tissymariam
Seniors,
How do you view the concept of employee counselling in industries?
Is it the traditional psychological counseling or are you stressing more on the skills of a counsellor?
Do you think a HR manager should possess the qualities of a counsellor?

From India, Mangaluru
Prof.Lakshman
32

Dear Tissy,
I have already posted two parts on Basic Counselling skills. Yes this is an areas of great interest to HR Managers. I suggest you look into some skills issues raised by me and then if you have any additional thoughts , I would be glad to be of help.
Cheers
Prof.Lakshman

From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
archnahr
113

Employee counselling

Many companies are now introducing employee-counselling schemes to help employees cope better with problems at work place or at home, recognising that employees' overall well being can have a significant impact on their job performance. Increasing attention is being paid to the integration of counselling services with other health-related initiatives. Employee counselling schemes that are both permanent and general in their coverage are designed to deal with a whole range of personal and work-related problems. These are commonly, but not exclusively, described as employee assistance programmes (EAPs).

A concept imported from the United States, EAPs have become more common in the UK in the 1990s, particularly as workplace stress has taken on a higher profile. In essence, an EAP is an organised, professional counselling and information service providing assistance on a range of issues, both personal and work-related, either by telephone or in face-to-face sessions.

EAPs can either be delivered internally - by companies directly employing or contracting counsellors and managing the service themselves - or externally, by buying in a service from a specialist supplier.

A checklist of the key issues for companies to consider when selecting a provider.

The case for counselling

# Introducing a scheme

# Internal or external options

# Promoting the scheme

How EAPs work

# Helplines and face-to-face counselling

# Reporting services and confidentiality

# Stress management

What is stress and what causes it

How to recognise workplace stress and ways of combating it

Organisations in India can also consider these measures at the time of tackling workplace stress, which is becoming a common phenomenon in Corporate India.

From India, Delhi
Prof.Lakshman
32

Dear Tissy,

As I said, since this is an area of great interest to HR Practitioners, additionally I thought of giving you an overview of the Counsellor training programmes we carry out for HR Practitioners. The first is a Basic workshop and the other a more advanced one;

BASIC

Day 1

* Introduction

o what is counselling?

o the roles and skills of a counsellor

o differentiating from other forms of help

* Entering the counselling arena

o contracting of expectations: management, organisation, individual and employee

o an introduction to transactional analysis

o counselling models and helping styles



* Counselling skills

o body language

o assessing content and feelings

o questioning and listening skills

* Ethical issues and dilemmas

o examining 10 difficult dilemmas faced in the workplace to determine suitable solutions

* Summary ; determining the right approach.

Day 2

* Life stages

o sources of tension in a person's life

o careers, work and home

o practice in career counselling



* Case study and counselling exercise poor performer or crisis of confidence?

* Stress management and crisis counselling

o dealing with stress

o developing a stress reduction strategy

o tips and tactics relaxation exercise



* A choice of exercises (further case studies and consideration of participants' situations)



• Action planning.

ADVANCED

Day 1



* Introduction to counselling

o using an exercise to explore counselling and the counselling process

* Model of advanced workplace counselling skills

o some difficult cases, eg bullying, sexual harassment, HIV

o why change is difficult

o the Healthy Cycle and blocks to it

o exercise on personal change



* Counselling model and the skills of assessment

o assessing case examples

o giving and receiving feedback

o exercise on handling feedback.

Day 2

* Review of Day 1



* Tactics for working with employees

o emotional competencies/managing emotions

o exercise on emotion management

o understanding and managing conflict in the workplace



* Values at work

o understanding values at work



* The 'difficult' person

o recognising signs of disturbance

o working with the difficult personality



* Crisis and trauma counselling

o exploring the issues through an exercise



* Looking after the counsellor within

o preparing and using supervision/consultation

o networking

o supporting self

o setting up supportive strategies



* Action planning.

Hope this will further explain the importance of counselling and the areas covered in this 4-day workshop to train HR Practitioners.

From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
fatima_warsi
Dear Sir/Mam I would like to knw tht whr n fr hw much duration i can attend such workshops related to Counseling for HR professionals. thanks. An HR professional
From India, Mumbai
samvedan
315

Hi,
Counselling is an extremely valuable tool for industry.
Why just the HR Manager, each manager must have the skills in counselling. Regrettably counselling is NOT something that works as an appendage of a hierarchy. It works better outside of the hierarchy where there is complete "acceptabce" between the Counsellor and the Counselee.
The attached article may throw some useful light on the concept and the practice of counselling.
You may respond to the contents of the article freely and add value!
Regards
samvedan
October 4, 2006

From India, Pune
Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
File Type: doc counsel_1_119.doc (50.0 KB, 1031 views)
File Type: doc counsel_1_119.doc (50.0 KB, 420 views)

archnahr
113

Mr.Samvedan has provided the right information on counselling I thought this will also be of help.

Counsel your employees- Very Important:

Read these cases and you will understand the importance.

Ritvik Sethi’s heart is bursting with anxiety. He has an appointment with his boss, Madan Jain. For the third time in a row Ritivik has goofed up with the address on the shipping order. Ritvik is the shipment clerk in an upcoming e-retailing company, which is known for its prompt and safe delivery.

As Ritvik enters Madan Jain’s cabin, he is hoping and praying that his discharge from services would be as graceful as possible. For he was warned about his carelessness twice before! Contrary to his expectations, Madan offers Ritvik a cup of coffee along with a comfortable chair. After small talk Madan gets down to business with, “Ritvik, I am concerned that you don’t understand the importance of checking the correct address prior to shipping orders. Let’s discuss the steps you intend to take to correct this problem and your plan to implement them.”

During the ensuing one hour-long conversation Madan becomes the counsellor and Ritvik the counselee. Madan comes up with suggestions for a work plan to avoid mix-ups of shipping orders. Ritvik is more than happy to try out the plan. Anything, as long as he does not lose his job!

Take for instance, the case of Indo Gulf Corporation's fertiliser plant at Jagdishpur. They had a perennial problem of machinery maintenance. Every 15 days the plant had to be closed down in a phased manner to allow maintenance work on the machines. The management team at the plant documented the mean time between failures of the machine. The time put in by workers on repair and maintenance work was also recorded. Armed with this evidence, the management then invited the workers for a quiet chat, where the hard data was presented to them. It led to a sea change in the worker’s attitude. Nothing works like sound counselling! As stated by the Managing Director B N Puranmulka, “We offered sound counsel. If workers took a little time off for maintenance, the failure rate of machines would go down. And their work would be more organised." As a result the management-worker brains trust came up with a simple solution- print the worker's name on the machine he worked on. That way, if a machine was dirty, everybody knew who was not being hygienic.

What is counselling?

In plain and simple terms counselling enables you to see a glass half full when it is half empty. People’s performances are influenced by personal and work related problems. In such circumstances they feel the need for some outside support to help them tide over the difficult situations. Thus it is part of the normal role of the manager to counsel his staff whenever the need arises.

Technically, counselling can be defined as help provided by managers to the subordinates in analysing their performance and on the job behaviour. It enables individuals to take responsibilities by helping them to overcome their worries and resolves difficulties.

Is counselling required at workplace?

It is essential to help subordinates understand the organisational culture better. It enables employees to realise their potential and increase interpersonal effectiveness. Counselling provides an emphatic atmosphere wherein employees share and discuss their frustrations and problems. It enhances the capacity to deal with problems by generating appropriate alternatives.

Hurdles for counselling

The biggest foe to counselling is a rigid organisational structure that allows no or little interaction amongst employees. Time is another constraint, as counselling requires undivided and uninterrupted attention. Improper and ineffective communication also hinders counselling. Lack of trust on the employees’ part is a major inhibiting factor. If the counsellor is not genuine in his approach, counselling fails miserably as the employee may feel manipulated.

Essentials of counselling

Identify the problem: Give the employee a chance to describe the problem before analysing it. Analysis includes the causes of the problem, efforts made by the employee to overcome it and various remedial measures available.

Establish rapport with the employee: Trust, warmth, acceptance, mutuality and openness are the key ingredients to build rapport. This enables the employee to communicate problems without any inhibition or apprehension.

Listen attentively: Essential for effective counselling.

Explore with queries: Questions are asked to clarify issues, focus properly on the problem, establish mutuality, stimulate thinking and demonstrate interest. They are not asked make the employee withdraw. Thus refrain from aggressive questioning.

Ample time: Effective counselling needs sufficient time. This does not mean that the counselling can go on for hours together. Patient listening is a must and that needs time.

Create a feeling of challenge: Make challenging statements that would make the conversation interesting. Also it creates the spirit to fight.

Set limits: When faced with situations beyond your help, bring in someone better equipped to help.

Concrete advice: Counselling is not just limited to listening, it calls for proactive problem solving.

Help the employee make decisions: Let him arrive at a decision after helping him navigate through various stages of problem identification, solutions and alternatives. The onus of the decision should rest on him completely.

Cheers

Archna

From India, Delhi
amurose
Hi Senior,
Ur information are informative. As I am undergoing my MBA, I need ur help is completing this course.
I need you to help me in providing some informations relating to my subjects:
Notes on:
Viral Marketing,
Over positioning
Pop-up advertising
E-retailing.
I hope to receive notes beneficial to my course.
Thanks
Rosy

From India, Madras
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