Employee Counselling

Introduction

A crucial component of performance reviews and possible appraisals is employee counseling. It’s main purpose is to help employees to improve and develop. Employee should be properly handled if not they may be dissatisfied after the counselling than before.

 What is employee counselling?   

A counselor helps the employees in this two-way process by offering advise and direction.

According to the;(P, 2019)

"Employee counseling involves a discussion of an emotional problem with an employee with the general objective of decreasing it," 

 So this is a way to identify and support people whose emotional, psychological, or technical adjustment issues are preventing them from performing at their best at work. 

Nowadays there is a complex environment, HR managers  has a major responsibility for employee counseling. Counseling is essential factor for managing human resources in a variety of areas, including career planning and development, performance management, grievances handling, stress management, and other areas.

      Source;   you tube

Who provides counseling to employees?

  It’s often a job that is delegated to Human Resource Manager.

Organization can  an appointed counselor externally who provides professional mental health services.

Figure 1An employee seeking counsel from HR Manager 

Benefits from counselling

According to the Francis, 2014, February 18 ; 

•Capable of releasing stress:

By providing a safe environment for employees to talk about obstacles, problems, or aspects of their job, counseling helps relieve tension in workers.

•Increase employee morale:

Stress levels and management styles have an impact on workers' morale at work. Employee morale may rise if you hold regular therapy sessions with them.

•Increase  productivity:

 Workers who manage their stress levels may be more able to take on more tasks or finish their burden by the deadline.

•Establish a positive work environment:

A supportive and cooperative work environment may be fostered by management's actions toward employees.

•Increase employee engagement:

Workers may feel more at ease performing their jobs and interacting with management if management meets with team members frequently to hear about their difficulties and concerns

Figure 2 Establishing a favorable environment

Methods of Employee Counseling

Employee counseling methods and techniques vary from person to person and from situation to situation, 

According to the Francis, 2014, February 18 ; 

Desensitization: Desensitization holds that once someone experiences shock in a given circumstance, he removes all possibility of the incident happening again. By using this technique, avoidance reflexes can be overcome and emotional weak points can be strengthened. An employee would continue to avoid a superior if he or she ever surprised him or her by their actions, behavior, or approach. Unless they demonstrate differently by their actions or behavior, it is impossible for such supervisors to be successful counselors. In a similar vein, an employee who has experienced shock from a circumstance can only be reintroduced to it if he is convinced through desensitization that the shock won't occur again. In these kinds of circumstances, a counselor may employ desensitization.

2.   Catharsis: Emotional tensions can be discharged by talking them out or by relieving of the painful experience which engendered them. It is an important technique as a means of reducing the tensions associated with anxiety, fear, hostility, or guilt. 

3.    Understanding: Using understanding, one can discover that they have unnecessarily undervalued themselves, that their expectations were illusory, or that their understanding of a situation was incorrect. He can then get over his weakness.

4. Creating the new patterns: When other approaches to addressing weak points continue to be unsuccessful, it often becomes essential to create new patterns. The person must expose himself to circumstances where he can feel good in order to build new, more fulfilling emotional reactions. The manager who works with these people could encourage or push them to put themselves in these kinds of circumstances in order to boost their confidence. 

Conclusion

Under guidance of  trained professional, human Resources (HR) or a specialized counseling department, meets with an employee to discuss any issues or concerns affecting their work performance, behavior, or well-being can be identified as employee counselling           .

Following things changes can be incurred during the employee counselling.

·  The counselor must listen to the employee's concerns, whether they're related to work performance, personal issues affecting work, conflicts with colleagues, or any other relevant matters.

· The counselor must identify potential solutions or strategies to address the issues at hand.

·  The counselor provides support, guidance, and sometimes feedback to help the employee problem

·  counselor should create safe and comfortable discussing sensitive issues.

After Employee Counseling:

•  Counselor must follow-up sessions to monitor the employee's progress and provide ongoing support as needed.
•  Details of the counseling session should be documented
• Needs to track the employee's progress over time.
• The employee and their supervisor may work together to implement the solutions or strategies identified during counseling,

Following problem may arise when employee counselling is not in the organization

•   Lead to further decline in work performance, conflicts with colleagues, or negative impacts to the employee's well-being.
•  Causes to get disciplinary action.
•  Issues involve harassment, discrimination, or other violations of employment laws.

Overall, employee counseling is a proactive approach to addressing workplace issues and supporting employees in overcoming challenges. When conducted effectively, it can help improve employee morale, productivity, and overall organizational success. It means employee counseling is an important fact in organization.

References

Francis, A., 2014, February 18 . Types and Methods of Employee Counseling.

P, B., 2019. Employee counselling, Meaning, concept, types, benefits, challenges. Economic discussion.

Figure 1An employee seeking counsel from HR Manager

Figure 2Establishing a favorable environment