that day.
Stress management is a really broad concept, and learning to think differently, change your attitude, and manage to handle stressful situations in peace is a long way to go. But here, too, the saying applies that the patience of the rose brings.
The corporate psychologist deals with both personal and work topics.
Do clients turn to you with the problem of so-called overthinking? How to work with this excessive thinking so that we are not a nuisance?
Yes, clients solve this problem as well. I recommend focusing on how you think about certain situations in the first place.
Does it take you long to make decisions? Do you repeat the same thing over and over again? Do you keep coming back to things you couldn't control yourself?
If you admit that you are overthinking things and spinning in circles, try to distract yourself with some activity such as exercise, social games, puzzles, simply something that you need to think about something else. It also helps to write your thoughts down on paper — making them easier to navigate and organize. A very popular technique lately is mindfulness — try it out.
Do you offer training opportunities in companies? For example, on the aforementioned stress management for all employees of the company? Is it possible to order such training from you?
We offer a wide range of additional services to companies. We disseminate information about various issues among our employees, either in writing or by offering various webinars and training sessions. It's always about individual agreement.
We prepare regularly companies reports of problems that occur most often with their employees (of course anonymously, the names of specific employees or other data are not received by the company) and based on this we propose possible preventive actions.
Basically, we are not averse to anything and we are able to provide such training to companies in case of interest.
If a company decides to use the services of a company psychologist from your company, what budget should it prepare approximately?
I am not able to say the exact price. Each company will receive an individual quotation from us in case of interest. This is influenced by several factors — the number of employees in the company, whether the company wants consultations only in Czech, Slovak or also in other languages (German, English, Polish, Spanish).
It also depends on whether the company will provide employees with an unlimited number of consultations, or only a few, if necessary, whether the employee will pay in addition to the consultation benefit entirely on his own or with the participation of the employer.
The firm then pays a regular monthly management fee corporate profile and administration. This fee includes both setting and software adjustments to the company background, as well as all internal promotions and materials, regular information materials for employees, a regular magazine on current topics in the range of 40-50 pages — in Czech, English and Slovak, which is processed by our own editorial team together with psychologists, telephone support 365 days a year, reports and much more.
In addition to this fee, the company pays only the price of the actual consultations. The amounts are really not high, again it is necessary to think that the consultations will not be really used by everyone employees.
