Some of the most difficult challenges faced by businesses is increasing employee productivity and improving their performance. This is especially true during a time where global economies are battling, people are required to work in remote teams, the work-from-home is their new normal and the pandemic is causing havoc in people’s lives. But if you wrongly approach employees who are already scared, confused and stressed, management might aid the problems.
There are numerous reasons why employees might lack performance. Reasons can include mental health and workplace wellness, or employees might purely lack skills that may impact their performance. Mainly, they just need a bit of mentoring and coaching. Here is a brief summary of what workplace counselling is, the benefits of it and what skills the person responsible for this will need to be an effective counsellor.
What is Workplace Counselling?
The definition of Workplace Counselling needs to be looked at as part of creating wellness in the work environment because it can improve an employee’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Workplace Counselling is for all employees where an objective person or specialist is made available free of charge to the employees while at work with whom they can have purposeful and confidential conversations. These sessions provide a safe place to discuss any challenges and issues the individual might battle with and help them develop the skills and coping mechanisms to deal with it. The aim of the counselling is to get employees to feel comfortable about themselves and others surrounding them as they learn to deal with the daily stresses of life.
What are the benefits of Workplace Counselling?
Workplace Counselling forms part of the overall strategy of creating wellness in the workplace. If you have employees who have a sudden behavioural change and intensified irritability; seem constantly preoccupied; battles with upskilling and training efforts; appears uninterested and tired; and you see a sudden decrease in their productivity and dedication, you need to go the counselling route.
Counselling in a work environment will not only help employees overcome many of the everyday pressures but there are also benefits for the employer.
For Employees:
- Someone objective to talk to and get sound advice
- The service is free and in a safe environment
- Provides learning opportunities of coping strategies
- Assist in finding solutions to problems and making impersonal decisions
- Provides a Support System
- Makes employees feel heard
- Help them achieve a more positive outlook
- It helps set achievable goals which will enhance performance and personal growth
- Promotes wellness, controlling emotions and mental health
- Assist with dealing and adapting to change
For Employers:
- Increases the employees performance and therefore their productivity
- Shows employees that their Employers care for them
- Builds loyalty towards the company
- Assist with decreasing absenteeism
- Provides an arena to deal with problems and coming up with solutions before it escalates
- Reduces disgruntled employees
- Encourages communication skills
- Boosts positivity among employees and thus contributes to the overall morale of the company.
What skills and traits does a Workplace Counsellor need?
The Management and especially Human Resources Managers should develop Counselling Skills. This type of training will:
- Help them to deal with and calm the employee’s anger and frustrations.
- Improve their active listening skills.
- Assist them to identify the core problems and pinpoint specific workable solutions.
- Improve their overall communications skills and body language.
- Equip them with time-, stress-, conflict-, and change management skills and techniques.
- Develop and improve their emotional intelligence to increase their empathy towards the employee being counselled.
Common traits that counsellors require are:
- Authenticity
- Empathetic
- Trustworthiness
- Respectfulness
- Sincerity
- Understanding
- Listening and good communication
- Ability to be objective and neutral (not take sides)
- Being able to handle everything said as confidential
- Positivity and Motivated
- Having social etiquette
Counselling Skills for Performance Excellence Training is a training course offered by The Mindspa Institute that will equip delegates with the necessary skills to fully understand the importance of workplace counselling and with the tools to implement a counselling approach to help unlock potential, reinforce strengths and counteract any negative behaviour, all with the aim of maximizing the individual’s performance.
The course is ideal for:
- Human Capital Employees
- Managers
- Supervisors
- Team leaders
- Executive Managers
In a nutshell, Workplace Counselling is like therapy but usually a short-term support intervention which focusses on problem-solving, usually involving emotional aspects, and then finding suitable solutions.
The Human Resources Manager or person responsible for the counselling need to assist these employees to equip them with various techniques and coping mechanisms and to help them make their own decisions from the choices available to them. Anyone who becomes a counsellor as part of the workplace wellness strategy, should be upskilled in various soft skills as they would be dealing with another person’s life. Their advice, their tips and techniques and their guidance will ultimately transform the employee in order to boost their performance and growth.