7/28/2019 Counsling at Workplace
1/1
September 2006 student accountant 47
technical
whats your problem?One of the many people management skills
that managers are called on to use is that of
counselling providing advice, guidance, and
support to employees at all levels.
Situations often arise in the workplace
where specific, people-centred skills are
required. It is therefore important that
managers understand what counselling
involves, and appreciate the often delicateskills required. The wider importance of
counselling for the organisation is that many
of the problems it identifies can often be
resolved by appropriate motivation methods.
Widening and deepening interest in the
organisation, and in its many tasks and
departments, is a tried and tested method for
motivating employees.
So what exactly is counselling? It can
be defined as a particular situation when an
individual takes on the role of a counsellor
and agrees to offer attention, advice,
guidance, and support to another person on
a temporary basis. Problems can be resolved
through the neutral and non-judgementalapproach that counselling offers. In any
meeting, the counsellor should be in a
position to help the individual employee (or
employees) to identify problems and issues,
and possible solutions.
The counsellor must adopt a passive
role, with interest shown, and effort made
to encourage reflection and discussion
around issues while allowing the employee
to lead and talk. Open questions must be
used to help the employee explore ideas
and feelings. This is because there is always
counselling and the workplacerelevant to ACCA Qualification Paper F1and CAT Paper 5
the risk of leading the employee, and of the
counsellor taking over the meeting or session.
The counsellor must be an active listener,
speaking only to clarify issues and elicit
answers when appropriate. Above all, the
counsellor must be impartial.
Adopting the role of counsellor is not
easy, and there are particular counselling
skills that must be developed. For example,the counsellor must be able to establish a
rapport with the employee, and to clarify
and summarise issues as appropriate. The
counsellor must ask non-specific questions,
use a non-directive approach, listen, and
be able to recognise what the employee
is actually saying. When required, the
counsellor must allow the employee to be
silent if they wish to be, to allow the meeting
to progress at the employees speed, and
anticipate but not lead the employees
views on the causes and solutions to the
problems.
What advantages does counselling
provide for the wider organisation? It providesa means of understanding and addressing
individual problems, which are very often
not directly related to the workplace. It
also provides a confidential service for the
employee to discuss problems without
directly involving management. Over the
longer term, an organisation might develop
counselling as part of its human resources
policy, demonstrating a commitment to its
employees beyond that normally expected.
John Ball is former examiner for Paper 1.3
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