Employee Counselling – An overview

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 employee’s problem that usually has an emotional

content to it, in order to help the employee cope with the situation better.
Counselling seeks to improve employee’s 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

What’s the process of counselling?

Types of counseling processes are Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Therapy; Carl

Roger’s 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.