Employee needs are changing. With increased demand for mental healthcare, firms are bringing therapists to workers in corporate offices.
Your therapist’s office may soon be down the hall from your own.
As companies adjust to post-pandemic ways of working, many firms have spent the past few years updating their benefits suites to respond to workers’ changing priories. While employees are still asking for generous paid time off and retirement schemes, they’re also asking for holistic benefits, including mental-health resources.
To meet this need, some companies have introduced access to digital tools, such as meditation apps or online therapy portals. But others have gone a step further to differentiate themselves. Large global employers – including Comcast, Delta Airlines and Shaw Industries Group – are now offering on-site therapy in their corporate offices and worksites. These programmes enable employees to discreetly schedule a session with a licensed clinical therapist during the workday, often at no cost.
It may be unconventional – but companies say this resource is popular with employees, especially amid a dearth of mental-health professionals and prohibitive costs that otherwise keep them from accessing care.A new kind of perk
Mental-health practitioners are in short supply around the world. As of 2024, the US Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that 122 million Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental healthcare providers, and the country needs to add about 6,000 clinicians to cover the gap. In 2022, the NHS in the UK reported a shortage of 2,000 qualified therapists.
Therapists who are working are overloaded. In 2022, 60% of psychologists in the US reported having no openings for new patients following the pandemic, according to the American Psychological Association (APA), and 38% say they maintain a waitlist. Even for people who can find a clinician with new-patient availability, they may not have the ability to schedule an appointment unless they have flexible work arrangements.
These factors, along with high costs in many countries, can keep people from getting the services they need. “Therapy is a really good solution for many people, but it’s very expensive, it’s very inconvenient, and it’s very hard to find a therapist that your insurance covers [in the US],” says Jen Porter, interim CEO at Mindshare Partners, a California-based non-profit organisation that advocates for workplace mental health.