Counseling at the workplace: Role of counselling psychologists in workplace

Meaning-cum-Definition

            It is referred to as occupational counselling, employee counselling or workplace counselling. Workplace counselling refers to the ability to deal with issues that occur within an organization, such as conflict, stress-related absence, work-related trauma, and harassment/bullying” (Hughes & Kinder, 2007).

             Workplace counselling refers to, “Counselling provided in the work setting (whether this is internal or external service provision), to help employees with any mental health issues that have arisen from or are worsened by work” (Bajorek& Bevan, 2020).

Introduction

            According to Bull (1992), the history of workplace counselling shows that it has passed through four stages:

1.         The ‘disease stage’, where individuals are seen as victims of an illness which they must learn to manage, e.g., alcoholism.

2.         The ‘client-centred stage’ (a move to a broad-brush approach), where the post-war development of humanistic/existential therapies, in conjunction with more traditional approaches, enabled employee assistance to help individuals identify and meet their own needs.

3.         The ‘employee-work stage’, where the workplace is acknowledged as influencing individual well-being.

4.         The ‘company as client stage’, where the organization's policies and philosophy influence the individual, community and the planet. An extensive review of literature by Bull (1993) showed, however, that most of the counselling occurs at the individual level.

Purposes of workplace counselling

Ø  To provide a safe and healthy work environment.

Ø  To provide support to employees to deal with major changes in work and non-work-related areas of life.

Ø  To reduce stress among employees.

Ø  To work for the welfare of the employees which enables the organization to attract as well as retain their valuable and efficient employees.

Models of Workplace Counselling

Hughes and Kinder (2007) have suggested the following models:

1.         In-house service or Internal Provision (organization employs a counsellor or hires a counsellor on a contract).

2.         External Provision (Employee Assistance Program, EAP)- It consists of face-to-face counselling, telephonic, and web-based counselling.

3.         Hybrid (internal and external services) – It is a mix of external and internal services, e.g., face-to-face (internal) counselling along with telephonic (external) counselling. A hybrid model helps to maintain the balance between internal and external counselling services enabling the organization to avail the best of each service.

4.         Outsourced – It is more often employed by small organizations for workplace counselling whenever the need for it arises. Though it is not available around the clock, however, it is helpful and cost-efficient.

 

Carroll (1996) provided the following workplace counselling models:

1.         Counselling-orientation models - The main aim is to focus on the needs of an employee as a client and to bring a positive change.

2.         Brief-therapy models - In workplace counselling it is used where financial consideration is more important than the needs of the client.

3.         Problem-focused models - It is a time-bound approach where the focus is on the immediate presenting problem of the employee. It can provide help within a short span of time.

4.         Work-orientated models - Focuses only on the factors that are blocking the work of an employee at his/her workplace and excludes all the other underlying problems that are not work-related.

5.         Manager-based models - Some organizations may allocate counselling roles to their managers. However, these two roles should be kept separate due to issues like confidentiality and professional expertise.

6.         Welfare-based models - Welfare officers can also serve as counsellors, however, the effectiveness of such counselling depends on the skill of those welfare officers.

7.         Organizational-change models - Counselling is specifically focused on organizational growth, development, and transition, with an aim to be integrated with the organization.

Salient Features

1.         It is a situation-specific and a time-limited endeavour that is focused on the resolution of a current problem.

2.         It is a service arranged by organizations to support and manage the mental and emotional well-being of their employees.

Role of counselling psychologists in the Workplace

            Workplace counsellors must have knowledge of the organization, its culture, and the factors that may affect the well-being of its employees. Also, workplace counsellors should neither give advice and action plans to employees nor should they be judgmental or exploit the employees for their weaknesses, thereby harming the employees’ careers.

How does Workplace Counselling Defers from Other Types of Counselling?

It is provided in the workplace setting.

It focuses only on workplace issues or workplace-related issues that might adversely affect the employees’ productivity.

Workplace counsellors must understand the organizational processes, culture, practices, and challenges that can influence the well-being of an organization and its employees.

Role of Counselling psychologists in the Workplace

1.         Satisfaction of client and organisation.

2.         Maintaining confidentiality

3.         Developing positive attitude of employees

4.         Educating colleagues about the purpose and value of counselling

5.         Avoiding being overwhelmed by the number of clients, or becoming the conscience of the organization

6.         Avoiding the threat to reputation caused by 'failure' cases

7.         Creating a healthy dialogue between the organization and employees to narrow the gap between the organization and employees.

8.         Prevention rather than the treatment of the problem.

Organisations Promoting Work Place Counselling

1.         NGO Arogya World - Initiated an award, namely, ‘Platinum Healthy Workplace Award’. This award is given to the organizations on the basis of their submitted reports regarding the costs of employee health program and the business benefits achieved due to investment in the employee health program

2.         IT company Wipro had initiated an emotional well-being program, named (मित्र). It was a voluntary, peer-led program with a bottom-up approach that was successfully deployed to its large workforce consisting of 175,000 workers to deal with mental health issues.

 

 

 

*********