What is Performance Counselling?

Performance counselling techniques are used to help employees deal with personal problems that may interfere with the achievement of certain goals. Performance counselling programme may address such issues as substance abuse, stress management, smoking cessation, or fitness, nutrition and weight control. The employees counselling helps lot in the Performance achievement.

List of various steps involved in employees performance counselling.

To Establish Rapport or Prepare a Base for Communication:

This step is very necessary as it generates the necessary confidence in the subordinate and assures him of his superior’s genuine interest in helping him. For the success of this step it is necessary that the counselor- carefully listen to what the subordinates says and displays warmth and responsiveness from his behaviour.

To Explore Information about Performance:

During this stage the counselor puts to the subordinates various questions, which may elicit elaborate information on the latter’s achievement, strengths, failures and shortcomings. The object is to make the subordinate him self introspect and define his strengths and weakness.

To Help Define the Future Goa! and Internalize the Problem:

Once the counselor has succeeded in making the subordinate reflect on his strengths and weaknesses he can easily make him realize what his problems are. There is generally a tendency to attribute once failures, weaknesses or shortcoming to external reasons. The counselor has to help the subordinate to internalize the problem and its causes. He must also help him in setting his future goals.

To Draw Action Plan:

Both the counselor and the subordinate jointly consider all possible alternative solutions to the problems. Their pros and cons are weighed and the best alternative selected and a step wise action plan is prepared along with the time-table. The subordinate is allowed to monitor the plan himself. The plan is reviewed by the two parties at regular intervals.

Requisites of Performance Counselling

Counselling the employees should betaken utmost care in the HRD. It is one of the prestigious functions and the great intervention of HRD in which the employees can be motivated and his latent skills can be extracted for the benefit of the organization.

The various requisites of the counselling are:

Individual’s Desire to Improve:

The first most important requirement for effective counselling is that the individual to be given counsel should be interested in developing himself. Superiors usually hold the view that subordinates do not take sufficient interest in their growth and development. On the other hand, subordinate allege that they do not feel free to participate in the process of the review and feedback.

Continuous Dialogue:

Counselling is not one-way process of communicating to the employee what he should or should not do. It is a process of continuous dialogue directed toward better understanding of the situation. This presupposes the existence of a general climate of openness, mutuality and trust.

Genuine Interest of the Superior in His Subordinates Development:

In order to make counselling effective it is necessary that the counselor should have empathetic attitude towards his subordinates. To put it differently, counselling should not be considered as a burden or an unpleasant task and practiced halfheartedly or as a compulsion.

Mutual Participation:

Both the superior and the subordinate should whole hearteclly participate in the goal setting and reviewing of goals and performance. Without such collaboration counselling would be reckless.