Keep your best people billing, not burning out

Because the pressure is constant and the people carrying it tend to hide it well. Around 70% of Australian professionals start early or finish late most weeks, and only 18% stick to their contracted hours. In the EY Oceania culture review, 46% of people said long hours and overwork had hurt their health, and more than 40% of Australian accountants have their health affected by overwork as regulation and compliance keep rising. The average Australian worker now does 3.5 hours of unpaid overtime every week, the equivalent of four and a half full-time weeks a year. In firms that run on billable targets and client deadlines, that load lands hardest on your best people. An EAP gives them a simple, private way to talk things through before it turns into burnout, sick leave or a resignation.

It protects the things you care about as a business: retention, performance and your duty of care. When your people can get fast, confidential support for stress, overwork, relationships, money worries or their mental health, they are less likely to burn out, take long absences or leave. That matters when work pressure causes 24.2% of serious mental health claims in Australia, the second most common cause after bullying and harassment, and the median time off for one of those claims is 35.7 weeks, almost five times longer than for all other serious injury and disease claims. Keeping one senior person well and on the job easily pays for the program. With Talked your team reaches a qualified Australian psychologist or counsellor by video, phone or message, around client work and court dates, with no waitlist.

Confidentiality is what makes people in a tight-knit firm feel safe enough to reach out, so it is built into everything. What an employee discusses with their counsellor stays between them and the clinician. As the employer you never see who booked a session or what was raised, only anonymous, aggregate usage and wellbeing data. The single exception is a serious risk to someone's safety, which clinicians are legally required to act on. In a partnership or a small practice where everyone knows everyone, that privacy is exactly why people use the service, and your reporting still gives you the insight you need to manage risk.

You get clear, confidential reporting that shows uptake across your firm and where pressure is concentrated, all de-identified so no individual is ever exposed. You can see how many people are using the service, the broad themes coming up, such as workload or stress, and whether engagement is rising. That gives your leaders something concrete to act on, lets you show partners and your board a measurable return on the investment, and helps you evidence that you are meeting your psychosocial and duty-of-care obligations.

Fast, which is the point. There is no waitlist and no GP referral. Once your firm is set up, your people get a simple link or code, book online in a few minutes, choose a counsellor and connect by video, phone or message, including outside standard hours. You choose the plan and Talked tailors the number of sessions per person to suit your team and budget. If someone needs longer-term or more specialised support, their counsellor helps them find the right next step.

It is built to be quick to launch and easy to communicate. We set your firm up, give you ready-made materials to announce it to staff, and your people access support through a simple link or code with no complicated onboarding. Many firms introduce it at a team meeting or in an onboarding pack and reinforce it at busy times of year, such as end of financial year or a major reporting deadline. Your leaders also get practical guidance on spotting when someone is struggling and pointing them to support, so support becomes part of how your firm looks after its people, not a poster nobody reads.