Employee Satisfaction a Tool for Performance Management free essay sample

EMPLOYEE COUNSELING: AS A TOOL FOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (Ref No. F049) VINU KUMAR PGDM HR, ITM Businesss School, Navi Mumbai SNEHA AGARWAL PGDM HR, ITM Businesss School, Navi Mumbai Abstract 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 good frame of mind. In todays fast-paced corporate world, there is virtually no organization free of stress or stress-free employees. A mentally preoccupied or troubled individual will be in a position to give very little to his company. The employees can be stressed, depressed, suffering from too much anxiety arising out of various workplace related issues like managing deadlines, meeting targets, lack of time to fulfill personal and family commitments, or bereaved and disturbed due to some personal problem etc. Organizations have realized the importance of having a stress-free yet motivated and capable workforce. We will write a custom essay sample on Employee Satisfaction: a Tool for Performance Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Therefore, many companies have integrated the counseling services in their organizations and making it a part of their culture. Organizations are offering the service of employee counseling to its employees. Counseling is helping an individual to help himself. Need for Employee counseling arises due to various causes in addition to stress. These causes include: emotions, interpersonal problems and conflict at place, 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. Employee counseling can be explained as providing help and support to the employees to face and sail through the difficult times in life. At many points of time in life or career people come across some problems either in their work or personal life when it starts influencing and affecting their performance and, increasing the stress levels of the individual. Counseling is guiding, consoling, advising and sharing and helping to resolve their problems whenever the need arises. Employee counseling can be very helpful in performance management. The continued monitoring of work performance is the only method of assessment open to the manager. When performance is below established standards, the manager should discuss the facts with the employee and assist that person to return to an acceptable standard within the framework of the organization’s disciplinary policy. Employee counseling can help deal with poor performance of an employee by arranging a performance or disciplinary interview. This can help the counselor to understand what are the issues faced by the employee and the reasons for his performance decline and also give the employee appropriate performance intervention measures. The manager should not become involved in private matters; their focus must remain on the work performance of the employee. However, the counselor at all times must have a non judgmental perspective and maintain objectivity. Counseling for problem employees can create a harmonious work environment and help reduce performance decline. Counseling techniques differ from case to case. But with any problem employee, counseling aims to resolve negative behaviors in a diplomatic yet effective way, minimizing stress for everyone involved. Keywords: Employee Counseling, Performance Management 1. Introduction: Historically, the term counseling has always been prevalent in the society but with various meanings attached to it like that of mental disorder, personal problems, alcoholism, etc. People were scared to be associated with such terms. But with the passage of time, the term counseling has evolved giving it a new perspective. Counseling is nothing but understanding Human Emotions free from any prejudice and that is what today’s managers need and should strive to achieve. Employee counseling as a term has gained momentum and is widely emphasized upon. However, there is a lot of apprehension on the side of employees and employers to be associated with it. People are yet to understand the meaning of the term Employee Counseling and still have certain myths and pre-conceived notions attached to it. Employee counseling can be explained as providing help and support to the employees to face and sail through the difficult times in life. At many points of time in life or career people come across some problems either in their work or personal life when it starts influencing and affecting their performance and, increasing the stress levels of the individual. Counseling is guiding, consoling, advising and sharing and helping to resolve their problems whenever the need arises. Managing performance is an integral function of a manager. However, due to ever increasing amount of work pressure, managers today rather put up with poor performance than conduct a work performance or disciplinary interview as this could be unpleasant and difficult task to perform. This lack of desire to manage poor performance is of particular concern as there is evidence that work performance intervention may be the most effective and one of the most important management tasks. 2. Objective: i. To provide an overview and importance of Employee Counseling. ii. To understand the performance management and performance decline. iii. To study the linkage between Performance management and Employee Counseling. 3. Literature Review: Scanning the relevant literature on Performance Management and Employee Counseling. A brief overview is presented in the following section. Performance Management: (Performance Management: A strategic and integrated approach to achieve success, by Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron) Performance management system helps in managing performance to ensure a progressive development for the welfare of the organization as well as the employee. It focuses on the alignment of the career goals of the employee with that of the vision, mission and objectives of an organization. Development is the most important function of performance management; performance improvement is not achievable unless there is an effective process of continuous development. It goes without saying that employees play a very crucial role and are the core of any company. The most successful companies are those with the best employees and the best employees are those who are able to function to their maximum potential. With the help of effective system of performance management, managers can identify the gaps between the achieved and desired performance. This can be attained through a continuous monitoring of performance and also providing employees with a feedback for their overall improvement which in turn facilitates development. Hence performance management is critical in enabling managers to not just motivate employees and maximize efficiency, but also to deal with poor performance issues. This therefore helps in identifying key performers and subsequently plays an important role in crucial matters like succession planning and developing leadership programs. Need for Employee Counseling: (Employee counseling: are we ready for it? Primary research based article by Prof. Gowri Joshi) In todays fast-paced corporate world, there is virtually no organization free of stress or stress-free employees. The growing expectations, constant change, cut-throat competition is leading to the ever increasing complexity and stress in the lives of the employees. Organizations have realized the importance of having a stress-free yet motivated and capable workforce. Therefore, many companies have integrated the counseling services in their organizations and making it a part of their culture thereby helping their employees to cope with these challenging situations and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The employees can be stressed, depressed, suffering from too much anxiety arising out of various workplace related issues like managing deadlines, meeting targets, lack of time to fulfill personal and family commitments, or bereaved and disturbed due to some personal problem etc. Hence employee counseling has emerged as the latest HR tool to attract and retain its best employees and also to increase the quality of the workforce in an organization. Overall, employee counseling helps an employee to help himself. Employee assistance programmes and workplace counselling. By. Berridge, C. L. Cooper C. Highley-Marchington. Chichester: Wiley. 1997. Pp. xiii + 250. Paper, ISBN 0471 9380 5 X. ] This book brings together the basics of Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) in the UK and concentrates on their contribution in the context of workplace stress. It is aimed particularly at HR managers and specialists in occupational health and psychology. EAPs are an increasingly popular way in whic h employers make counselling-related support available to their people—systematically, uniformly and to professional standards. However, the book pays no attention to examples, numerous and well-known in EAP circles, of fully-integrated EAPs handling major organizational interventions. The reader is not familiarized with those which have led to significant changes in the culture and daily behavior of organizations. Tools to manage stress. Employee Benefits magazine: how to manage workplace stress 2008: An employee assistance programmes (EAP) is a good first line of defense. These can provide support and information on any problem an employee is experiencing, with many including debt and legal advice as well as counselling, Dr Trevor Smith, clinical director at PMI Health Group, says: These provide a confidential ear outside the company, which can be useful if an employee doesnt want to talk to their employer about their problem, A full EAP will include face-to-face as well as telephone-based counselling, with an option for the employer to refer employees as well as self-referral. 4. Providing a linkage between Employee Counseling and Performance Management: 4. Performance Decline: Performance management identifies the gaps in performance of an employee by comparing the achieved results with an established performance standard. This gap results in the performance decline. It is important that this decline in performance can be measured and observed. What causes performance decline? Various factors can be attributed for such decline; it could be anything from work related issues like unachievable targets, conflicts within the organization, lack of grievance handling machinery, etc to personal reasons like family issues, financial problems, lcohol dependency, health issues, etc. Any diagnosis of the cause of performance decline brings with it the need for action and appropriate corrective strategies. Here comes the role of Employee Counseling. Organizations today are focusing on Employee counseling as a measure to reduce such performance decline and also in turn help in retention of employees. But managers should try to incorporate and believe in the idea of counseling as a tool for correcting such deviations. Based on the cause of such decline in performance, managers can suggest appropriate performance intervention methods. However, if it is due to a personal problem the manager must not intervene; and referral to professional counselor may be appropriate. 5. 2 The Counseling Process (Ref. Employee Counseling – An overview Pranati Raheja) Step 1: Describe the changed behavior. Let the employee know that the organization is concerned with work performance. The supervisor maintains work standards by being consistent in dealing with troubled employees. Explain in very specific terms what the employee needs to do in order to perform up to the organizations expectations. Dont moralize. Restrict the confrontation to job performance. Step 2: Get employee comments on the changed behavior and the reason for it. Confine any negative comments to the employees job performance. Dont diagnose; you are not an expert. Listen and protect confidentiality. Step 3: Agree on a solution. Emphasize confidentiality. Dont be swayed or misled by emotional please, sympathy tactics, or hard-luck stories. Explain that going for help does not exclude the employee from standard disciplinary procedures and that it does not open the door for special privileges. Step 4: Summarize and get a commitment to change. Seek commitment from the employee to meet work standards and to get help, if necessary, with the problem. Step 5: Follow up. Once the problem is resolved and a productive relationship is established, a follow up is needed. It is very important for both the employee and employers to understand the procedure of Employee Counseling. They should try to remove the inhibitions attached to counseling and try to incorporate this change for the betterment of the employee and the organization as a whole. This cannot be achieved without respect, consideration, empathy and acceptance of both the parties involved. EMPLOYEE COUNSELING PERFORMANCE DECLINE STRESS STRESS STRESS EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE INTERVENTION 5. Limitations: i. Employee Counseling is generally not seen as a tool but as an employee assistance program and people are apprehensive about counseling. ii. The data used here is secondary. The use of primary data can further enhance the study and also provide a pragmatic understanding. 6. Conclusion: Employee counseling if accepted as a regular feature of the organization’s culture can see and understand those problems which often go unnoticed and affects the overall performance of the employee. Performance management system also fails to see the reason for the decline in performance. Employee counseling can act as a support system for the already existing system of performance management within an organization. It gives an opportunity to the organization to build a relationship with its employees which is not just a transaction. It helps in improving the performance and gives employees a thorough analysis of their performance and subsequently helps them in coping with the immense stress and expectations that their job brings with it. Employee counseling taps the potential of the employee giving them a chance to exploit their hidden talent. As a result, an employee is motivated and develops a positive attitude towards the job and organization. To a certain extent this also helps in controlling the attrition rate prevalent in the organization. Employee counseling allows managers to show concern without getting involved in employee ‘counseling’ or losing focus on the performance decline. The primary role of the manager remains the management of employees and their work performance. . References: 1. Novarra V. Can a manager be a counselor? Personnel Management. June 1986; Pages 48-50. 2. Employee Assistance: Employee Performance and Employee Commitment by Tony Buon CEAP, June 2008 http://www. scotcoach. com/pdf/GreeceJune08. pdf 3. Managing Day-to-Day Employee Performance http://humanresources. about. com/od/manageperformance/Managing_DaytoDay_Employee_Performance. htm 4. Employee assistance programmes a nd workplace counseling. By. Berridge, C. L. Cooper C. Highley-Marchington. Chichester: Wiley. 1997. Pp. xiii + 250. Paper, ISBN 0471 9380 5 X. 5. Tools to manage stress. Employee Benefits magazine: How to manage workplace stress 2008. 6. Employee counseling: are we ready for it? Primary research based article by Prof. Gowri Joshi http://www. 123oye. com/job-articles/hr/employee-counselling-hr. htmloyee Counseling – are we ready f 7. Performance Management: A strategic and integrated approach to achieve success, by Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron; pages 55 to 64