A variety of methods are available to provide assistance to troubled employees in reaching a solution to their problems.
Choice of the particular method to be used depends on the nature of the problem, its severity, and the extent to which the employee is likely to benefit from the particular type of assistance.
Directive counselling rests on the philosophy that manager can best understand both the situation and the individual problems arising there from.
In this method after a preliminary statement of the nature and difficulty of a problem the directive counsellor controls the discussion.
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Suppose the problem is of chronic tardiness, the counsellor may first condemn this behaviour and then may ask a series of leading questions to the employee as to why he has this difficulty.
Non-directive counselling rests upon a fundamental respect for the individual – a belief in the person’s ability to solve personal problems with the aid of a sympathetic listener – and emphasizes the role of the counsellor as one of understanding rather than one of passing judgement. The goal is to facilitate development of self-insight.
Some methods which are effectively used for counselling of employees in organizations are:-
1. Non-Directive Counselling 2. Directive Counselling 3. Co-Operative Counselling 4. Participative Counselling.
Methods of Employee Counselling – Non-Directive Counselling, Directive Counselling, Co-Operative and Participative Counselling
Methods of Employee Counselling – 3 Important Methods: Non-Directive Counselling, Directive Counselling and Co-Operative Counselling
There are some methods which are effectively used for counselling of employees in organizations.
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These are as follows:
1. Non-directive counselling
2. Directive counselling
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3. Co-operative counselling.
Method # 1. Non-Directive Counselling:
This is called client-centered counselling. In this process the counsellor listens to the employee/counsellee with patience and tries to understand them. After understanding, he takes actions which are counsellee centered. Managers of organizations are also following this technique.
Here, they do not give any judgment about the problems which employee is facing. They only listen to them carefully and try to understand what is going wrong with employees. They, then, try to comfort him with solutions which suit him.
There is a sensitive relationship between manager as a counsellor and employee as a counsellee. The counsellor in this method blames and doubts during the course of counselling. Every minute, the attention is given to employee. It is called non-directive because counsellor does not direct any discussion or control any conversation. He tells counsellee to talk and take final decision. The role of counsellee in this method is more prominent. The counsellor just accepts the feeling of the counsellee and looks for solutions.
Method # 2. Directive Counselling:
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In this kind of counselling the counsellor controls the direction of conversation and takes active part. He takes the responsibility of getting a solution for counsellee. The counsellor is a superior/boss and employee is incapable of doing certain things on the job. The emphasis is on surfacing symptoms, on solution of current problem, and on immediate stress removal. The counsellor has a big role to play because he gives ‘advice’ to the employee to solve his problem.
Method # 3. Co-Operative Counselling:
Keith Davis defines co-operative counselling as “a mutual discussion of an employee’s emotional problem and a co-operative effort to set up conditions that will remedy it”. This method is called co-operative counselling because here both, the counsellor and the counsellee use cooperative efforts i.e. they come forward with their varied knowledge, perspectives and insights to resolve the counsellee’s problem in a work- together setting.
In this kind of counselling the counsellor first listens to the counsellee as he does in non-directive counselling; but as the interview progresses, the counsellor plays a more important role. He initiates discussion on the problem with the employee from his broader perspective of the organization. He, thus, throws various perspectives before the employee for comparison.
In co-operative counselling, the counsellor communicates and reassures the employee that his tension would be relieved. If any more help is needed, the counsellor refers the employee to professional counsellor.
Methods of Employee Counselling – Most Effective Methods Used by Councilors
In order to be successful, counselors should use various skills and techniques to conduct effective counseling.
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Some of the most effective methods used by councilors are listed as under:
1. Non-Directive Counselling:
Non-directive or client centered counselling is the process of skilfully listening and encouraging the aggrieved employee to explain their problem. The counselor plays the major part of listening to the employee’s grievances, understanding their problem and suggesting the course of action.
The counselor has to give sufficient opportunity to the aggrieved employee to come up with their honest feelings without interfering in their discourse. They can attempt to ask discerning questions, restate ideas, clarify feelings and understand why these feelings exist. They are not expected to be making passing judgment or interfering with the employees reactions.
2. Directive Counselling:
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It is a process of directing the employees to solve their emotional problems through advice, reassurance, communication, and release of tension. The counselor deals with the emotional problem of the employee patiently, decides with the employee what to do and then motivates the employee to do it.
The counselor takes an active part in discussing every aspect of the problem and helps in devising the solution and suggests the ways to get it. It is assumed that the counselor is superior to the employee and knows what to do.
3. Cooperative Counselling:
Use of non-directive counselling is quite limited in organisations as it requires professional counselors and is quite expensive. On the other hand, directive counselling is often not accepted by modern, independent and democratic employees. This is why most of the organisations use counselling which is called middle-of-the-road approach or in other words cooperative counselling.
It is called cooperative because it uses the cooperative efforts of both the counselor and the employee. It is neither entirely counselor-centred nor employee-centred, but requires that both of them come forward with their valued knowledge, perspectives, and insights to resolve the employee’s problem in a work together setting.
Methods of Employee Counseling
The nature or types of counselling basically varies between two extreme degrees, viz., directive counselling and non-directive counselling.
(i) Directive Counselling:
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It is full counselling. It is the process of listening to an employee’s problem, deciding with the employee what should be done and telling and motivating the employee to do it. This type of counselling mostly does the function of advice, reassurance and communication. It may also perform other functions of counselling.
(ii) Non-Directive Counselling:
This type of counselling is at the opposite end of the continuum. It is the process of skilfully listening and encouraging a counselee to explain troublesome problems, understand them and determine appropriate solutions. The employee also plays a vital role in this type of counselling. Employee primarily controls the direction of counselling, takes up the responsibility to develop solutions, assumes equal status with the counselor and is psychologically independent as a person.
(iii) Participative Counselling:
Both directive and non-directive methods suffer from limitations. While the former is often not accepted by independent employees, the latter needs professionals to operate and hence is costly. Hence, the counselling used in most situations is in between these two.
This middle path is known as participative counselling. Participative is a counselor-counselee relationship that establishes a cooperative exchange of ideas to help solve an employees’ problems. It is neither wholly counselor-centered nor wholly counselee-centered. Counselor and counselee mutually apply their different knowledge, perceptions, skills, perspectives and values into the problems and find solutions.
These methods of counselling can be used depending upon the problem, employee, situation, availability and ability to employ professional counselors.
Methods of Employee Counselling – 3 Basic Methods
A variety of methods are available to provide assistance to troubled employees in reaching a solution to their problems. Choice of the particular method to be used depends on the nature of the problem, its severity, and the extent to which the employee is likely to benefit from the particular type of assistance.
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There are three basic methods of individual trouble shooting in industrial personnel:
(i) Advice, which considers the surface crisis and dictates the solution;
(ii) Guidance, which guesses at the cause, offers a number of possible’ solution, and lets the employee make the deciding choice; and
(iii) Counselling, which goes to the underlying cause, the real crisis, and leads the employee to an emancipating understanding of its trouble.
The giving of advice by a counsellor is a form of directive counselling. The counsellor guides the course of the interview and offers advice to the employee on the action that he should take to work-out a solution to his particular problem. Guidance is a middle of the road approach in which the counsellor provides the employee with a choice of possible solutions and lets him make his own choice.
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Counselling, as the term is used above by Shepherd, refers primarily to non-directive counselling. This approach has proved most effective in dealing with employee problems and with so-called “problem employees”. The non-directive method differs from directive counselling and guidance in that the counsellor does not attempt to make a diagnosis or to give advice or suggest solutions to his problem. This method is also known as “client centred counselling” because the client or employee determines the course of the discussion.
Directive counselling rests on the philosophy that manager can best understand both the situation and the individual problems arising there from. In this method after a preliminary statement of the nature and difficulty of a problem the directive counsellor controls the discussion. Suppose the problem is of chronic tardiness, the counsellor may first condemn this behaviour and then may ask a series of leading questions to the employee as to why he has this difficulty.
The counsellor may ask him- Did you oversleep? Were you ill? Was it a problem of transport? Or is it the children? Are you over working? and so on. This process does not usually lead to exploring the source of trouble; moreover, employee may get possible excuses that the manager may find acceptable.
Directive counsellor uses major tools of correction like advice, warning, exhortation praise, and reassurance. All these actions emphasize the superior position of the counsellor and the dependent position of the employee who finds the counsellor as somewhat authoritarian in giving specific advice and suggestions to resolve the problem of the employee. It is a common experience that employees do not wish to follow advice given in an authoritarian manner, no matter how good it may be.
Non-directive counselling rests upon a fundamental respect for the individual – a belief in the person’s ability to solve personal problems with the aid of a sympathetic listener – and emphasizes the role of the counsellor as one of understanding rather than one of passing judgement. The goal is to facilitate development of self-insight.
In non-directive counselling, the roles of counsellor and employee are almost on equal footing; and no attempts are made to create a superior subordinate relationship. The atmosphere is permissive and friendly, with actions and statements that show continuing interest but not judgement and evaluation.
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The non-directive counsellor allows the employee to “blow-off the steam” by encouraging him to talk about his problem as long as he wishes without interruption by using the technique of non- evaluative listening. The counsellor listens to not only the words but also the feelings behind with the hope that as the employee verbalizes the problem, the situation will clarify itself and there will be greater awareness of what lies behind the problem.
Fundamentally, the approach is to listen, with understanding and without criticism or appraisal, to the problem as it appears to the troubled person. The two most important key steps in non-directive counselling are- (i) the release of tension; and (ii) the development of insight. After successfully achieving these two steps, the final step could be the formation of new plans and choices. As a result of the new insight gained by the employee, he may develop new plans, or attitudes.
In practice, many counsellors use a combination of techniques ranging all the way from most directive to most non-directive. For effectiveness, the counsellor has to be flexible in his use of counselling methods. There are times during a discussion when an employee desires information and should be given it. This calls for the directive approach in which the information is given to him.
When he expresses strong feelings about his problem, however, it may be that the exact nature of the problem is not recognized and that the employee probably would neither be able to appreciate nor benefit from advice. The non-directive method would be particularly effective in such cases for helping employees to clarify their problems and work towards solution.
Though non-directive method of counselling is probably the best of the two methods, both of the two approaches “directive and non-directive” should be considered as a “continuum rather than a strict dichotomy” and the counsellor should adjust his techniques to the nature of the employee and his problems.
Methods of Employee Counselling
The manager or the professional counselor can adopt any of the following methods depending upon the nature of the problem and characteristics of employee.
Method # 1. Directive Counselling:
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The counselor plays an important role in directive counselling method. The counselor listens to the employees’ problems and gives suitable suggestions after analysing the whole problem. The manager entirely plans and leads the counselling session. He analyses and identifies the nature and cause of the problem and explains the same to the employee. He also conveys the consequences of the problem and gives various solutions to deal with it.
In other words, this type of counselling mostly does the function of advice, reassurance and communication. However, this counselling method is not fully effective as some employees do not wish to follow guidance and advice of the counselor. It is suitable when the nature of problem is simple and can be solved within a short period. This method does not suit the modern management principles and practices.
Method # 2. Non-Directive Counselling:
It is a client centered counselling technique. The counselor plays the role of a guide rather than advisor. The employee does most of the talking while the counselor plays a role of an active listener. He encourages and guides the thinking process of the counselee. He asks number of questions to understand the complete problem and then helps employee to analyse and come up with solution to solve the problem.
In other words, it is the process of skilfully listening and encouraging a counselee to explain troublesome problems, understand them and determine appropriate solutions. The counselor listens to employees’ problems without criticism or appraisal & encourages them to express feelings without fear of shame or embarrassment. The success rate of this method is more as employee is more actively involved in developing the solution.
This method is suitable to discuss more complex issues such as personal issues, family problems, conflicts at workplace etc. The counselor needs to be skilled in order to carry out the counselling session effectively. This method focuses on changing attitude and perspective of the employee rather than just solving the immediate problem.
Method # 3. Participative Counselling:
Both, directive and non-directive methods suffer from certain limitations. While the former is often not accepted by independent employees, the latter needs professionals to operate and hence is costly. Consequently, participative counselling, which is a combination of directive and non-directive counselling methods, is used in most of the situations.
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Participative counselling is also known as co-operative counselling as counselor and counselee both play an equal role in solving the problem. The counselor first listens and understands the problem of the employee. They together discuss and exchange ideas to solve the problem.
This is neither counselor centered nor counselee centred. Counselor and counselee mutually apply their different knowledge, perceptions, skills, perspectives and values to find solutions for the problem. It overcomes the limitations of both directive and non- directive counselling method and hence it proves to be more effective.