Voices of Experience - TakeHelp Life Counselling Solutions

TakeHelp Life Counselling Solutions® has been into EAP Services from 2019. We give a combination of individual support services as well as group support services. TakeHelp can say with pride that we have added tremendous value in the personal lives of several individuals and families through our EAP program interventions.

1) Can you describe your organization's EAP services and expertise?

TakeHelp specialized in EAP from Day one. One thing was that we understood corporate requirements well as I have serviced corporates right from the beginning of my career as an Enterprise Specialist. More importantly as I have handled large teams myself in the course of my corporate career, I know what are the typical Wellness concerns and needs of Employees. It also helped that among our panel of Psychologists we had some renowned EAP specialists. So, with this domain expertise we put together a web-portal that focused on providing a Professional, Competent, Safe, Confidential and Anonymous eco-system where anyone can take support from a psychological expert without fear of stigma.

2) What sets your organization apart from other EAP providers?

I think the answer is multi-fold. One thing is, as I said earlier, is our domain understanding of the Corporate Employees’ Wellness requirements.

This helps us in designing programs creatively. For instance, my understanding of the ‘Performance Improvement Programs (PIP)’ helped us in designing a program specifically to support such employees going through a PIP process and come out successful. Our unique platform has various counselling options and the absolute confidentiality that a person needs while taking expert help. Our TakeHelp platform has psychological experts from richly-diverse areas that enables us to give support on 15 broad-based areas of counselling and about 115 specific needs of counselling. Very important to also note is that our services are very easy on the pockets of our corporate customers and the ROI is really good. From an end-user point of view, our services are un-compromisingly confidential and that makes a big difference.

3) How do you measure the effectiveness of your EAP services?

We take regular user feedback and the corporate HR’s feedback to keep updating our services to cater to emerging needs. We also give detailed reports to our customers periodically.

4) What is your thought on current scenario of work place pressure faced by employees and

what are the strategies to overcome the same?

There are so many things that are causing stress. Long hours of travel to work, work load at office, Job insecurity (perceived or real), Digital Overload (expected to ‘always on’), personal issues spilling into work-place, burn-out are some things that come to one’s mind. The stigma around Mental Health is another major stressor. The need for EAP has never been so felt. The availability of a professional to speak-to makes a really big difference.

5) What emerging mental health trends are you seeing in the workplace? 

We are seeing an increase in awareness in progressive organizations on the need for mental health support. This mainly happened during the Covid Pandemic when HR and Management started recognizing the issues of wellness. The link between productivity and wellness is being clearly felt and acknowledged by managements like never before. Workshops on Resilience and Mental Health awareness are highly sought after. The focus on psychological safety has clearly begun. The Stigma around taking professional help is also seen to be waning. There is also an increased interest in EAP programs.

6) What specific strategies / plans you have as an EAP provider to support both remote and hybrid employee in maintaining mental well-being, especially in MNCs (global branches) spread across different time zones?

Well, as said earlier our platform facilitates support on a Telco Platform and hence the location of the user is immaterial. This makes it ideal for remote workers. As far as providing global services is concerned, our native Mobile App, when it gets launched, shall make it possible to provide Transnational service on our App. We also plan to bring in Mental Health Assessments in a meaningful way to foster a preventive care approach. We also want to bring in group-interventions and create Gate-keeper programs in which volunteers can be trained for providing support. All this will greatly support people who are in different areas of geography.

7) Can you share some common red flags indicating the need for EAP (Assistance) / EWP (Wellness) within an organization, and how do you recommend the organizations address those warning signs proactively?

There are many. Increased absenteeism, high attrition, a perceptible sense of negativity in the general environment or in some teams, increase in incidents of conflicts being reported, a sense of despair or in-security among employees and a drop in productivity. All these can have various reasons. It is best addressed by having a EAP program. 

For example, we give a monthly report to our EAP customers in which we state the types of counselling sought (without giving specifics like name of the employee or any other details on the contents of the counselling session). This helps our customers understand if there is a red-flag (like job in-security is a cohort) and address things accordingly.

8) How do you leverage technology to deliver EAP services (e.g.,online counseling, mobile apps)?

We have leveraged the concept of Anonymous Conferencing facility to provide absolute confidentiality to the end-user. This feature enables the two parties in the call to talk to each other without exposing their numbers. This apart we are planning several initiatives to use technology to make the service more versatile. While we are presently providing our services through a Web-Portal, we are also shortly coming out a Native Mobile App which shall have the features of Video Calling and Chat too.

9) Can you discuss your approach to telemedicine and virtual support?

Our services are fundamentally offered on the concept of Tele-medicine. While we do not give any medicines as such as part of our offerings, the counselling intervention itself is on a Telecom Platform and can be accessed by people remotely.

10) Can you share success stories or case studies? 

There are several success stories. Some of them are quite memorable. Two years ago, during Diwali I got a call from a user (an EAP Employee who used our services). Apparently, he was on the verge of divorce and his family was separated for almost 4 years. After some counselling sessions with our expert psychologist, he was re-united with his family. He said, quite emotionally, that he is spending Diwali with his family after 4 years – It made my Diwali!! Another recent instance was where we could help in supporting an individual who was in severe depression. Their HR was very concerned as they anticipated self-harm. We gave the necessary counselling support and a possible crisis was averted. Also, in one manufacturing unit there was a major accident due to which one of their employees died.  

The whole unit was severely distressed and it was affecting day-to-day operations. They approached us and we had an expert administer ‘Critical Incident Stress De-briefing (CISD)’ process for the employees of the concerned unit. After a couple of sessions, the team was back to normal. These kinds of experiences are many.                      

11) What specific EAP services do you provide for women’s welfare (WWP) , such as support for maternity, work-life balance, dealing with workplace harassment, or mental health during major life transitions?

We can provide specific support for pregnant women starting from counseling during the Trimesters, pre-delivery counselling and post-natal stages. 

We also provide counselling support for women coming back to work after a break. We can provide POSH training to sensitize women on their rights and some basic know-how on how to handle such situations from a psychological perspective. Also, as part of our standard operating procedure we immediately intimate HR if we come across incidents of Sexual Harassment for which counselling is being sought. We can also support, with counselling, for emotional upheavals sometimes associated with menopause.

12) How do you envision EAP services evolving in the next 5 years?

EAP should be mandatory in all organizations as it is critical for mental health, productivity, and controlling medical costs. Its scope may expand to encompass broader employee health initiatives and insurance coverage, as seen in several developed countries.