Counseling at

workplace
Diya Gautam
Part II, Sem IV
Workplace counselling refers to, “Counselling provided in the work setting (whether
this is internal or external service provision), to help employees with any mental health
issues that have arisen from, or are worsened by, work” (Bajorek & Bevan, 2020).

workplace counselling is different from other types of counselling as,

• it is provided in the workplace setting.

• it focuses only on workplace issues or workplace related issues that might adversely
affect the employees’ productivity.
• workplace counsellors must understand the organizational processes, its culture,
practices, and challenges that can influence the well-being of an organization and its
employees.
Example
Ankita is a young girl who has just joined a company which is of recent origin. Initially she
liked the job, but gradually her workload increased. Seeing her work efficiency, her boss
used to give her lots of work to her so that it would get done quicker and with efficiency.
Initially she used to do it and did not complaint as she was a new employee, but she was
feeling stressed and her personal life started getting affected. She was not sure of what to
do as she needed the job very much.

The above example indicates the need for counselling. But how it is different from other
situations which require counselling? Does the organization where Ankita is working has
any role in counselling? Does the boss or the family members of Ankita need to be
involved in counselling?
History
The counselling service was formally introduced to organizations between 1940s and 1950s for treating
occupational alcoholism. The problem of alcoholism among workers was seen as a disease and
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) model was used as an employee assistance program (EAP) to treat with
employees suffering from alcohol dependence.

According to Bull (1992), the history of workplace counselling shows that it has passed through four
stages:
1) The ‘disease stage’, where individuals are seen as victims of an illness which they must learn to
manage, e.g., alcoholism.
2) The ‘client-centred stage’ (a move to a broad-brush approach), where the post-war development of
humanistic/existential therapies, in conjunction with more traditional approaches, enabled employee
assistance to help individuals identify and meet their own needs.
3) The ‘employee-work stage’, where the workplace is acknowledged as influencing individual well-
being.
4) The ‘company as client stage’, where the organization's policies and philosophy influence the
individual, community and the planet. An extensive review of literature by Bull (1993) showed, however,
that most of the counselling occurs at the individual level.
MODELS OF WORKPLACE COUNSELLING

In house service
In an In-house model, an organization directly employs the counsellor. This helps the counsellor to understand
the processes, dynamics, and culture of that organization. The counsellor gets an access to workers at various
levels, such as, Human Resource (HR) division, workers’ unions etc. According to Pompe et al. (2017), an
internal workplace counselling is more efficient as it provides the counsellor a greater insight into the
organization that enables him/her to provide customized counselling services. However, since the counsellor is
also an employee of the organization, so the issue of confidentiality and impartial counselling is of concern. Cost
is another concern as having an onsite counsellor is more expensive.

The External service

The External service model may consist of face-to-face counselling, telephonic, and web-based counselling. It
can provide counselling not only for health and well-being of employees but also for legal and debt issues,
family support and critical incidents occurring in an employee’s life. While Pompe et al. (2017) finds external
services cost effective in terms of financial expenditure, the BACP (2016) finds these as less effective in terms
of counselling as according to BACP (2016), the external counsellors may not understand the working of an
organization and so will not be able to provide appropriate counselling within the context of the organizational
culture.
Hybrid model
Hybrid model, as the name suggests, is a mix of external and internal services, e.g., face-to-face
(internal) counselling along with telephonic (external) counselling. Internal services help the counsellor
to gain an understanding of the culture, processes and dynamics existing within the organization, and
external services save the costs in terms of time, money, and energy. Thus, a hybrid model helps to
maintain the balance between internal and external counselling services enabling the organization to
avail the best of each service. That is, an organization can have a comprehensive flexible and
confidential counselling service.

ad-hoc
An ad-hoc model is also employed by small organizations for workplace counselling whenever the need
for it arises. Though it is not available round the clock, however, it is helpful and cost efficient.
Workplace Counselling Models:
● Counselling-orientation models: Counsellors apply specific therapeutic approach to which they
subscribe or have been trained. The main aim is to focus on the needs of an employee as a client
and to bring a positive change.

● Brief-therapy models: in workplace counselling it is used where financial consideration is more

important than the needs of the client.

● Work-oriented models: focuses only on the factors that are blocking the work of an employee at
his/her workplace and excludes all the other underlying problems that are not work-related.
However, sometimes it is difficult to clearly differentiate between work and non-work related
issues.

● Manager-based models: some organizations may allocate counselling role to their managers.
However, these two roles should be kept separate due to issues like confidentiality and
professional expertise. Nevertheless,managers can be trained in counselling skills as it may make
them more effective as managers (Nixon & Carroll, 1994).
● Problem-focused models: it is a time-bound approach where the focus is on the immediate
presenting problem of the employee. The counsellor formulates the problem, generates a solution
and creates an action plan. It can be beneficial as it can provide help within a short span of time.
A specific problem solving model ‘DASIE’ developed by Nelson-Jones (1995), is a life skills
counselling program. This five stage model includes,
D – Develop the relationship, identify and clarify problems
A – Assess problems and redefine in skills terms
S – State working goals and plan interventions
I – Intervene to develop self helping skills
E – End and consolidate self helping skills

● Welfare-based models: Welfare officers can also serve as counsellors, however, the effectiveness
of such counselling depends on the skill of those welfare officers to work in multiple roles.

● Organizational-change models: counselling is specifically focused on organizational growth,

development, and transition, with an aim to be integrated with the organization. This may prove to
be an asset to organizations.
Some of the Problems addressed by Counselor at Workplace

• Ineffective communication between team members

• Unable to work in a team
• Non-performance by the employee
• Conflict between the supervisor and the subordinate employee
• Argument between colleagues
• Absenteeism where employees do not turn up or come late
• Presenteeism where employees turn up to work even if they are sick mostly because of a sense of job
insecurity
• Stress related to completing deadlines
Anxiety about losing job or being transferred
• Poor or negative performance appraisal given by the supervisor which the employee feels is not fair.
• Inability to manage personal and work life demands
• Lack of support to maintain work-life balance
• Misbehavior or discriminatory behavior based on gender, caste and class, race and ethnicity
• Inability to keep up with the new advances in the field to keep oneself relevant for the job
Benefits of Workplace Counselling
Workplace counselling has been found to be effective for a variety of clients and their problems
(MacLeod, 2001; MacLeod, 2008; Mellor-Clark (2013). It helps in reducing stress, anxiety, and
depression among employees and improving their well-being. Further, workplace counselling brings an
improvement in other areas such as employees’ motivation, job satisfaction, commitment and
professional relationships.

Chestnut Global Partners (2017) as well as data analysis by Attridge et al. (2018) showed that
workplace counselling brought an improvement in employees’ absenteeism, presenteeism, work
engagement, workplace distress, and life satisfaction.

According to Van der Klink (2001), employee centered workplace interventions were more effective in
reducing occupational stress than organization centered interventions. Further, techniques based on
cognitive behavior approach were more helpful for stress reduction than other techniques like
meditation, relaxation, etc.

A study by British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF) 2005, identified cognitive-
behavior therapy as the most effective workplace counselling model.
Setting up of Workplace Counselling in the Organization

Preparation- The organization as well as the counsellor must prepare for workplace counselling in
advance like:
Hire a consultant to work on the blueprint of workplace counselling with the team and to provide information
about the workplace counselling and clear doubts of the team regarding counselling.
• Allocation of budget and facilities, such as a room for face-to-face counselling, setting up a portal for online
counselling.
• The expectations from counselling, such as, does the organization only want counselling for its employees or
will it be open to counselling for bringing about a change at the organizational level?
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Finding about response and support for counselling at different levels of organization, such as senior
managerial level, employees’ union etc.
• Making a list of workplace counsellors who are working as consultants in different organizations.
Assessment- The organization must assess the counselling service in terms of its feasibility at several
levels, such as size of the organization, its nature of work, employees’ demographic characteristics,
cost effectiveness, support from the senior management etc.

Contract- Signing a formal agreement or a contract that clearly mentions the role and responsibilities of
the counsellor as well as the financial and other benefits for the counselor.

Promotion- This refers to introducing counselling into the workplace. Advertising about the counselling
service available at the workplace and encouraging the employees to avail the service by assuring them
about confidentiality and that it will not be used against the employees for their appraisals for
increments and promotions.

Termination of counselling- Renewing or ending the contract based on the satisfactory outcomes and
future needs of the organization.

Evaluation of workplace counselling- Feedback and evaluation can be undertaken by all the three
parties, i.e., organization, employees, and the counsellor to understand the positive aspects as well as
the limitations of counselling for future implications.
Challenges to Counsellors in Workplace

Counselling MacLeod (1993) have identified the following challenges faced by counsellors working in
organizations:

• Being pressured to produce results desired by the agency rather than the client
• Maintaining confidentiality boundaries
• Justifying the cost of the service
• Dealing with isolation
• Educating colleagues about the purpose and value of counselling
• Justifying the cost of supervision
• Avoiding being overwhelmed by numbers of clients, or becoming the conscience of the organization
• Avoiding the threat to reputation caused by 'failure' cases
• Coping with the envy of colleagues who are not able to take an hour for each client interview
• Creating an appropriate office space and reception system.
Guidelines for Workplace Counselling

The New South Wales Government (2013) proposed the following as modalities for performance
counselling.

1. The counsellor should give the employee recognition and not assume the role of a parent
scolding a child.
2. He or she should ensure that the counselling atmosphere is warm and conducive for
communication.
3. The counsellor should encourage the employee to gain insight into the problem
4. He or she should suggest positive steps that would lead to solving the problem or improve
performance, avoiding giving the employee false hope.
5. He or she should create a desire for change in the employee by giving support that could lead to
efficiency, not expecting a dramatic change in the employee's performance because of a single
counselling session.
Holistic Mental Health Education Sessions @ various Workplaces

● VIP Industries, SIDCUL, Haridwar

● Regional Training Institute for Medical Officers, Haldwani
● Raiwala Military Station
● PAC Meerut
● PAC Bahadrabad
● Police HQ Haridwar
● ITBP Mussoorie
● Railway Training Center, Valsad, Gujarat
● Medical College, Valsad, Gujarat
 References

● https://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2010/03/18/a-case-study-us
ing-cbt/
● https://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2009/06/05/case-managem
ent-of-anxiety-and-stress/
● https://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2009/09/07/a-case-using-rat
ional-emotive-behaviour-therapy/
● https://prezi.com/tn33amxnxo-y/employee-counseling-case-study-practice/