Managing the Counselling Process

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Managing the Counselling Process

• Manage People Performance

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Performance discussion vs counselling discussion

• Performance discussions are concerned with total
  performance of the team or individual refers to
  good and bad aspects of performance and how
  performance standards are being met.
• Counselling discussions usually relate to one
  aspect of unsatisfactory performance

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Outcomes of counselling discussion

• Poor performance improves staff member
  acknowledges that there is a problem
• Solutions to problems are developed
• Employee takes some action and gets professional
  help
• Improvement plan strategies developed (employee
  agreement)
• Employee leaves the organisation

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• If you discover that there legitimate reasons for
  problems several strategies might be developed
• Review of workloads- bottlenecks
• Review of procedures and processes
• Team building and cooperation
• Provide mentoring, coaching, skills development
• Provide assistance, or reassign duties
•  

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Counselling checklist - Before

• Assess the situation. Establish in what way the
  person's performance does not meet the required
  standard. e.g. timeliness, quantity of output,
  standard of written work, etc.
• You should also ensure that these standards are
  applied equitably across your work area. Gather
  factual information to support your assessment,
  including specific examples if possible.

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• Arrange a venue suitable bearing in mind the need
  for confidentiality.
• Notify the person of the arrangements, giving
  them sufficient time to prepare for the
  discussion, including, where possible, sufficient
  time to arrange for a support person to be
  present. Depending on circumstances, provide them
  with copies of any relevant written material you
  intend to discuss.

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During

• Explain the reason for the counselling.
• Explore the possible relevance of factors outside
  the workplace. You should bear in mind that a
  person may, for a variety of reasons, choose not
  to disclose such factors, in which case you can
  only base your assessment on available evidence.
• Advise the person what (if any) records are to be
  kept and for what purpose they will be used.

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• focus on work-related issues
• be constructive look to the future and means of
  improvement
• communicate
• Agree on a plan of action.
• Agree on a timetable for implementing that action
  and reviewing the results.

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After

• Make a record of the discussion. If the record is
  more substantial than a diary note, include any
  action agreed upon and time frames.
• Invite the person to sign the record if they
  agree with the content or to make comments or
  submit their own version of the meeting if they
  do not. Keep the record in a secure place.

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• Follow up on any action which has been agreed
  upon, either by undertaking action yourself (i.e.
  assisting with on-the-job training or exploring
  training opportunities) or monitoring and
  reviewing action to which the person has agreed.