What is the basic purpose of staff counselling.

Staff counselling is a service offered by organisation to their employees who need help to solve work related problems or personal one. The term 'counselling' is used in the sense of assisting people to achieve and maintain a satisfactory standard of work performance. It is the role of the managers together with HR to assist these staff in these situations. The staff should feel free to talk and share his/her issues either related to work or personal ones. The manager will help the staff think through and explore feelings about what has brought him to seek counselling. The role of the manager is not to give advice but helps the employee find solutions related to their problems.

The basic purpose of staff counselling are:
• An opportunity to value and support the staf
• Resolution of difficulties that impact negatively on staff morale and service delivery
• To improve capacity to manage difficulties (i.e rate of absenteeism can be reduced)
• Improve organisation image

With the Performance Management process well planned and used appropriately, Managers and Supervisors will be able to know who the poor and high performers are. Therefore organisation needs to have a process to manage the employees who are not performing as per standards. With the help of HR, managers will need to use the staff counselling process. Employees will feel valued, encouraged with the help of their managers in resolving their problems. Staff counselling will encourage a change in an individual’s goal, values and behaviours.

Consequently they will be more productive and motivated to better perform in their work and everybody benefit from counselling as it enables the manager to develop a good relationship with his staff, understands them better. The organisation will have a better, happier, productive team and the service offered will be much better. The staff counselling minimises the risk of decreasing productivity of the organisation.

Staff counselling will definitely contribute in reducing the rate of absenteism, since employees will perform better and attend work regularly. If the rate employees problem is high, higher will be the cost for the organisation and also have an impact on team work.
Organisations use this powerful tool in order to attract and retain skilled and knowledgeable workforce. For the organisation to reflect a good image, this need to be done through their employees. Therefore if an employee is unable to perform due to personal or work related problem, Staff counselling is most welcome to manage this issue.

However, it is much better to talk to a more objective or neutral person instead of supportive family and friends. The counselling offered through the Staff Counselling Service is free and confidential.

Here are some issues people talk about and need to go through staff counselling:
• work related issues
• interpersonal conflict
• work performance difficulties
• burnout and/or career planning
• harassment and discrimination
• family relationship difficulties
• relationship issues
• personal tragedy or trauma
• drug and alcohol issues
• work, life balance
• any other work related or personal challenge

For Staff counselling to work positively, immediate actions need to be taken, for example related to work, it is vital to address the problem rapidly. However, for personal ones, extreme caution is needed to tackle it. The employee should accept help in sorting out their personal problems. Confidentially is very important to respect and if managers are not able to address the problem there are external qualified counsellor who may help in those circumstances. Sometimes the manager will have to ask for the help of the EAPs(Employee Assistance Programs) to deal with personal problem where the manager cannot deal, as mentioned above drug and alcohol problems.

Whenever an employee work performance or behaviour falls or is repeatedly below standard, it is neccessary to conduct a Counselling interview in order to:
• Understand when stronger action need to be applies
• Gather the necessary information, and planning an appropriate counselling strategy (considering the personality of the employee)
• Follow a proven performance counselling process (also provided on a laminated "prompt sheet" for use back on the job: steps, tips and principles)
• Be firm regarding non-negotiable performance standards
• Not seeing the problem on a personal basis, but sticking to the facts, and pointing out the negative impact of unacceptable performance or behaviour
• Ensure the employee's commitment to an agreed plan of action (and by following up on this)
• Retain– and even enhance - the employee's level of self-esteem, motivation and loyalty
• Understand both the employee and the employer legal rights with respect to performance counselling