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?