EMPLOYEE
COUNSELLING
WHAT IS COUNSELING?
Counseling is discussion of a problem that usually has
emotional content with an employee in order to help the
employee cope with it better.
The general objective of counseling is to help
employees develop better mental health so that they will
grow in self confidence, understanding, self control, and
ability to work effectively.
Good mental health means that people feel comfortable
about themselves, right about other people, and able to
meet the demands of life.
Counseling usually is confidential, so that employees
will feel free to talk openly about their problems.
Counseling also involves both job and personal
problems, since both types of problems may affect an
employees performance on the job.
Counseling may be performed by both professionals
and nonprofessionals. For example, both a human
resource specialist in counseling and a supervisor who
is not trained in counseling may counsel employees.
Company physicians also counsel employees and even
an employees friends may provide counseling.
BOUNDARIES TO COUNSELING
The following are the boundaries to counseling that
should be taken into consideration:
Counseling should be concerned principally with the
employees performance, dependability, efficiency and
other related activities.
Counseling should be specific, i.e., instead of telling a
worker that his job performance is poor, he should
be told that he has only reached 70% of his expected
target or he was absent without leave for more than
five occasions. Thus, the counselee has something
concrete to work on in improving his job performance.
BOUNDARIES TO COUNSELING (CONTD.)
Counseling should avoid personal matters, i.e., while
counseling an employee; often a manager brings
private life into the discussion.
When a person begins to tell his/her boss about
his/her personal life, s/he is tensed and anxious and
s/he wants to talk. But s/he may decide later that it was
a mistake. The next day or a week later, s/he may think
about it from a different angel and starts regretting.
The reason is that when people take someone in their
confidence, they tend to dislike him/her because s/he
knows things about them that make them shamefaced.
SOME DOS & DONT IN COUNSELING
DO DONT
Be punctual Argue
Listen attentively and Lose temper
politely
Speak clearly Attack personality
Use simple language Cut across train of thought
Explore the solutions Ignore possible criticism of
you
Ask one question at a time Make promises which cant
be met
SOME DOS & DONT IN COUNSELING (CONTD.)
DO DONT
Be realistic Interrupt
Be completely honest Frighten
Try to understand others Talk too much
point of view
Encourage and praise Impose decisions
where possible
Set a good example Do all the talking yourself
Watch non-verbal cues Dominate the conversation
Be calm and patient Directly point out your
disagreement
SOME DOS & DONT IN COUNSELING (CONTD.)
DO DONT
Let the employee express Shirk responsibility
his or her own ideas and
feelings freely
Develop a plan for Compare a person with
improvement with the someone else.
counselee.
Give the employee a Talk rapidly.
chance to pause.
Ask questions that are Ask questions that are
open-ended and that call answered with quick "yes"
for discussions or or "no."
expectation.
TYPES OF COUNSELING
Directive Counseling: Directive counseling is the
process of listening an employees problem, deciding
with the employee what should be done, and then
telling and motivating the employee to do it.
Nondirective Counseling: Nondirective counseling
is the process of skillfully listening and encouraging a
counselee to explain troublesome problems,
understand them, and determine appropriate
solutions.
It focuses on the counselee rather than on the
counselor as judge and advisor; so it is client-
centered.
TYPES OF COUNSELING (CONTD.)
Participating Counseling (also called cooperative
counseling) is a mutual counselor-counselee
relationship that establishes a cooperative exchange
of ideas to help solve a counselees problems.
It is neither wholly counselor-centered nor wholly
counselee-centered. Rather, the counselor and
counselee mutually apply their different knowledge,
perspectives, and values to problems.
It integrates the ideas of both participants in a
counseling relationship.
MAKING COUNSELING MORE EFFECTIVE
Put the counselee at ease: Put the counselee at ease
by making him feel that he has a right to express himself
frankly to the counselor by indicating that the counselor is
ready to give all the time necessary to discuss his
emotional problems.
Evaluating counselees ability: Counselor should
evaluate first counselees ability and then he has to
determine the degree of direction and the nature of
counseling.
Listen with sincere interest: Evidence of a lack of
sincere interest in a persons emotional problem will
convince him that he is not going to get a fair
consideration.
MAKING COUNSELING MORE EFFECTIVE (CONTD.)
Let the counselee repeat his problem: Let the
counselee repeat his problem as this has an effect of
lowering his emotion because each time he gets it off his
chest.
Consider the counselees viewpoint: Consider all the
possible reasons why the counselee might feel the way
he does replacing himself on the position of the
counselee.
Concentration and deliberation: Counselor should
listen not merely to the facts but to the origin of the
problems, and withholding decision until all the
information has been secured and understood.
MAKING COUNSELING MORE EFFECTIVE (CONTD.)
Strengthen counselees ego: When a person needs
counseling concerning a problem, the counselor
should start by pointing out the persons strong points
rather than his or her weakness. Thus, build up the
counselees ego, and then begin to get him to tell you
what is really wrong with him.
Appraise result: Before the counseling session is
over, the counselor should try to appraise the
counselees degree of anxiety and emotional condition
at the time he is being counseled since there is no
sense in talking with him if he goes away not knowing
what he has been told.
