Human Resource
Management
❑ P R E S E N TED B Y:
❑VIL AKS HAN B HARDWAJ
❑ A A D I T YA K H A N N A
COUNSELLING
Topics covered :
o What is 'Employee Counselling'?
o Functions or Roles of Employee Counselling
o Necessity of Employee Counselling
o Methods of Employee Counselling
o Steps in Employee Counselling
o Need for effective Employee Counselling
What is 'Employee
Counselling'?
▪ It is the process of helping the employees to achieve better
adjustment with his/her work environment to behave as a
psychologically mature individual, and help in achieving a better
understanding with others so that his dealings with them can be
effective and purposeful.
▪ The basic objective of counselling is overall development of the
employee
▪ According to Keith Davis, "Employee counselling involves a
discussion of an emotional problem with an employee with the
general objective of decreasing it."
❑ Advice: One of the most important functions of
counselling is offering advice "to the counsellee". The
counsellor has to understand the problem of the
counsellee completely, before offering advice and
suggesting a course of action.
❑ Reassurance: In order to give courage to face a
problem confidently, counselling provides
employees with reassurance. Normally, reassurance is
not acceptable to the counsellee. However, in some
cases it is useful.
❑ Communication: Couselling helps improve both upward
Functions of
and downward communications. Another part of
the counsellor's job is to Employee
discover emotional problems relating to company's
policies and to interpret those problems to top
management.
Counselling
❑ Release of emotional Tension: People feel emotional
release from their frustration after counselling. Release
of tension may not solve the entire problem, but it
removes mental blocks to the solution
❑ Clarified Thinking: As emotional blocks to
straight thinking are relieved while narrating
the problems to the counsellor, one begins to think
rationally
Necessity of Employee
Counselling
❑ Conflict: Both interpersonal and intergroup conflict may cause emotional disorders. As
people with different backgrounds, POVS., values, morals, needs, and personalities interact,
it is likely that a variety of conflicts will develop. Organisational change also contributes to it
because it changes relationships among people. The result of the conflict is an inevitable
part of oraganisational life. Whatever may be the type and cause of conflict, it creates
emotional problems for the affected individuals. Thus, it becomes necessary for some
individuals to resolves these conflicts through counselling
❑ Frustration: It is a result of motivation drive being blocked to prevent one from reaching the
desired goal. For eg., if a worker while on work is interrupted time and again and his target
for that day remains unfulfilled, he will feel irritated and frustrated. the situation becomes
more serious when it is long-run frustration such as blocked opportunity for promotion.
Reactions of frustrated behaviour are aggression, apathy, withdrawal, resignation, physical
disorders, substitute goals, compromise etc. Counselling can help reduce frustrations by
helping employees choose mature courses of action to overcome blockages preventing
goal accomplishment.
❑ Stress: Stress-on-the-job is desirable to some extent if it is mild and not
sustained over a long period of time. Excessive Stress or stress over a
long period of time may result in physical and emotional disorders and
lowered effectiveness. Stress is also affected by the tolerance power of
the person. If a person can bear the stress, he will improve his
performance and find innovative methods. Stress is a major contributor to
employee emotional disorders and also to physical disorders, because
the internal body system changes to cope with stress. Some physical
disorders are short-range, such as an upset stomach. Others are long-
range, such as stomach ulcer. Stress over long periods can lead to
development of degenerative diseases of heart, lungs and kidneys etc.
For these reasons, it is importat to find causes of stress and take steps to
remove them. Counselling can play a great role in dealing with emotional
disorders caused by stress.
Methods or Types of
Employee Counselling
1. Non-Directive Counselling: It is the process of skillfully
listening and encouraging a counsellee to explain
bothersome emotional problems, understand them and
determine the course of action.
The central point in this is the counsellee and not the
counsellor. This technique is mostly used by professional
counsellors but managers can also practice it in their
organisation.
2. Directive Counselling: It is the process of directing the
employees to solve their emotional problems through advice,
reassurance, communication, release of tension.
3. Co-operative Counselling: It uses the co-operative efforts of both the counsellor and counselle.
It is neither entirely counsellor-centred nor counsellee-centred. In fact, it requires that both the
counsellor and the counsellee of them come forward with their varied knowledge, perspectives and
insights to resolve the counselle's problems in a work-together setting.
Co-operative counselling applies four functions of counselling, i.e reassurance, communication,
release of tension and clarified thinking.
It has no room for advice.
If reorientation is needed, the counsellor refers the employee to a professional counsellor.
if direct action is required, the manager takes the action but he does so in his capacoty as a direct
superior and not as a counsellor
Steps in Employee
Counselling
1. Preparation Stage: The aim is to establish rapport and prepare a
base for communication. This would generate the necessary
confidence in the employee and assure him of the counsellor's
genuine interest in helping him. The counsellor should convey
warmth and concern for the subordinate.
2. Intermediate Stage: Once the rapport is established, the
counsellor seeks more information from the employee to
understand the problem. He then helps the employee internalise the
problem and analyse its reasons. This would identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the employee.
3. Action Planning Stage: The counsellor helps the employee find
alternative ways if resolving the problem
Need for Effective
Counselling
The counsellor should give sufficient importance to the
communication process by listening carefully to what the
employee has to convey and by being responsive to the
same.
Any movement which distracts the employee's attention
should be controlled, e.g., playing with paper weight, clip,
pencil, rubber band, etc.
Moreover, It is essential to generate the necessary confidence
in the employee and to assure him of the counselor's interest
in helping the individual to find his solution to his problem.
Thank you
