Counselling can be useful where people are usually under a great deal of stress due to the work they do, and the organization wants to help them find ways to better cope with that stress. Counselling can also help teach organization members skills they need to do a better job. These skills can be indirectly related to job performance, such as interpersonal skills or they can be skills that are more directly related to the work they do.
Counselling isn’t always important to an organization. Some organizations don’t want to devote resources to counselling. They may not care about the development of organization members. The organization has to be willing to devote resources to member development for counselling to be worthwhile. Many organizations believe they can get the talent they need through hiring and don’t feel the resources needed to train and develop members are expenses that will add to their capabilities. They may feel that if they counsel members, those members will simply leave to go elsewhere.
The decision to offer counselling to organization members is a strategic decision that is based on how much that organization decides it values the personal development of members. Organizations that want to retain and develop members are more likely to offer counselling than organizations that have high turnover.