HR Kurakani, an open platform organized since past eight years by Real Solutions successfully completed its 76th editions focused on the topic “Employee Counselling at Workplace: How and Why?” on February 27th, 2019 at the premise of Real Solutions Office, Minbhawan, New Baneshwor had numerous HR professionals from various organizations.

The event began with a formal introduction of the resource person of the Kurakani, Dr. Kisor Adhikari, a psychologist expert and all the participating members along with a short welcoming and introductory address by the presiding moderator, Ms. Jyotsna Shrestha, Business Manager at Real Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Employee Counselling:

In todays' fast paced world, it is usual for an organization to have some employees struggling with different stressful situations at work, from pressing deadlines to work-life balance. These problems can affect an employee’s work performance through lowered productivity levels, tense relationships with coworkers etc. Offering counselling to an employee is a scientific way of keeping employees happy, committed in the workplace using professional relationship bounded by ethics, confidentiality and other theoretical aspects.

Employee counselling is about providing a valuable opportunity for an employee, giving them a safe place to talk about issues that trouble them in a strictly confidential and supportive atmosphere. Employee counselling is not about giving advice, but about providing a non-judgmental, empathetic and accessible means to allow an employee to seek out the simplest way forward to their well-being and happiness. Employee counselling has emerged as the HR tool to attract and retain the employees through occupational stress management and is rapidly evolving into wellbeing program at the workplace.

In the discussions, it was agreed upon that, employee well-being has been making its way to the top of company consciousness and it is a key issue that companies are aiming to address to ensure that their employees remain happy and motivated at work. Adding up in the Kurakani, Dr. Adhikari shared an idea of "PERMA" Model for ensuring employee wellbeing at workplace. "PERMA" stands for the five vital components that have to be compelled to be in scenario to expertise lasting well-being. These are:

• Positive Emotions
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishment

By providing positivity, engagement, connection, meaning and acknowledgement we will be able to produce an explicit and intended work force that don't seem to be solely happy to be at work but also excited to contribute to the corporate at large.

Having said that, later the discussion was directed towards the benefits of employee counselling and how employee counselling involves. Employee counselling provides individuals a valuable chance to figure through issues and stresses in a strictly confidential and ancillary atmosphere. Counselling provides access to several basic forms of helping: giving information, direct action, mentoring and coaching, providing feedback and cultivating necessary skills in the employee through solution focused approach to tackle the problems at hand.

What makes for successful employee counselling?

An interesting question put forward amidst the discussion was about the techniques that one needs to follow for successful employee counselling. One doesn’t have to be compelled to be professional counsellor to coach and counsel his/her team mates. If you simply keep in mind the techniques mentioned here, you will be ready to counsel your colleagues towards higher performance.

Reflection of feeling: is one of the greatest techniques involved in employee counselling.  A reflection of feeling is a helping response that accurately identifies the persons' emotions based on his/her verbal and non-verbal messages.

Paraphrasing: is repeating back your understanding of the material that has been aforementioned by the employee, using your own words. This technique helps the employee to feel both heard and understood. If your employee brings their material, daring to share that with you, you should show that you’re listening by giving them a little portion of that back – the part that feels the most important.

Reflection of meaning: is a process where both parties can focus on visioning their future as a journey into career development and wellbeing. Here when an employee points out the issue or problem in his/her life, it enables us to understand what motivates him/her, and provides more clarity on issue and gives us more control over the process.

In the discussions, it was agreed upon that employee counseling involves a pattern of sessions with a vivid introduction, information that will be gathered in the discussion and the result of counseling. For sustainable resolution of any conflict or issues it is essential to understand the root cause of people’s difficulties and uncover the true picture. Each issue is going to be different based on his/her background, experience, engagement thus the counselling techniques needs to be a holistic, bespoke and a flexible approach.

The participants at the Kurakani also discussed how getting attached and involved with an employee personal affair can create affect the working environment.  Getting directly involved with an employees’ personal problem is like wading into dangerous waters. It will only create additional issues in the future.

The 76th HR Kurakani then officially ended with a vote of thanks. A vast amount of knowledge was shared whose implementation would surely move us a bit closer to keeping employees happy, committed, and reliable in a healthy organizational environment.