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Counseling Jobs Assist in
Employee Productivity and Retention

People may face some difficulty at any stage of their personal or working life.

Counselors can make the difference between success and failure, between productivity and under-performance. It may prevent an employee from being dismissed.

The difficulties are either personal or work-related.

When employees are caught in such situations, it can affect their work, jeopardize their career and working relationship.

Their livelihood and even their lives are put at risk.

Their families may suffer


Career Counseling
Some organizations offer counseling jobs and even have senior counselors.

Having counselors is good for the well-being of your workforce.

Usually they are experts in their field. They are there to help employees in their career plan and development.

This forms part of the organization's succession plan. This can motivate employees.

Your organization may not have a qualified counselor due to a number of reasons.

If this is the situation, your organization can assign certain people in your human resource department to handle career counseling tasks. Ensure that they are given adequate skill training.


Benefits of Having Counseling at Work
Organizations that have counselors to give career advice can realize certain benefits.

• Lower Turnover. This is important especially when counseling can prevent a good employee from leaving.
  
• Higher Productivity. Your employees will notice that you care for their welfare and will put in extra effort to reciprocate the good gesture.
  
• Identification of Capable Employees. Your organization has the opportunity to identify employees who have good potential for promotion.
  
• Less Number of Problem Employees. And there is less occasions for you to take disciplinary action. This is good for your organization.
  
• Stress Management. This is important in times of career transition or your organization is undergoing a re-organization.
  
• Employee Development. Counseling assists in employee career plan.
  

Thus, making available a counseling job is beneficial for your employees and organization.


Availability of Counseling Jobs
These jobs are found in many organizations.

These include universities and colleges, reputable companies, hospitals, sports bodies, and voluntary bodies.

The objective is the same. To help people in solving their problems and help organizations perform well.

Consider offering counseling jobs under your recruitment policy.


Counseling Process
A counseling job is not everybody's "cup of tea".

If you are assigned the counseling job as one of your tasks, it is important to understand the process involved. You will already know this if you are a trained counselor.

Remember that you are there to help the client, that is, the employee, in the process of solving his or her problem. The intention is not to find fault or gather information for the purpose of taking any negative action against the employee.

Strictly treat all information as confidential. Give assurance to the staff.

Process

• Gather all relevant information. Listen to what the employee is saying. This requires what is called "active listening skill".
  
• Clarify. Identify all the important issues and put them in writing.
  
• Identify the actual problems based on the information. Ask for additional information if necessary.
  
• Identify the objectives in order to find the most reasonable solution to the problems.
  
• Agree on the course of action to resolve the problems.
  
• Implement the decision.
  
• Obtain feedbacks to facilitate the next course of action.
  
• Evaluate the results whether the actions taken had solved the problems.
  
• Find out the reasons why the steps taken failed or were only partially successful.
  
• Conduct follow-up counseling sessions if necessary.
  
• Take follow-up actions until problems are settled.

The duration of the counseling session and the number of sessions depend on several factors.

Among these are the complexity of the problems, motivation of the employee to undergo the required changes, type of problems, employee's personality and age, and whether it is necessary to give an on-going counseling.

The agreement to take a certain course of action is very important. This motivates the employee to own the steps necessary to resolve the problem or problems.

Building a reputation of trustworthiness and integrity is equally if not more important.

These can assist in ensuring the effectiveness of employees appointed to perform the counseling job.

And this justifies their presence in your organization's payroll.


Qualities of a Good Counselor
You may possess the qualities of a good counselor.

A good counselor:

• possess the adequate level of emotional intelligence
  
• can communicate well
  
• is an effective listener, sometimes described as "active listening"
  
• is able to make value judgment based on actual events and surrounding circumstances
  
• is unbiased and does not allow external factors to influence any decision at any stage of the process
  
• has and exercises patience at all times
  
• willing to undertake any necessary task related to the matter
  
• knows what he or she doing or makes attempts to do so
  
• has the ability to make quality decisions and the firmness to stick to them
  
• is meticulous for the sake of accuracy and records every important matter before, during and after the counseling sessions
  
• does not fail to conduct regular reviews and follow-ups until counseling sessions are concluded successfully
  
• has the motivation to follow through the entire process to completion
  

Do you have what it takes to take on the counseling job?

If and when you are assigned this job, one very important thing to remember is it is very important to pay attention to the well-being of the employee being counseled.

You can learn the rest. Practice is crucial. The exposure will make you more confident and you can also learn as you go along. Learning by doing is irreplaceable.


Counseling Prior to Taking Disciplinary Action
Counseling is critical if an employee is facing the prospect of facing disciplinary panel.

Counseling is required especially if the employee is being disciplined for failure to perform on the job.

In some countries, court decisions - the common law - make counseling as one of the requirements before an employer is justified to dismiss any employee for non-performance.

Some organizations have inserted this in their Employee Handbook. Collective agreements may contain terms to this effect.

Putting this requirement in writing is not necessary. The law will apply, anyway.

Follow what are provided for in your policy and procedures.

Comply with the relevant legislation and decisions of the courts. And seek the necessary legal advice where you are not too sure.


Counseling and Coaching
There are similarities between counseling and coaching but there are important differences.

One of the main differences is that in coaching it is the employee - client - who decides what actions he or she will take to solve the problems.

As the coach, you are there to help the employee along the road of self-realization, identification of the problems and possible solutions, and preparation of action plan.

The counselor probes, assesses, recommends, decides and takes action.


Direction: Counselor or Coach?
Engaging an expert counselor is good. Having a coach is better.

However, you can easily train a counselor to become a coach.

Remember that at the end of the day, whether you have someone assigned to the counseling job or a qualified and an experienced coach is recruited, the objective is the same. Organizational Success.

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