Over half of HR acting as counsellors for staff

HR professionals are increasingly taking up the mantle of staff counsellor and confidante, according to new research.

More than half of HR staff reported to have provided counselling for staff in the past two years, and two-thirds believe mental health is an issue in their organisation, a study from MetLife found.

Over 200 professionals were surveyed, 76% said they were surprised by the personal and private information staff tell them, while 22% said they had provided marriage and relationship counselling to employees, the CIPD reports.

Rachel Suff, Public Policy Adviser (Europe) at the CIPD, said: "It shouldn't be HR's job to provide mental health and stress counselling – it really is a specialist area – but it has an important role to play in developing an appropriate supportive framework. A really important part of that is training for line managers to understand what mental health means. If they are not trained it can be really stressful for them to have those conversations and spot issues."