Explaining the Importance of Mentoring and Counselling Techniques - Essay Example

?Explaining the Importance of Mentoring and Counselling Techniques in the Appraisal Process and Their Relevance in HR Mentoring and counselling are essential aspects in an organisation. These have great role towards appraisal of an employee for improving employees’ performance. The mentor and counsellor are responsible for employees’ appraisal as well as guiding and monitoring them for achieving success. The effective appraisal method in an organisation is generally based on the efficient skill of mentor and counsellor. The organisation is totally dependent on mentor and counsellor when any problem arises with respect to their employees. In this paper, the process of mentoring and counselling in relation to HRM (Human Resource Management) has been discussed. It seeks to explain about the differences and similarities linking the two factors and its significance in appraisal method. The mentor and counsellor apply certain techniques to conduct the appraisal of employees; these techniques have been included in this paper. The paper also covers the negative impact of implementing poor mentoring and counselling techniques towards appraisal method and its improvement methods have also been suggested. In this paper, an experience of a staff appraisal method is discussed. Mentoring and counselling has a significant role in human resource management of an organisation. The program of mentoring facilitates in ‘career development’, ‘personal support’, ‘career advancement’, ‘learning and development’, ‘increased confidence’ and ‘assistance and feedback’. Career development of mentee is observed to achieve crucial advantage through mentoring related programs. The mentees attain new expertise and develop to be competent in their performance. Due to mentoring related program both mentee and mentor is benefitted. The self image of mentor is developed as being competent and helpful through mentoring and in case of mentee, their self confidence is increased. This program also helps in other functions such as enhancement of recruitment effort, extension of productivity, motivation of elder individuals, and development of services that are offered by organisation as well as enhancement in relation to strategic along with succession planning. The organisational communication along with culture is also improved owing to mentoring program (Ehrich, 1999). The human resource manager or counsellor counsels the employees if he or she is stressed for certain reasons and their performance lowered as they are related to the productivity of organisation. In an organisation, counsellor may be either supervisor or manager. They can counsel human resource manager and training manager and in the meantime these office bearers can counsel staff member because of the position they hold. The different human resource roles that are related to counselling of employees involve career improvement, performance, redundancies, promotion, transfers, and retirement among others. The human resource of an organisation is extensively in connection with counselling activities because through this technique the employees can dispose of problems arising in their life. The counselling is organised for several issues that may have a negative impact on employees’ growth (Mwosa, n.d.). Mentoring facilitates experienced employees to advance further in their area of knowledge by regular reassessing and enhancing the skill. In mentoring, two individuals are involved: mentor and mentee. Mentor meets the requirement of mentee and thus enhances the special skills of mentee (Triple Creek, n.d.). Mentoring is considered as an efficient way to transfer knowledge as well as skill rapidly among employees and to motivate them in order to cooperate in an organisation. This process is a long term procedure and possesses broad perspective. It also focuses on the entire career of employees in an organisation. Counselling is essentially related to the emotional state of employees and it treats the emotional problem associated with employees. This role is generally a short term procedure which is designed to suggest remedy of the problem associated with job performance of an employee (Abiddin & Et. Al., 2006). There is a great significance of mentoring along with counselling in the appraisal process of an employee. The appraisal process if conducted by a skilful mentor and counsellor might result in improvement of performance of employees. The mentoring has a great influence on employees and as a result it improves employees’ performance appraisal which leads to retention of employees. During appraisal methods the counsellor discusses with employees regarding various issues and seeks to solve the problem. Appraisal is regarded as a structured process that facilitates to understand the abilities of an employee. It generally provides emphasis on past and present performance of employees with an aim to build up the future performance of an individual along with maintaining the organisational goal. With the help of appraisal method an employee identifies his strengths and tries to recognise if any improvement is needed. It is generally based on the outcome obtained by employees from his performance on the allocated job. The skill of an employee is measured by means of appraisal with accuracy as well as uniformity. It assists to identify the areas for performance development and encourage employees for their professional related development. The appraisal system is successful only when supervisor completes productive appraisal and employees are willing to adopt the constructive measures suggested by supervisor as per the requirements in order to reach set goals. The appraisal process assists appraiser to acquire information about the employees’ job progress, performance and in which area training is required for further enhancement (WPI, n.d.). Counselling specifies a performance problem in the appraisal of an employee in an organisation. The supervisors are entitled to discuss the matter regarding the performance problems that have taken place. In the period of counselling, if the problems do not get solved then an employee is counselled again by supervisors or counsellors by discussion which is documented as ‘Counselling Report’ or ‘Counselling Memo’. Counselling Report is prepared for serious problem of employees and Counselling Memo is prepared for arising of regular problems. With the help of counselling report, supervisors document the initial incidence of severe problems or repeated problems and if it fails to work then the employee is terminated. An organisation keeps the right to consider a few or entire performance problem of an employee (CSM, n.d.). Mentoring is regarded as an excellent process to develop the potential of an employee with the purpose of improving their performance. The mentor discusses with employees about any issues and assists to augment their confidence and reduce uncertainty as regards to the employees’ problems. Mentoring during appraisal of employees is less formal and is an uninterrupted process. The mentoring program during appraisal process brings with it, promotion of an employee and executives consider that this program is vital for their career development (Triple Creek, n.d.). The poor techniques involved in mentoring and counselling of employees may lead to potential hazards in their performance. Poor arrangement in mentoring practice and poor matching of perception of mentors with mentees may bring disruption in appraisal process. In certain situations mentees are not capable of comprehending the mentoring program; as a result it has a negative impact. The appraisal process is related to entire mentoring process generated by mentor. Thus, if mentoring program provides no value or benefit regarding the career improvement of employee, then in that case the whole process of appraisal gets affected. The decision makers of organisation are required to be careful while implementation of mentoring program as this is related to the appraisal of employees. The program also hamper if there is lack of commitment from the part of both mentors as well as mentees. As the mentoring process is associated with the enhancement in performance level of employees, therefore this part needs to be provided much concern otherwise it may bring poor performance level (Ehrich, 1999). The counselling is equally significant alike mentoring; however poor counselling hampers entire appraisal method. Counselling is always related to the emotional aspects of employees and the performance of ineffective employee gets improved if proper counselling is conducted at the initial stage of appraisal. The poor counselling process ultimately brings with it poor performance level of employees. The counsellor if is incapable of guiding an employee to overcome his problems and to enhance his performance then it results in employees’ poor performance record. Excellent appraisal of an employee may encourage them in their work and this brings more development. This can only be possible with proper counselling program conducted by counsellor in an organisation (Ehrich, 1999). The mentors who are involved in conducting mentoring programs need to be much conscious. Continuous conducting of such mentoring program effectively may improve the performance of an employee. The techniques developed by counsellor must be highly ordered so as to monitor employees and an organisation should properly assess before the program is conducted. The mentoring mainly takes place in business organisation where an employee needs to be highly motivated towards their future objective, thus it is the managers or mentors who must provide prior importance to this technique. The counselling sessions are conducted in academic institutions as well as business organisations. Therefore, in an organisation counselling requires to be highly productive so as to reduce the distress-like scenario from the desired employees as they are related to organisational productivity. Innovative techniques, methods and style can be included in counselling process in order to help the employees to progress in their future career. This may also reduce misinterpretation that may arise between mentor and mentee as well as in between counsellor and counselee. An organisation has to be much careful while recruiting mentor and counsellor for their employees. The recruitment must be based on entire requirements that fulfil the criteria of a good mentor and counsellor. The effective appraisal of an employee requires proficient skills from the part of mentor and counsellor. A mentor is considered to be intelligent and trusted counsellor having experience to walk visually on the same route as that of mentee. He needs to possess confidence for advising and guiding along with inspiring for professional development. Mentor has the skill to guide an employee towards career development. The performance appraisal of an employee can be conducted efficiently by a mentor if he possesses requisite qualities. He needs to judge employees without taking any hasty decision, build good rapport, utilise analytical framework and help in goal setting. The various other qualities that are essential to be a good mentor are obligation for time as well as energy, being proactive, helpful, trustworthy and consistent along with informative, creative and possessing the capacity to provide productive feedback. The skills that are necessary for mentor are ‘communication skill’,’ negotiating skill’, ‘goal setting skill’, ‘directing skill’, ‘action planning skill’, ‘questioning skill’, ‘facilitating’ along with ‘empowering skill’ (The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2005). A counsellor possesses certain characteristics that enable him to conduct appraisal methods successfully. He needs to be understanding because without thoughtful nature he cannot take a decision. The other skills that are required are positive attitude, congruence and challenging skill, along with respectful nature. To maintain good relationship with customers a counsellor needs to have delightful nature and act accurately according to the perspective of clients. The interpersonal skills and active listening nature developed by counsellor helps to generate good appraisal method. He requires certain special characteristics such as real understanding, accurate body language which should neither signify negative posture nor admire any issues of clients. The other traits that are needed are tone of voice, his speed of conversation and approach of delivering his message (The Counselor’s Guide, 2011). The efficient quality of both mentor as well as counsellor brings positive outcome in the performance appraisal of employees. The employees get easily motivated and cope up with the organisational culture which results in positive impact on their performance. They are encouraged by mentors to enhance their performance and to become productive. The employees’ performance level increases and become professional from the guidance of mentor and counsellor. The counsellor helps employees to come out from their anxiety and provide focus towards their career and to become highly professional. The employees and organisation are extremely benefitted by organising such programs regularly. If the employees are frequently motivated and assessed carefully then it may bring positive impact on the business of organisation (Kent State University, 2011). I worked as an administrator in a beer factory where I used to manage invoices and conduct meetings with clients. I worked as a problem solver related to stocks or customers. In the organisation my task was generally related to the job of counsellor. The counselling was conducted with the customers to make them understand the products the company had. The customers were much benefited from the counselling session with me because after that they used to take decisions by themselves. The counselling job is a challenging task as it is related to the human behaviour and the perception of human regarding certain issues. If the problems cannot be solved by being a counsellor then it may lower my skill and hamper the entire counselling sessions conducted with the customers. In this type of organisation, various problems are raised by customers related to the side effects of having the product. In such case, a counsellor’s task is to remove anxiety and distress that rose from the product. Being a counsellor in a beer factory, I need to manage regularly the counselling session of customers, as part of my responsibility. The customers were able to ultimately overcome their problems by the regular counselling process. It was a great experience to work with such clients and assist them to enhance their moral values by such process. I was nannying the children for a few years where I acted as mentor for the children and their parents. I used to look after the babies and helped them in their homework and other activities. I also helped the parents in shopping and other activities. Though it was a hard task to take care of the children and to mentor them but it was a great experience from my side. I worked in high way company as a manager assistant. The main task was that I used to handle official letters, booking flights as well as hotels for the boss. The other task in which I was involved was that I used to deal with the customers and counsel them. In this company I had to make counselling program with varieties of customers. From the above discussion it can identified that both counselling as well as mentoring are significant aspects of an organisation. Organisations in order to accomplish appraisal processes need effective mentoring and counselling of the employees. As a result, it leads to increase in the performance of an employee. There are certain drawbacks of mentoring and counselling processes if those are not executed in proper way during appraisal process by mentor and counsellor. It is also observed that mentoring is a long term process in relation to an employee and the organisation. Counselling is mainly connected to emotional context of employee and is a short term process. The mentoring is essentially conducted in organisations where employees are motivated for reaching the long term prospects of their career. The counselling program is performed in organisations, schools and colleges along with various other institutions. It is of great significance for every institution where these two programs are conducted regularly since it enhances the growth opportunities of individuals. Therefore, it can be stated that counselling as well as mentoring program are needed to be properly applied with the purpose of improving the performance standards of employees. 11.0 References Abiddin, N. Z. & Et. Al., 2006. The Reviewed Of the Literature on Mentoring and Coaching. Effective Practices in Graduate Student Supervision Using the Mentoring and Coaching Approaches. [Online] Available at: http://www.hraljournal.com/Page/20%20Norhasni%20Zainal%20Abiddin.pdf [Accessed May 26, 2011]. CSM, No Date. Performance Counseling. Performance Appraisal and Counseling. [Online] Available at: http://www.csmd.edu/faculty/AdminManual/Human%20Resources/HR-4120%20Performance Ehrich, L. C., 1999. Benefits of Mentoring. Mentoring: Pros And Cons For HRM. [Online] Available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/1754/1/1754.pdf [Accessed May 26, 2011]. Kent State University, 2011. Mentoring Your Intern. About. [Online] Available at: http://www.kent.edu/career/internships/mentoring.cfm [Accessed May 26, 2011]. Mwosa, J., No Date. Introduction. The Importance of Counselling. [Online] Available at: http://africa.peacelink.org/wajibu/articles/art_4431.html [Accessed May 26, 2011]. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2005. 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