Employee counseling had emerged to attract and retain the best employees. It will also help increase the quality of the workforce. Due to fast-paced life of the world, there is no person who is stress free. Individuals may be stressed, depressed and may suffer from too much anxiety. This may be arising from workplace related issues like managing deadlines, meeting targets, etc. To tackle this kind of difficulties many organizations introduced employee counseling. Workplace counseling, give the employee provision of brief psychological therapy, which is paid by the employer. The following services also provided so that the employee is benefited in various aspects. Examples Employee Assistance Program (EAP) /Direct Face to Face Counseling/ Telephonic Advice/ Legal Advice and also various in house services.
Workplace counseling offers a facility of counseling which will be confidential and easily accessed. The initial appointment will normally be within 2 weeks of recruitment to the organization. It will be provided by a properly qualified and supervised practitioner. This is mainly to rule out psychiatric disorder, and it also promises to alleviate distress within a short period of time. There will be only a limited number sessions. Workplace counseling will also be beneficial for the employer by reducing sickness absence, takes off the pressure on managers by giving constructive means for dealing with ‘difficult’ staff or situations. Workplace counseling programme is considered by the employer as an aid to various benefits to compensate against the various claims of employees, exposed to a lot of work and workplace linked stress.
Now there is Occupational & Organizational Psychiatry (OOP) faculty which is a subspecialty of General Psychiatry. Now it is very easy to focus on work and workplace problems that affect the whole employees in a particular organization or group. OOP is an extension of psychiatric knowledge and skill to the day-to-day life of individuals in the workplace. The main goal of which is to help the functioning of both employee and organization. Counselors have played an important role in the treatment of workers since from the 20th century. It includes services like in-house medical services and EAP services. Now it is a fact that the role of councilors in work and workplace issues and employee and employer relationship has increased very much and mental health is becoming a major field of interest to the whole population
Employee counseling is a psychological health care intervention which is intended for the benefit of employees. The main aim of which is to assist both the employer and employee. This is through intervening with an active problem-solving approach to tackling the problems at hand. The burden of costs on industry and commerce each year associated with employees’ poor psychological health is enormous. A good proportion of the Gross National Product (GNP) is lost each year through ill-health and stress-related illness.
Organizations are giving importance to stress-free working environment. Thereby they are trying to produce a motivated and capable workforce. For this reason many companies have integrated counseling services in their organization. They made it a part of their organization. Organizations are offering free employee counseling to its employees.
Employee counseling gives employees a valuable opportunity. This is mainly through working with problems and stresses in a confidential and supportive environment. Employee counseling involves meeting with an individual employee by a psychological adviser. Usually they meet at least once or twice a week for several weeks. The number and frequency of meetings required will depend upon the nature of the difficulty and the nature of the intervention needed. The area of interest is problem related discussions with any organizations between employees and also the employer. Here the role of a counselor is very important
Some of the specific aims of employee counseling are to:
To explore the key sources of difficulty (this step may include the use of diagnostic self-report).
Uncover the individual’s current strategies of coping.
Implement some methods for dealing with the problem. Even though the counselor tries to solve the issues an actual interpersonal relationship is very much important.
It also evaluates the effectiveness of the strategies which are taken for improving employee productivity.
The major problem in this field is the lack of mutual trust between the employer and the employees and also the lack of proper communication between the administrative staff and other workers. There should be a mutually acceptable person who should initiate discussion and improve the interpersonal relationship and also to resolve each and every problem as and when occurs without much time delay. Time, effort and resources required on the part of the organization are enormous.
If employees need to function at an optimum level of well-being and competence. It is vital that they should feel supported and valued. Organizational systems are sometimes quick to make demands and slow to help.
