Workplace Counselling and Therapy - Essay Example

Order 155565 WORKPLACE COUNSELLING AND THERAPHY Employee Assistance program is provided at Nyack Hospital, New York. This program assists Rocklandcountry business large and small, by providing a cost effective program that offers professional confidential services to help employees at all levels get back on track while functioning as an organizational resource for management. When personal problems under service an employee's job performance, traditional supervisory and Managerial efforts seldom prove effective. Instead, job performance decline usually continues and managers find increasing amount of their time consumed in monitoring and counselling the troubled employees. Personal problem contributing to poor job performance are usually complex and multi-faceted. They often include issues that few supervisors are trained to handle - complicated issues like; Family problems Marital concerns Emotional difficulties Financial troubles Legal problems Alcohol problems Drugs Career planning Retirement Housing problem. Besides reducing cost associated with employee's personal problems, Nyack Hospital employee assistance program provides training for managers and supervisors to help then develop skill and confidence in resolving employee's performance issues. The program also offers additional training modules for management and staff on issues such as sexual harassment, promoting a drug-free work place, stress management, parenting and many other human resources development topics. The employee assistance program enhances existing benefit program and demonstrates company's commitment to and concern for its employees well being. Dollar for dollar Nyack Hospital's employee assistance program is one of the best investments an organization can make. Having a program like this one can help your organization contain cost in many important ways including; Reduced absenteeism Tardiness Improved morale Lower turn over rates Increased safety Improved security and productivity Better personnel management Quality control Improved union/management relations Therefore employee assistance program (EAP,), typically comprises face-to-face counselling a telephone help line, legal advice and critical incident and briefing. As above stated employees assistance program (EAP) is undertaken by few supervisors or specialists who are trained to handle complicated issues. These complicated issues are problems that employees undergo while working. They may arise from their homes or within their workplace. The problem should be solved so that they don't interfere with an employee's. This is another reason why Nyack Hospital has endeavoured to provide this program for its employees. In this regard employees' assistance program addresses the following problems as stated above and explained in detail below. Stress at work. Stress means arousal o stimulus. This is a condition where an employee is disturbed by other factors either within workplace or external problems (An introduction to workplace counselling, J. McLeod, 2001) This condition does not allow the employee to concentrate in his work as his or her mind is divided. The condition affects both the employee and the organization. While in this state he or she being unable to perform affects the organization in terms of productivity. The general perception has been that stress in an organization occurs to middle level and junior employees. However, it starts right from the top. Senior managers are not superwomen or supermen; they also undergo stress at work. However, they learn the art of delegation by the time they read at the top. They have secretaries and assistants who help them The assumption that death, divorce and moving house are the three biggest causes of stress has been overtaken by office as the principal focus for stress. The biggest contributing factors to stress are: - Pressure to perform Fear of redundancy/job uncertainty Recession Change/pace of change Personal/home life Increased job load Excessive hours Maintaining quality. In general, organizations are currently under pressure to implement strategies that will ensure they are dong all they can do to fulfil their obligations as employees employee assistance program has been provided to be involved in preventive work as well as remedial work. Family Problems. The modern family has been hit by multiplying problems. These problems do not end up in family level instead they extend to work place. Employees have been left divided between family issues and work. The most hit are female workers who have to ensure that their families and more particularly the children are well taken care off. The mother has to divide her time between work and family. To ensure that this problem does not extend to work place and affect the organization, the counsellors' take through the parents to enable them solve the problem without affecting them, the organization and their families. Marital Problem. This problem has become the threat of work performance in the modern era. With rampant separation and divorce with infidelity involved, families are breaking up in an alarming rate. Once this problem occurs in one's life, he/she becomes mentally affected. In return it becomes difficult for her/him to perform or work effectively. To overcome it, the use of external counsellors has been provided. The counsellors take the affected people through therapy. This is done in order to restore their mind back to normal and allow them to work normally. Financial Problems. Financial problems form major part of troubles in the life of an employee. This is attributed to the fact that employees are unable to satisfy their multiplying wants with the scarce resources available at their disposal. Their monthly earnings are too little to satisfy their personal needs leave alone those for dependants. Due to this, employees end up incurring a lot of debts, which they are unable to pay back. This causes financial stress on them. They should all strive to eliminate debt and obtain financial security. Sound information and financial planning are critical to achieving financial success in organizations; the financial service program should be free and easy to access. The financial counsellors should help the affected employees to identify their needs and explore their options on a variety of topics including Family budgeting Basics of financial planning Savings and investment strategies Assisting on how much one need to save in order to retire comfortably Identifying a financial planner. Legal Problems Legal problems also emerge in the life of an employer. These legal problems might include legal tissues such as property, succession or inheritance or any other problem that might emerge legally. Provision of legal counselling in workplace is very essential. The legal counsellor can advice an employee of the availability of a good council who can assist him/her to pursue the case. Legal counsellors themselves in organizations do not pursue the matter instead they advise the employee where to get the best service. Emotional/ Grief concerns Grief or emotional concerns affect an employee. These problems occur more especially where an employee has lost his/her husband or wife or a close relative like father, mother, brother, sisters etc. Being the most difficult time in one's life, it can affect an employee's work and social life. In this case an employer needs to be thoroughly counselled so that we can accept the reality of death and move on with life. The counsellor should as much as possible contain the emotions of experience restore confident in the aggrieved employee. This will enable the employee to come to terms and get back to his/her sober mood and discharge his/her duties as required out of him/her. Alcohol and drug problems. When employees receive any kind of treatment for an alcohol and drug problem, careful monitoring and after treatment known as follow up can help them maintain sobriety. Providing thorough follow-up can pay substantial dividends for employers. Follow-up can consolidate treatment gains in health and productivity as well as help reduce alcoholic related disability claims (Foote A and Erfurt, J.C. 1991. Effects of EAP follow-up on prevention of Relapse among substance abuse clients. Journal of studies on Alcohol. 52(3): 241-248). Follow-up services are but one component of effective employee assistance programs (EAPs) (Employee Assistance Professionals Association. 2003 care technology) a structured strategy many companies provide to help employees with problems that negatively affect their job performance. EAP follow-up, which requires an employee's consent, has two primary goals. 1. To help employee maintain work continuity during treatment and afterwards. 2. To ensure that the employee adheres to the continuing care component of his or her treatment plan and in cases of failure to comply with company policy. 3. Employers who offer health insurance coverage for alcoholic treatment that includes continuing care, such as on-going outpatient access to psychological or group counselling services, stand to reap the biggest gain from EAP follow-up However many employer-based health plans don't cover continuing care, so EAP follow-up may constitute the only systematic monitoring of an employees recovery. EAP Alcohol and drug follow-up continues for a minimum of six months, but research indicates that it is most effective at preventing relapse if it last for at least a year (Foote A. and Erfurt J.C.) EAP professionals follow-up by supporting clients recovery efforts and checking in periodically to ask if they are adhering to their treatment plan and if their job performance has improved professionals trained release prevention also explore with clients any other life charge they may be experiencing as a result of treatment. Many people with alcohol problems believe that drinking helped them cope with stress or emotional difficulties. Effective EAP follow-up can prevent clients from falling into old, destructive pattern of behaviour by identifying "trigger mechanism" experiences that prompt cravings for alcohol and referring clients to additional counselling services as needed According to Diane Carroll head of the internal EAP at the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati a non-profit health care group, there is the philosophy to treat individuals with alcohol and other drug problems and return them to work without jeopardizing the safety of the patient who relay on them for their medical care," Says Carol Retirement Problem. Retirement problem poses a threat to performance of an individual in the organization. Most employees do not save so retirement. It is this reason that when their time of retirement nears, they start to panic; employee assistance program is available to advice employees on how to scare for their retirement. The program explains the advantages of saving so that when retirement nears the employee does not panic. The program further explains the available retirement benefits of an employee once his/her retirement time comes. In ensuring that this does not affect job performance of and employee, he or she is taken through counselling by the specialists who advice him on the benefit of retirement and how he or she can be useful once he retires form the organization. This program ensures that the employee does not panic and the organization as well does not suffer from the employee's panic. He/she is also advised on how to utilize his retirement benefits once he leaves the organization. Career planning problems: Career planning affected employees in the organization some of them are unable to plan their careers. They do not know the courses in which they can pursue while working which will enable them to get promotions. Due to this confusion, employees end up taking wrong choices, which frustrates them when they realize that their choices were wrong. This affects the organization in several ways. There is low job performance from the employee. His/her working morale reduced drastically. EAP counsellors assist these employees to make the right choice career wise, which will enable than to get promotions. Housing problems. Housing problem affect each employer. Many employees are unable to secure a house in which they intend to due to lack of enough finance. However, this does not mean that an employee cannot afford to purchase or build a house of his own as per his or her dreams. Employee assistance program, guides employees on how to sore so that they can realize dreams of purchasing or constructing houses of their own. EAP also counsels the employees not to be too much over ambitious in housing issues or problems such that their job performance is affected. In general employee assistance program is important in organization. Each organization should struggle as much as possible to ensure that EAP is available in their organization. EAP has several benefits, these include; 1. Ensures savings by reducing sickness, absences takes off managers through the availability of a constructive means of dealing with difficult staff or situations. 2. Serve as an insurance policy against the threat, of compensation claims made by employees exposed to work related stress. 3. Increase productivity in the sense that employees are made to concentrate on their work 4. Reduces absenteeism and other unnecessary leaves of employees. Bibliography 1. J. McLeod, Introduction to Workplace Counselling, Open University press, London, 2001. 2. J. McLeod, Introduction to Counselling, Open University press, London, 2005. 3. J.J. Miletch, Work and Alcohol Abuse, 1987. 4. Dickman F. Ingredients of an effective employee program, 3rd edition 2003. Springfield, Thomas Publishers. 5. Elliot K; Shelley K. Impact of employee assistance program on substance abusers and workplace safety, Journal of employment counselling 6. Reynolds GS; Lehman WEK, Levels of substance use and willingness to use the Employee Assistance program, Journal of Behavioural Health Services & Research, 2003. 7. www.employeeassistanceprogramme.com 8. EAP-SAP.COM Read More