Relate for business

Training opportunities for professionals

Relate Bedfordshire and Luton delivers a range of group-based learning courses to individuals, professionals and organisations in the corporate, public and voluntary sectors, drawing on Relates 70 plus years of relationship expertise.

Our courses are delivered by highly experienced trainers and experts, bringing high quality training courses at a fraction of the industry price. Many of our courses are accredited and we can offer bespoke training for your organisation, taking your workplace's practices and policies into account.

See our Education and Learning pages for more details on the range of courses we can offer.

If you would like to have a Relate course delivered to your organisation or are interested in attending a course, call our Education and Learning team on 01234 342503 or email us on training@relatebedsandluton.org.uk.

Employee Assist Service

This year's Absence Management 2011 reveals that stress is now the number one cause of long-term sickness absence as employees struggle with heavy workloads and job loss worries, research from the CIPD and Simplyhealth has shown.

There is a particular increase in stress-related absence among public sector organisations, with 50 per cent of these respondents reporting an increase.

Nearly four in ten (39 per cent) of employers say that absence due to mental health problems has gone up in the last year, while only 12 per cent say that it has decreased.

Why an Employee Assist service?

The health of any business relies on the performance of its employees. If an employee has something on their mind, whether at work or at home, chances are they will become distracted and less focused on the job in hand. Productivity may fall and sickness absence may increase.

If poor health and high sickness absence levels are problems within the organisation, it will inevitably affect the organisations performance.

Staff absence and lost productivity due to poor mental health management have an overall annual cost to employers of nearly £26 billion [Sainsbury's Centre for Mental Health]

As a responsible employer you simply can't afford to sit back and let things get out of hand.

That's why our employee assistance service can really help your organisation. Not only does it add value to your employment package and show you take health and safety legislation very seriously, but by showing you care about your employees' general wellbeing, it can have a positive impact on productivity and employee retention, as well as reducing absenteeism.

The number of workplace stress litigation claims is on the increase so the need to protect your business has never been greater.

What is Relates Employee Assist?

Our Employee Assist is a confidential counselling service funded by the employer and is delivered for employees by one of our experienced and professionally qualified counsellors.

The service is developed and designed to support the physical, emotional and psychological well being of the company's employees.

We provide short term counselling, usually up to 6 sessions, which are designed to work through any issues the employee may have.

The counselling session will be delivered by means of face-to-face or telephone meetings of up to one hour.

We can also provide management information you need to identify trends within your workforce.

How does the service work?

Following an initial assessment session we will agree the best way forward. One session may be enough, or it may be appropriate for the employee to have more counselling.

Employees are able to access this service during their normal working day and do not need to mention where they are going, just that they have a clinic appointment.

Relate Bedfordshire and Luton follow confidential guidelines. At no time do we ever exchange personal details of the individual accessing the service.

Interested?

If you are an employer and would like to discuss this service for your organisation, please call the Chief Executive on 01234 356350 or email angela.foll@relatebedsandluton.org.uk

We can design a service that best suit the needs of your organisation and employees.