Uses of Business Psychology Consulting Firms

Uses of Business Psychology Consulting Firms

Employee counselling is the most modern HR tool for attracting and retaining the best personnel and to enhance the quality of the workforce. In the current fast-paced corporate world, stress is a common factor impacting all employees.

Employees may be stressed and anxious because of issues related to the workplace like missing targets, managing deadlines, shortage of time for family or disturbed by personal problems.

More and more organizations realize the value of workplace counselling offered by business psychology consulting firms. They are the ones who can help develop a stress-free, capable and motivated workforce.

Workplace counselling may be defined as providing short psychological therapy for employees of an organization. The employer meets the cost of such therapy. Therapy may be in the form of external services like EAP (Employee Assistance Program) which usually includes telephone helpline, face to face counselling, critical incident debriefing and legal advice. Another kind of service is in-house where the organization directly employs the counsellor.

Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry (OOP) is a component of psychiatry which concentrates on issues of the workplace. It consists of the application of psychiatric theory and skills to the daily functioning of individuals at the workplace as well as the organization, with the objective of making both functions better.

Since the early years of the 20th century, OOP has played a major role in helping workers and their organizations. The range of psychiatric interventions in issues related to the workplace has vacillated over the years, but the importance of workplace issues of mental health has risen steadily.

What is workplace counselling? 

It is a program for enhancing the psychological health of employees. It is a mode of combating problems of both employers and employees by handling the psychological issues faced by everyone.

Stress is an inevitable reality in the modern workplace. The race against deadlines, enormous targets, high goals,  standards of achievement and personality-related problems; are all common. Employees often feel anxious, restless and moody; this is when workplace counselling motivates and enthuses employees.

How does it help?

For employees

Counselling is confidential and secretive. So, the employee will not hesitate to discuss the most personal problems. It enables the service of a trained and qualified counselling expert, who offers no psychological threat to the employee and is an attentive listener. The expert will deal with all issues in an empathetic manner. Counselling also offers solutions of high quality by dealing with the core causes of problems.

For employers

Counselling programs are of great value to employers also. By solving the problems faced by employees in the workplace as well as personal issues like family problems, the counsellor helps to enhance the motivation and confidence of employees. This has a great impact on the productivity of employees. It reduces absenteeism related to sickness and stress. Additionally, managers learn how to deal with difficult staff. Thus, employees can work in a constructive and stress-free mode.

Signs of problems

Employers need to identify tell-tale signs of potential problems in the workplace:

Sudden behavioural changes

Employees who face real problems at home exhibit sudden behaviour changes in the workplace. They may be identified as explosive persons. They cannot control anger and often lose their temper. Hence, the employer must refer them for counselling.

Constant irritability

This behaviour of employee indicates the lurking of a stress-related problem in the person. Annoyance with the smallest of matters indicates the existence of deep-seated personality issues.

More accidents

Employees may be deeply distressed by personal problems and they may be depressed and sad. This can lead to more frequent accidents and mishaps at work. Such mistakes by employees can reduce their productivity and also damage their career.

Increased fatigue

Stress-filled work life leads to fatigue. Fatigue is caused not just by physical exertion but by psychological issues like anxiety and de-motivation.

Bad habits of addiction

Most of the stressed individuals of modern life resort to addictions to relieve their stress. This includes alcoholism, drug abuse, smoking etc. These offer an escape from the sad reality. Counselling is vital for employees to get rid of such wrong habits.

Benefits of business psychology consulting firms

Decline in absenteeism

Absenteeism is caused by two reasons: sickness or need for a holiday. Both factors are related to stress. Business psychology consulting firms offer counselling to tackle unhealthy anxiety and stress. Thus, employees will not only be less absent but will be motivated by having fun at work.

Realize true potential

By counselling employees to gain a positive outlook in general, this helps them realize their true potential. Once they do this, they are able to focus better on their career. This benefits the company much in the long run.

Deal with potential threats

Even counselling cannot totally eliminate stress. But it can help train employees with the skills to deal with potential problems. This helps develop a positive perspective on employees. For instance, they learn how to deal with criticism. This leads to improved morale and confidence.

In sum, timely counselling can prove useful for helping employees and enhance the general productivity of any organization.