Employee Counselling Definition, Benefits, Outcomes

Employee counselling is a psychological health care intervention which can take many forms. Its aim is to assist both the employer and employee by intervening with an active problem-solving approach to tackling the problems at hand. The costs to industry and commerce each year associated with employees poor psychological health are enormous. A significant proportion of the Gross National Product (GNP) of industrialized countries is lost each year through ill-health, particularly in respect of stress-related illness. These costs increase substantially when lost productivity resulting from stress-related inefficiency and incompetence is taken into account. Stress-related incompetence is not inevitable though. Employee counselling can do much to prevent the negative effects of stress at an individual level and ultimately at an organizational level. Few organizations can now afford to ignore the consequences associated with employees psychological health.

Employee Counselling - Whats Involved

Employee counselling gives individuals a valuable opportunity to work through problems and stresses in a strictly confidential and supportive atmosphere. Counselling provides access to several basic forms of helping: giving information, direct action, teaching and coaching, advocacy, and providing feedback and advice, for example. Typically, counselling involves the individual employee meeting with a psychological adviser, usually on a one-on-one basis. It is not uncommon for the individual employee and counsellor to meet one or twice a week for several weeks. However, the number and frequency of meetings required will depend upon the nature of the perceived difficulty and the nature of the intervention needed. The focus of counselling sessions is to encourage discussion of personal and work-related difficulties. This is often followed by the adoption of an active problem-solving approach to tackle the problems at hand. The specific aims of employee counselling are to: Explore and find the key sources of difficulty. Review the individuals current strategies and styles of coping.

Implement methods of dealing with the perceived problem, thereby alleviating the issue. Often, this step may involve also improving interpersonal relations at work and/or improving personal performance. Evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen strategies.

Conclusion
If employees are to function at an optimum level of well-being and competence, it is vital that they feel supported and valued. Organizational systems are sometimes quick to make demands and hinder but occasionally slow to help. Employee counselling can be a vehicle to provide help in an effective, practical way. It is through such help that individuals are motivated to understand and realize their own career potential, thus maximizing the chances of functioning in the best interests of the organization

Employee Counselling An overview Pranati Raheja

What is Counselling?

Counselling is a process through which one person helps another by purposeful conversation in an understanding atmosphere. It seeks to establish a helping relationship in which the one counseled can express their thoughts and feelings in such a way as to clarify their own situation, come to terms with some new experience, see their difficulty more objectively, and so face their problem with less anxiety and tension. Its basic purpose is to assist the individual to make their own decision from among the choices available to them. (British Association for Counselling, Rugby 1989)

Counselling is discussion of an employees problem that usually has an emotional content to it, in order to help the employee cope with the situation better. Counselling seeks to improve employees mental health. People feel comfortable about themselves and about other people and are

able to meet the demands of life when they are in good mental health.

Why is Counselling Needed?

"HR initiatives only look at the organizational perspective, but the well being of the workforce depends just as much on the individual's well being. And stress, from home or from the routine of work affects not just the individual, but the workplace in turn," says Dr Samir Parikh, consultant psychiatrist at Max Healthcare

What are the objectives of Counselling?

According to Eisenberg & Delaney, the aims of Counselling are as follows:

1. Understanding self 2. Making impersonal decisions 3. Setting achievable goals which enhance growth 4. Planning in the present to bring about desired future 5. Effective solutions to personal and interpersonal problems. 6. Coping with difficult situations 7. Controlling self defeating emotions 8. Acquiring effective transaction skills. 9. Acquiring 'positive self-regard' and a sense of optimism about one's own ability to satisfy one's basic needs.

When to counsel?

An employee should be counseled when he or she has personal problems that affect job performance. Some signs of a troubled employee include Sudden change of behavior

 Preoccupation Irritability Increased accidents Increased fatigue Excessive drinking Reduced production Waste Difficulty in absorbing training

What are the traits of a good counsellor?

The set of attitudes required for an efficient counsellor are: Respect i.e. High esteem for human dignity, recognition of a person's freedom & rights and faith in human potential to grow. Sincerity, authenticity. Understanding Non-judgmental approach towards the counselee.

The set of skills required for an efficient counsellor are: Decency skills i.e. social etiquettes, warm manners Excellent communication skills which also include non-verbal communication and listening skills Objectivity Maintaining confidentiality Empathy

Whats the process of counselling?

Types of counseling processes are Sigmund Freuds Psychoanalytic Therapy; Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy; Carkhuff Model of

Personal Counselling; Gestalt approach to counselling; Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy by Albert Ellis.

The Counseling Process Step 1. Describe the changed behavior. Let the employee know that the organization is concerned with work performance. The supervisor maintains work standards by being consistent in dealing with troubled employees. Explain in very specific terms what the employee needs to do in order to perform up to the organization's expectations. Don't moralize. Restrict the confrontation to job performance. Step 2. Get employee comments on the changed behavior and the reason for it. Confine any negative comments to the employee's job performance. Don't diagnose; you are not an expert. Listen and protect confidentiality. Step 3. Agree on a solution. Emphasize confidentiality. Don't be swayed or misled by emotional please, sympathy tactics, or "hard-luck" stories. Explain that going for help does not exclude the employee from standard disciplinary procedures and that it does not open the door for special privileges. Step 4. Summarize and get a commitment to change. Seek commitment from the employee to meet work standards and to get help, if necessary, with the problem. Step 5. Follow up. Once the problem is resolved and a productive relationship is established, follow up is needed.

What is the situation in India?

According to a recent study done in India the study was done in a manufacturing company in Mumbai

Majority of the employees of the company (61% of the sample) were unaware of the concept of Employee Counselling. Those employees who had a partially correct idea (25 % of the sample) about employee counseling knew that it was related to helping an employee in distress, advising, creating self-awareness and personality development. The remaining 14 % had an incorrect understanding about the concept. After the researcher had explained what employee counselling was all about, 69 % of the sample agreed that there was a (perceived) need for employee counseling in the company. The reasons were many, most common ones being to assist employees solve their personal and/or work related problems and to improve the employee relationships and overall culture of the workplace. Among the 31 % who were of the viewpoint that employee counseling as an institutionalized process was not needed in the company, 57 % of this group felt that the company had a family culture and the informal relationships between the employees could be leveraged upon. Only 22 % of the sample disagreed on the importance of employee counseling as a part of HR systems while 78 % of the employees felt that counseling is an important HR function. 83 % of the employees were unaware of the companies practicing

Employee Counselling in India (this could also be because the sample was a mix of managerial employees, staff level and workers)

The research results indicate that majority of the sample under study responded positively to the hypothesis i.e. a need for Employee Counselling was felt and that it would benefit the organization. However, the awareness about the concept of counselling and employee counselling, particularly so was found to be exceptionally low.

Why is it not frequently used?

Right from getting top management approvals and budgetary sanctions to getting trained counselors on the rolls or on part time basis all are equally challenging. Preparing the employees for counselling is another yet important areas. One of the biggest fears that prevent employees from using the services of a counselor is the social and professional stigma attached to counselling.