EMPLOYEE COUNSELLING

Submitted to : Submitted by:

DR. Mamta Bhatnagar Mayank Kala
Nitin Rohilla
Introduction

• Over the years there has been a growing concern regarding the needs
of an employee as an individual.
• The organisations have seen and felt the need of guiding and helping
their employees to solve their problems, pertaining to both personal
life and professional careers.
• This change in the management attitude was due the fact that, many
a times organisations suffer losses as employees cannot give their best
unless they are satisfied with all the factors affecting their lives.
• It becomes more relevant in the case of tourism as the employees are
in direct contact with the customers.
WHAT IS COUNSELLING?

• Warren Redman says “Counselling is a process of clarifying a problem held by

another person(s), enabling them to take appropriate responsibility for that
problem, and then assisting them to arrive at some form of resolution of the
difficulty.”

• Employee counselling is a discussion between the counsellor and the counselled

which is aimed at making the counselled person feel better and comfortable about
self, and thus better equipped to deal with the daily life problems and work
situations.

• Hence can also be understand as process of finding a resolution for the problem faced
and not necessarily a solution.
CHARACTERISTICS OF COUNSELLING

GUIDANCE

DUAL
ADVISING
BENIFIT

COUNSELING

COMMUNI
HELPING
CATING

SHARING
 NEED FOR COUNSELLING. When?
A need for counselling exists wherever there is a problem faced by the employees.

• 1. Stress
Stress is an important factor affecting employee performance and
productivity. The result of the stress on the employee performance
may vary from person to person and also on the reason of the stress.
It can be majorly divided into two types
A. On the Job Causes
B. Off the Job Causes
A. ON THE JOB CAUSES

• Work pressure like: deadlines to meet, work load, constant new ideas and
changes to be implemented
• Frustration can also lead to stress,
a) over estimating one's own potential or under estimating one's own potential .
b) too much work load and deadlines to meet
c) not getting a salary as expected
d) being passed over for a much awaited promotion
• Too much pressure and stress can result in “Burnout”
Burnout is the stage in a person's life when he or she feels that they have nothing
more to give as a result of mental, emotional and physical exhaustion.
 B. OFF THE JOB CAUSES
Pressures outside the work environment also affect the job performance.

• The pressure can be due to marital problems, problems with children ,

major injury or illness or death in the family
• Symptoms, which indicate when a person is under stress and strain:
a) Absenteeism : The number of days of absenteeism increases
b) Illness : Employee might report sick more often and not come in or come
in late
c) Poor Work Quality : Stress mostly results in low self - esteem which
causes in lowering the self-motivation. Thus results in poor work quality
and low performance.
2. DISCIPLINARY ACTION

• Before punishing or giving any penalty to an employee a

counselling session with the offender is a must where company
rules and policies are again told to the employee and also about
the penalties involved.
• The Counselling during the disciplinary process puts emphasis on
what the employee should do rather than putting the emphasis on
what the employee should not do.
3. PRE-PROMOTIONAL

• Counselling is always used to put the employee to be promoted at

ease with his or her would be new environment and to get him or
her acquainted with his or her power, duties and job scope among
other things, so that the employee is totally sure while taking over
a new job/ promotion.
4. MID CAREER

• Majorly in this the employer employ a counsellor to counsel the mid

career manager.
• The managers are well educated and are very motivated till they
realise that they have reached a stage where promotion and upward
movement is possible only if someone in the very top position vacates
the position.
• In this period it is very necessary to keep the motivated , and make
sure the do not get stressed or frustrated.
• the mid career managers are aware of the problems related to their
job and only need someone to listen to them.
5. PRE-RETIREMENT

• when the time for retirement comes, the person is apprehensive

about his or her future.
• If the apprehension is not taken care of in time then it will affect
the work capacity of the employee during whatever time the
employee is left with before his or her retirement and also affect
those working in close contact.
• Counselling here can help the employee look forward towards the
retirement with expectation and excitement rather than with
apprehension.
COUNSELLING FUNCTIONS
• The main objective of Counselling is to help the employees attain a better mental, emotional
and physical health.
1. Advice : Many a time's counsellors do have to advice so as to show/ guide the counselled
towards a path of action.
2. Reassurance : Provide reassurance to the employee that he or she is progressing well and
moving towards achieving the desired goal.
3. Communication : It is about the proper communication to pass the problems of employee to
management and also to air the views of the management to the employees.
4. Release of Emotional Tension : Emotional outbursts help the employee to release one’s anger
and frustration to a sympathetic listener, which in turn helps to subside the tension.
5. Clarified Thinking : Discussing one's problem with someone helps the person to see those
points and facts which have been overlooked earlier due to emotional involvement with the
problem. As only listening to the outpouring will help.
6. Reorientation : Reorientation leads a person to have a better self-image and it also helps to
treat the patients of depression.
COUNSELLORS
“who all can be counsellors?”

• Counsellor is a person who helps the counselled to overcome his or

her problem and in the process also have a better self – image and
confidence.
• A counsellor at times can be a friend who listens to one's woes and
in the process helps look at a problem more objectively and
rationally.
• An organisation can counsel its employees using either an in-house counsellor
or acquire the help of outside agencies as well. The possibilities are:
1. Managers : Mostly in the smaller organisations the immediate managers help
in counselling the employees as they are known to the employees and
employees can open up fast and easily with the manager
2. HRD Manager : HRD managers are often identified in an organisation as specialists to
deal with all counselling work.
3. Volunteers : volunteers such as trainee HRD manager or a student of HRD who usually are available
as volunteers since they want to gain some experience. The use is possible in large organisations,
where the employees are large in number.

IN-HOUSE COUNSELLING
4. Outside Agencie : Many establishments are available which send their counsellors as and when
required by an organisation. Mostly these are the organisations working for the employee welfare
and running employee welfare programmes. Sometimes it can also be government assisted.
QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR

• Empathetic • Confidential
• Warm • Attentive
• Honest • Open ended
• Listening • Authority
• Unbiased • Understandable
• Unhurried
• Respectful
COUNSELLING SKILLS

• Active listening
• Appropriate body language
• Intelligent questioning
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Connecting and reflect backing
• Not imposing superiority
• Concluding and recommending
STEPS OF COUNSELLING

LISTEN
• Intervening Question

EMPATHY
• Refraining Power

ACCEPTANCE
• Identify the Problem

CONGRUENCE
• Thinking over

RESPONSE
TYPES OF COUNSELLING
It depends upon the counsellor to give it a direction. The type of direction the counsellor
gives to the session differentiates it into three types :

1. Directive Counselling : In this the counsellor gives the session its full
direction. This type of counselling fulfils the criteria of the counsellor
giving advice and reassurance.
2. Non-Directive Counselling : This type of counselling is counselee
oriented. This means that the counsellor focuses on the counselee . No
advice is given, rather counselee where has to the find the solution on
his or her own.
3. Co-operative/Participative Counselling : This is a compromise between
the above two extreme types of counselling. It is a mutual counsellor -
counselee relationship where both participate to find a solution.