EMPLOYEE COUNSELING – IMPORTANCE TO THE GROWTH OF EVERY ORGANIZATION
Many firms today realize the importance of attracting and retaining highly skilled, quality employees as a necessary component of their competitive advantage. One of the reasons that a quality workforce along with innovative tools for attracting and retaining has become so important is because previous sources of competitive advantage have become less important overtime.
For example, previously, a firm’s success was attributed to an emphasis on product and process technology, access to financial markets, developing economies of scale & learning curves, patents, protected and regulated markets & individual attractiveness. Recently, however, some scholars have noted that these traditional sources of success are less important than in the past and emphasize that the selection and management of a quality workforce has become an increasingly critical factor to organizational success. Today, HR practitioners are busy developing new and innovative tools to attract and retain quality workforce.
One such tool that soon is likely to gain popularity in the corporate world is Employee Counseling. Employee counseling is a service offered by companies to their employees. Organizations that care for their employees are perceived as more meaningful and purposeful. Every organization has economic and social goals. Here, it is worthwhile to note some observations made by the Chairman of TAB-12 Accounting Solution in this regard. He states, “The task of leadership is to make people believe in themselves, the organization, in the aggressive targets the organization sets. Belief comes from trust: the trust that this organization isn’t about making one set of stakeholders better off; it is about making every one of us better off….”

A firm may gain competitive advantages from Employee Counseling activities especially if its reputation and image is valuable, rare and not easily imitated. Employee counseling therefore is a very powerful tool in the hands of companies in attracting and retaining quality workforce.

Although Counseling is known by many names like 'therapy' or 'helping' it is by and large, an attempt to encourage change. The counselee’s problems could be so complex that it might be difficult to see any system of help as an elegant solution. But, Counseling has shown some effectiveness over the years, as a process of helping people come through with their troubles.

Counseling is a process of helping people to learn how to solve certain interpersonal, emotional and decision problems. Counselors help their counselees to ‘learn’. The criterion for success in any Counseling is real changes in behavior on the part of the counselee. Counselors are concerned that their counselees become independent problem solvers. Continued dependence on the counselor as well as others is discouraged. Counselors are concerned with habit changes that increase peoples' satisfaction with themselves. It could be anything from helping people chooses a career option, becoming appropriately assertive or communicating more harmoniously with team members. Largely, Counseling has been a 'remedial approach'. But recently there has been a slight change in emphasis, from remedial to 'preventive'.

It is rightly said, ‘half knowledge is dangerous’. People often harbor myths about the counseling process. Some false beliefs about counseling are as follows:
(source: Magazine - Dignity Dialogue, 31July 2001)

No human being is perfect and we all constantly fight our own inadequacies in our own ways. Working in any organization requires an individual to be geared up to face the challenges of work-life. This does not mean he/she can escape the duties and responsibilities of family life, whether married or unmarried. Not every individual is competent enough to take and manage the stress of a hectic life style. Thus, we cannot deny the fact that every individual has intra and inter-personal problems whether at work or at home. The HR function of any organization has the most important challenging job of "making the most" of their Human Resource. An employee can give his best to the organization only if he is in a positive "frame of mind". A mentally preoccupied or troubled individual will be in a position to give very little to his company.

No successful organization will ever be free from stress among its employees. Organization should be able to deal with stress on individuals at all levels. Here the role of Counseling comes in, where people can talk and attempt to solve their personal and work related worries. Need for employee counseling arises due to various causes in addition to stress. These causes include: to deal effectively with one’s own emotions, interpersonal problems and lack of team spirit at workplace, inability to meet job demands, over work-load, confrontation with authority, responsibility and accountability, conflicts with superiors, subordinates and management and various family problems, health problems, career problems, etc. Counseling is a process of helping an individual to help himself.

Counseling, basically aims at helping individuals take charge of their lives. For this, individuals need two types of skills: ability to make decisions wisely and altering one's own behavior to yield desirable consequences. A counselor’s job, then, becomes one of arranging appropriate learning experiences so that people develop these skills. Counselors avoid giving speeches about what should be done, but ideas for action are developed with the active co-operation of the counselee. The Counselor does not try to talk the client into feeling that the situation is hopeless. Instead, he/she encourages the client to begin taking action, the successful consequences of which would encourage the client to continue.

According to Eisenberg & Delaney, the aims of counseling are as follows:

1. Understanding self
2. Making impersonal decisions
3. Setting achievable goals which enhance growth
4. Planning in the present to bring about desired future
5. Effective solutions to personal and interpersonal problems.
6. Coping with difficult situations
7. Controlling self defeating emotions
8. Acquiring effective transaction skills.
9. Acquiring 'positive self-regard' and a sense of optimism about one's own ability to satisfy one's basic needs.

Counseling is discussion of an employee’s problem that usually has an emotional content to it, in order to help the employee cope with the situation better. Counseling seeks to improve employee’s mental health. People feel comfortable about themselves and about other people and are able to meet the demands of life when they are in good mental health.

A primary research was carried out in the year 2002 at a manufacturing company based in Lagos, Nigeria. This public limited company has five manufacturing sites across the country and four sales divisions. This research aimed at investigating the (felt) need for employee counseling in the organization. The design of this research study was exploratory in nature. The primary source of data collection was structured interviews, the sample being one hundred and ten (110) employees which is 20 % of the employee strength – five hundred and fifty three (553) of the corporate office of the company. The interview schedule comprised of both closed and open ended questions. A random sampling technique was used. The employee sample was 20 % of each of the divisions operating from the corporate office and was a perfect mix of managerial level employees, staff level employees and worker level employees.
Some important conclusions that were derived from the research study are:
• Majority of the employees of the company (61% of the sample) were unaware of the concept of Employee Counseling. Those employees who had a partially correct idea (25 % of the sample) about employee counseling knew that it was related to helping an employee in distress, advising, creating self-awareness and personality development. The remaining 14 % had an incorrect understanding about the concept.
• After the researcher had explained what employee counseling was all about, 69 % of the sample agreed that there was a (perceived) need for employee counseling in the company. The reasons were many, most common ones being to assist employees solve their personal and/or work related problems and to improve the employee relationships and overall culture of the workplace. Among the 31 % who were of the viewpoint that employee counseling as an institutionalized process was not needed in the company, 57 % of this group felt that the company had a family culture and the informal relationships between the employees could be leveraged upon.
• Only 22 % of the sample disagreed on the importance of employee counseling as a part of HR –systems while 78 % of the employees felt that counseling is an important HR function.
• 83 % of the employees were unaware of the companies practicing Employee Counseling in Nigeria (this could also be because the sample was a mix of managerial employees, staff level and workers)

The research results indicate that majority of the sample under study responded positively to the hypothesis i.e. a need for Employee Counseling was felt and that it would benefit the organization. However, the awareness about the concept of counseling and employee counseling, particularly so was found to be exceptionally low.
Organizations therefore, need the services of the following professionals:-
- Employee Data Analyst
- Employee Counselor
- Employee Conflict and Resolution Manager
- Employee Stress Auditor
They can function as a new department in every organization or as a consultant.
Organizations are therefore advised to either train there HR personnel staff or employed a professional and qualified Employee Counselors (The Training and certification is available now in Nigeria).
The way the corporate sector has opened up to the world economy, it is now high time for organizations to open up for employee-orientated HR processes like counseling, coaching and mentoring. The corporate world is changing and so are the Human Resource Management practices. It is imperative that we adapt the changing styles to manage our people better. It is not just for the benefit of the employees but in the interest of the organization to show that ‘we care’ about this important segment of our stakeholders.

Source:- Oluseun Babalola
MD/CEO, D-Maniels Educational Consult
(Employee Counseling Professionals)