For those employees who need a little extra motivation to make positive changes in their lives.
Health coaching offers personalised support to those who are trying to form or stick to healthy habits, while mental wellbeing coaching provides dedicated guidance for those that need help building on or maintaining good mental health.
Choose the health assessment required from either Wellbeing Consultation or Know Your Numbers or completion of a mental wellbeing assessment on the AXA Health app if your company has it. Choose to support your whole workforce or just focus on certain employee populations. The assessments are delivered onsite or digitally making it easy for you to support those in the office, at home or working across the two.
Upon completing a relevant AXA Health wellbeing assessment an employee can be referred to one of our coaching services if our experts feel they could benefit from some extra support.
Health coaching is designed to help motivate people to manage their wellbeing, explore areas that need improvement and adopt healthy habits into their day-to-day lives.
Following a Know Your Numbers health assessment, a Wellbeing Consultation or where recommended following a Health Age assessment on the AXA Health app, employees can be referred and benefit from the help and guidance of a dedicated health coach.
Mental wellbeing coaching
One-to-one support for those who want to reach their full potential, that aren't needing full clinical mental health treatment, but would benefit from mental wellbeing support and guidance.
After completing a Wellbeing Consultation or where recommended following a mental wellbeing assessment on the AXA Health app, employees can be referred and benefit from the help and guidance of a dedicated health coach.
Coaching to support your employees make positive lasting change
Targeted support for your people
While some health-improvement programmes are designed to help people who already understand the benefits of healthier living, our coaching services are here for those who may need some extra guidance. Offering dedicated, tailored support, our health coaches help your people find ways to make changes for the better.
Personalised, realistic health plans
With their dedicated health coach, employees will explore the areas of their health that need improvement, identify what motivates them and analyse their barriers to better health. With one-to-one video or phone coaching, support by app or email, and signposting to available services, your people will get the support they need.
Enhanced health coaching available
If one of your employees has a more significant health risk, the option of enhanced coaching is available, offering a longer coaching period and regular engagement and follow-ups.
And they’re good for business
Mental wellbeing coaching
It could boost your performance
Productivity and good mind health go hand-in-hand. To maximise productivity, you need your employees to flourish1 and a work environment that helps keep them ‘in-flow’.2
Our 2023 Mind Health At Work Report found that respondents are three times more likely to flourish and be ‘in-flow’ when they’re offered good mental health support at work.3
It could help retain your talent
Our Mind Health At Work Report also found a clear link between flourishing mind health and employee retention. In fact, only 5% of those ‘in-flow’ said they intended to leave their jobs in the next 12 months.3
It could help reduce absences
35.2 million working days were lost to work-related ill health in 2022/23, with stress, anxiety and depression accounting for almost 17.1million of these.4
Mental wellbeing coaching could help your employees identify and address psychological challenges early, which in turn can reduce the impact on their mental and emotional wellbeing. Reduced stress, anxiety and/or depression can help prevent the type of mental health issues that may lead to employees needing time off work.
An estimated 185.6 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in 2022, with minor illnesses accounting for 29.3% of these.5 Lifestyle factors play a significant part in maintaining the immune system and keeping people healthy, but our research6 has found:
84% of people in the UK don’t eat five portions of fruit and veg a day.
72% of working women aged 18-24 don't regularly get over 150 mins of moderate exercise a week.
72% of people in the UK don't often wake up feeling rested.
Health coaching is a preventative, proactive approach to health that tackles these kinds of lifestyle challenges to help reduce the minor illnesses that can lead to absences. It does this by motivating people to manage their health and adopt healthy habits in their day-to-day lives.
It's forward-thinking
Based on Henley Business School’s critical review of the evidence for coaching in the healthcare system,7 health coaching can help health professionals improve patient outcomes. The review calls for health stakeholders to take forward health coaching as part of both employee wellbeing, and patient care.
Looking to support key individuals in your organisation with our dedicated coaching services? For more information about creating a truly tailored health improvement programme for your business, contact us today.
Mental wellbeing coaching is a preventative, proactive form of mental health support. It offers employees up to 6, one-to-one video or phone sessions with a qualified coach to help them clarify what matters most and improve their mental wellbeing. It’s a collaborative, action-oriented approach to coaching, which helps your people recognise their strengths, qualities and values. It’s a convenient and confidential service that ultimately provides people with the tools, motivation and confidence to help them plan ahead and take the next steps on their wellbeing journey.
Mental wellbeing coaching is an accompaniment to your health assessment programme. It’s designed for employees who may need some extra mental health support or who have had a potential mental health risk identified, but not for anyone involved with another psychological support service or who is receiving treatment for a specific mental health challenge. It’s only available when recommended by a health professional following a Wellbeing Consultation or after completing a mental health assessment on the AXA Health app.
Mental wellbeing coaching is designed for those who are generally healthy but want to learn, develop, and grow — both personally and professionally.
They may have an idea of what could be better, have a definite goal or desired direction in mind, or they may be willing to experiment and explore what else is possible. One-to-one coaching enables self-discovery, so people become more aware of their skills, resources and strengths. It’s designed to help them develop and successfully pursue their goals.
The first step is for an employee to understand what tools and support will be most useful to them. And that’s different for everyone. Mental wellbeing coaching can help with performance, resilience, confidence, self-belief, stress management, overcoming obstacles, improving communication, problem-solving or to help people shift their priorities and perspectives.
These are just a few examples. Our health coaches will guide the employee through an initial assessment during which they’ll map out a plan and discuss which areas to focus on and what goals they want to set.
No two journeys through mental wellbeing coaching are the same, but they always start with an initial video or telephone. This first conversation is designed to confirm an employee’s suitability for mental wellbeing coaching, define which areas they need to focus on, discuss priorities and set goals.
This is followed by up to five 45-minute telephone sessions at mutually agreed intervals (typically every two weeks) over a period of approximately 12 weeks. During these sessions, employees can discuss their progress, review or adjust their focus, talk through any barriers they’ve encountered and receive the one-to-one support and expertise that’ll help them continue their mental health journey.
Every mental wellbeing coach has qualifications and years of experience in both therapeutic fields and coaching practice. They are also members of recognised professional bodies. Everyone is supervised and completes continuous professional development on a regular basis.
As with any programme, there are no guarantees, and the journey and results are different for everyone. But based on feedback from those who have completed their mental wellbeing coaching journey, it can help people develop, grow, increase their self-awareness and push themselves out of their comfort zone. It also gives them the tools, strategies and insight to maintain their mental health and feel more positive on a day-to-day basis.
If an employee requests a coach of a particular gender, we’ll do our best to accommodate this. However, there’s no guarantee that we’d have specific availability at any given time, so they may need to wait until a suitable coach becomes available.
After the initial assessment, employees typically have appointments with their coach every two weeks over a period of 12 weeks.
Yes, if for any reason the employee wants to stop the coaching, they can relay this to their coach and discuss the next steps regarding what might be useful going forward, e.g. further support or self-management.
Typically, they’ll be able to have the first conversation with a coach within two calendar weeks of their Wellbeing Consultation.
To help us evidence improvements in an employee’s mental wellbeing, we use validated measures at the start and end of coaching to help us review progress.
No. All communications between the employee and their coach are completed remotely (video or phone), with bespoke guidance to help set achievable goals through the 12 weeks. Appointments can be made online or by email.
Appointments aim to be every two weeks but this may vary. This enables employees to reflect and put into practice what has been discussed in the previous session.
Mental wellbeing coaching is only available on the recommendation of a health professional based on the results of a Wellbeing Consultation or after a mental wellbeing assessment on the AXA Health app.
Regular attendance is essential to the success of mental wellbeing coaching. It’s a busy service and cancellations have a detrimental impact on other members and the wider service. For us to ensure the service can support as many people as possible, with the shortest possible waiting time, employees are required to adhere to the following service policy on attendance:
They are expected to attend all their sessions; preparing themselves and the space they are in to make every success of coaching.
If they cancel an appointment within two working days, it is highly likely that their coach will have to count this cancelled session as part of their coaching allocation.
They must provide as much notice as possible (more than two working days) if they wish to rearrange an appointment.
If they cancel more than two appointments during their allocated sessions, even if they give more than two working days’ notice, it is highly likely that their coach will have to close their case as rescheduling appointments has a tangible impact on the efficacy of coaching and wider service challenges.
If they do not attend an appointment without giving prior notice, it is highly likely that their coach will have to count this missed session as part of their coaching allocation.
If they do not attend two appointments, without giving prior notice, during their allocated sessions, it is highly likely that their coach will have to close their case as rescheduling appointments has a tangible impact on the efficacy of coaching and wider service challenges.
Our mental wellbeing coaching is available for your organisation to buy on behalf of its employees. There is no additional cost to the employee.
No. Mental wellbeing coaching can only be accessed following completion of a Wellbeing Consultation or the AXA Health app’s mental wellbeing assessment.
Health coaching FAQ’s
If an employee has an area of their health or lifestyle they’d like to improve, health coaching can support them. This can include improving diet, being more active, support with key health markers such as cholesterol or blood glucose, losing weight and managing stress.
Health coaching uses techniques such as motivational interviewing, which is proven to help people work through barriers and build sustainable habits. It involves one-to-one support from a dedicated health coach over a 12-week period.
Health coaching can support people with a variety of conditions and health risks. Currently, for those who complete health coaching, we see an average of 3.5kg in weight loss for those with that goal, significant increase in activity levels and a 45% increase in fruit and vegetable intake.
We are proud of the results and feedback we get from this service. A common theme from participants is that health coaching made them accountable and kept them motivated to stick to goals. So, as well as seeing results during the programme, coaching also helped participants build the confidence to sustain their new habits and maintain a healthier lifestyle over the longer term.
All our health coaches have core qualifications (minimum degree level) in a relevant area. This will include nutrition, exercises science and health improvement. They also go through extensive training on topics such motivation interviewing, goal setting, behaviour change techniques and solution-focussed coaching.
Health coaching is only accessible to employees who are recommended to the service following a Know Your Numbers assessment or a Wellbeing Consultation on the AXA Health app. These assessments inform us of an employee’s current health status and help them understand and identify areas they may wish to focus on. Once an employee has been referred, they’ll be invited to book their initial coaching session via the app or through a link that our team can email across.
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