Coping With

Problem
Performers
ENGMANA
Table of contents

01 02 03
Handling
Counseling
complaints and How and when to
troubled
avoiding discipline
employees
grievances
“No great achiever – even
those who made it seem easy
– ever succeeded without
hard work.”
— Jonathan Sack
Employee
Counseling!
Employee
Counseling
Employee counseling is a vital part of
performance review and potential appraisal, if
these are to achieve their basic purpose of
helping employees to improve and develop.

Unless carefully and sensitively handled,

employees may become more dissatisfied after
the counselling than before. Employee counseling
is a method of understanding and helping
individuals who have technical, personal and
emotional adjustment problems interfering with
their work performance.
Employee Counseling is the most important tool of a
supervisor who wants to improve the performance and
behavior of an employee. If performance problems persist
even after feedback and coaching which are other two
important tools with a manager, one may need to proceed to
counseling.

Counseling focuses on the problem, not the employee, and

is positive and constructive. Counseling is a formal straight,
face-to-face conversation between a supervisor and an
employee concerning conduct, and performance. It is an
efficient means for a supervisor to have a positive effect on
employee performance.

There are certain prerequisites of a successful counselor.

The first and foremost is that he/she should be approachable
and possess good interpersonal and communication skills.
Armed with an open mind and flexible and challenging
attitude, one should have a genuine desire to help others.
Employee Counseling
Concepts
Counseling is a two-way process in which a counselor provides help to the workers by way of
advice and guidance. There are many occasions in work situations when a worker feels the
need for guidance and counseling. The term ‘counseling’ refers to the help given by a
superior to his subordinate in improving the latter’s performance.

It is a process of helping the employees to achieve better adjustment with his work
environment to behave as a psychologically mature individual, and help in achieving a
better understanding with others so that his dealings with them can be effective and
purposeful. Thus, the basic objective of counseling is overall development of the employee.
Concept
According to Keith Davis – Employee counseling involves a
discussion of an emotional problem with an employee with the
general objective of decreasing it.

This definition has three concept:

(i) Counseling deals with emotional problems.

(ii) Counseling involves discussion i.e., it is an act of communication.

Successful counseling depends on communication skills, primarily face-
to-face, by which one person’s emotions can be shared with another.

(iii) The general objective of counseling is to understand and/or decrease an

employee’s emotional disorder. If two individuals merely discuss an
emotional problem of either of them, a social relationship may be
established, but hardly a counseling one, because intent is not there. For
counseling to exist, an employee must be seeking an understanding or help
and/or the other (known as counselor) must be offering it.
Employee
Counseling – Need
and Objectives
Employees undergo
tremendous stress of
completing the targets,
work-load, meeting deadlines,
relations with subordinates or
colleagues, work-life balance,
lack of time and higher
responsibility.
Therefore, following are some of the
reasons as to why there should be
counseling at work places:
1. There is a need for the employees to come out from
the problems, and give a new way to deal with the
problems.

2. The employees need to know as to how much the

employer cares for the employee.

3. There is also a need to identify the work related

problems and the poor performance.

4. There is a need to increase the productivity of

employee and their confidence about the work.
Objectives of Employee Counseling:
The objectives of employee counseling are multidimensional and all concerned parties
are benefited due to employees counseling. The parties involved in benefits from
employee counseling are employee, family member, peers, subordinates, seniors,
organization and society as a whole.

Due to this the popularity of employee counseling is increasing day-by-day in the

corporate sector and mainly in medium and large sizes of organizations. The role of
employee counseling in future will be more important.
The objectives of counseling could be
stated as follows:
(i) Counseling is an exchange of ideas and feelings between two persons.

(ii) It is concerned with both personal and work problems.

(iii) Counseling may be performed by both professionals and

non-professionals.

(iv) Counseling is usually confidential so as to have free talk and

discussion.

(v) It tries to improve organizational performance by helping the

employees to cope with their problems.
The objectives of counseling could be
stated as follows:
i. Helping employees to realize their potential.

ii. Helping employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

iii. Providing employees an opportunity to acquire more insight into their

behavior and analyze the dynamics of such behavior.

iv. Helping employees to have a better understanding of the environment.

v. Increasing personal and interpersonal effectiveness through effective feedback.

vi. Encouraging employees to set goals for further improvement; and

vii. Providing employees an atmosphere for sharing and discussing their tension,
conflicts, concerns, and problems.
The three basic ingredients of the
process are:
i. Communication

ii. Empowering

iii. Helping.

Communication involves receiving messages (listening), giving messages

(responding), and giving feedback. The counselor or the mentor does all these.
The process of empowering enables the other person to exercise more autonomy,
providing positive reinforcement so that the desirable behaviour is further
strengthened and creates conditions in which the person is able to learn from the
behavior of the mentor. Finally, helping primarily involves identification of the
developmental needs of the person being counseled so that he/she may be able
to develop and increase his/her effectiveness.
8 Types of Employee Counseling
1. Directive Counseling
- It is full counseling. It is the process of listening to an employee’s problem,
deciding with the employee what should be done and telling and
motivating the employee to do it. This type of counseling mostly does the
function of advice, reassurance and communication. It may also perform
other functions of counseling.
- It centers on the counselor. The counselor, after hearing the problems of an
employee, decides what should be done and gives advice and suggestions
to the employee to resolve the problem.
2. Non-Directive Counseling
- It is the process of skilfully listening to the emotional problems of an
employee, understanding him/her and determining the course of action
to be adopted to resolve his problem. It focuses on the counselee hence
it is called ‘client centered’ counseling. Professional counselors usually
adopt this method of counseling. The unique advantage of this type of
counseling is its ability to cause the employees reorientation. The main
stress is to ‘change’ the person instead of dealing with his immediate
problem only.
- It is the process of skilfully listening and encouraging a counselee to
explain troublesome problems, understand them and determine
appropriate solutions.
3. Cooperative Counseling
- It is the process in which both the counselor and client mutually
cooperate to solve the problems of the client. It is neither wholly client
centered nor wholly counselor centered but it is centered both
counselor and client equally. It is defined as mutual discussion of an
employee’s emotional problem to set up conditions and plans of actions
that will remedy it. This form of counseling appears to be more suitable
to managerial attitude and temperament.
- All of these counseling approaches depend on active listening.
Sometimes the mere furnishing of information or advice may be the
solution to what at first appeared to be a knotty problem.
4. Participative Counseling
- Both directive and non-directive methods suffer from limitations. While
the former is often not accepted by independent employees, the latter
needs professionals to operate and hence is costly. Hence, the
counseling used in most situations is in between these two. This middle
path is known as participative counseling.
- Participative is a counselor-counselee relationship that establishes a
cooperative exchange of ideas to help solve an employee’s problems. It
is neither wholly counselor centered nor wholly counselee-centered.
Counselor and counselee mutually apply their different knowledge,
perceptions, skills, perspectives and values to problem into the
problems and find solutions.
5. Desensitization
- Once an individual is shocked in a particular situation, he/she gives
himself/herself no chance for the situation to recur. This method can be
used to overcome avoidance reactions, so as to improve the emotional
weak spots. If an employee is once shocked by the behavior, approach or
action of his superior, he would continue to avoid that superior.
- It is difficult for such superiors to be effective counselors, unless such
superiors prove otherwise through their behavior or action on the
contrary. Similarly, once an employee is shocked by a particular
situation, he can be brought back to that situation only if he will be
convinced through desensitization that the shock will not take place
further.
6. Catharsis
- Originally, the term was used as a metaphor in Poetics by Aristotle to
explain the impact of tragedy on the audiences.
- Discharge of emotional tensions can be called catharsis. A Catharsis is
an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral
or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and
stress.
- Emotional tensions can be discharged by talking them out or by
relieving the painful experience which engendered them. It is an
important technique as a means of reducing the tensions associated
with anxiety, fear, hostility, or guilt. Catharsis helps to gain insight into
the ways an emotional trauma has been affecting the behavior.
7. Insight
- Founded by Sigmund Freud, insight dives deep into an employee’s past
and brings to light past experiences and current unconscious thoughts
and behaviors of the employee, that are believed to be the cause of their
current problems.
- Insight therapy is a type of therapy that helps the employee to
understand how events in the past are negatively influencing the
current thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This type of treatment can be
quite empowering for employees, because it is identifying the source of
their problems. Identifying the reasons for low self-esteem, insecurity,
depression, anxiety, etc., is the first step towards resolving those
conflicts and issues.
8. Developing the New Patterns
- Developing new patterns becomes very often necessary when other
methods to deal with weak spots remain ineffective. In order to develop
new, more satisfying emotional reactions, the individual needs to expose
himself to situations where he can experience positive feelings. The
manager who deals with such individuals may motivate or instigate
them to put themselves into such situations, so that their
self-confidence may increase.
- Every counselor must concentrate his/her full attention on two aspects,
using assessment tools, and utilizing counseling methods, choice of
which differs from person to person, situation to situation, and from
case to case.
Handling
complaints
and avoiding
grievances
COMPLAINTS
Employee complaints are inevitable even in the most
work-friendly companies. Some complaints are quickly and
easily resolved, while others take more time, energy and
patience.

Importance:
● Alert you to a new or growing problem before it gets
out of hand and turns into a grievance.

● Draw attention to a chronic problem you thought was

resolved.

● Give you a chance to retain valued employees by

attending to their concerns promptly.
Responding to
complaints
Listen to the
complainant.
What is the specific issue? Ask pointed questions to get
beyond vague contentions. If someone says, "We're all
working under way too much stress lately," ask what
projects or issues are causing the stress. Ask too for
ideas to resolve the matter.

Question other
employees.
Ask them about their perception of the issue and
look for the root of the problem. For example, is
morale low across the whole company because of
recent financial setbacks or management
changes?
Provide an update.
Let the employee know the status of their
complaint. If you agree there is a problem,
specify what you intend to do about it. If you
decide not to act on their complaint, explain
why.

Act on the problem.

Schedule a date on your calendar to check
and see if the employee is satisfied with the
results.
How to reduce the number of
complaints
Regular feedback
Encourage your managers to give regular
feedback on performance. The number one
complain of most employees is lack of input
on how they're doing.

Involvement
Involve employees in planning their own
work.

Employees' ideas
Ask for and acknowledge employees'
ideas. If employees feel invested in the
corporate culture, you may be able to
prevent a "culture of complaint."
Silencing the constant
complainer
1. 2. 3.
If the complaints really are petty,
Give even constant Use preventive tactics. confront the complainer. He may
complainers the Some dedicated whiners not realize how his complaining
benefit of the doubt: are signaling that they affects people — how their
their concerns may need more attention. If constant complaining can harm
turn out to be well possible, give it to them. morale company-wide. Encourage
founded. Listen Ask for their opinions and him to suggest solutions to the
carefully. Even if let them know how much problems he identifies, instead of
you've heard a you appreciate their just pointing out the problems.
similar complaint contributions. Be aware This may lead him to think through
from this individual, that this can backfire if it the complaint more thoroughly
is there some new just encourages the before voicing it. If the complaining
twist that might employee to complain still continues, tactfully suggest
render the complaint even more often. that yours may not be the right
valid?
company for him.
GRIEVANCES

Grievances, on the other hand, are formal

complaints made by employees when they
think a company or government policy,
such as an anti-discrimination law, has
been violated. A perceived transgression
against a union contract is also grounds for
filing a grievance. Grievances are alarm
bells warning you about large problems
that require immediate attention.
Responding to
Listen carefully to the person grievances
submitting the grievance.
Try to see the situation from his or her point of view.
Ask questions. If someone says, "The women in the
office are being harassed," ask for specific examples.

Consult your company lawyer and

HR professional.
It is important that you take specific steps
when following up to validate a grievance.
Provide an update.
Tell the person who submitted the grievance what
steps you plan to take. If you agree there is a
problem, specify what you intend to do about it. If
you can't validate the grievance, let the person know
what you did to investigate the problem and why
you aren't pursuing it.

Act on the problem.

Schedule a date on your calendar to
check and see if the person who
submitted the grievance is satisfied with
the results.
Handling
formal
grievances

Apart from resolution, If still unresolved, the

Complainants and their management would complaint should go
supervisors or team invite complainants to before a special mediator
leaders should try hard discuss their issues such as your human
to resolve the problem with the next higher resources director. A
through discussion. level of third, outside party may
management-without be used for last-ditch
repercussions. arbitration.
How to avoid grievances
Have a system in place
Stay in for resolving
touch. complaints quickly and
Employees who feel consistently
like they can
Make sure your
approach
employee
management with
handbooks,
concerns will be less
contracts and work
likely to allow
agreements include
problems to grow to
rules for hearing and
a point that filing a
settling disputes.
grievance is
necessary.
Employee Discipline
1. Know what the law says about employee discipline.

Discipline can come in several forms, depending on the issue and how
often it happens. It might be something as mild as coaching or as serious
as a verbal or written warning. Employers have basic leeway in choosing
their approach. However, there are laws that broadly cover employee
discipline and termination issues. For example, the Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which only applies to
businesses of certain sizes, while the National Labor Relations Law,
which deals with unionized employees, or laws pertaining to age
discrimination and civil rights in regards to employment.
2. Establish clear rules for employees.

Being clear about your employment policies is imperative. You can’t begin to discipline an employee for
behavior they didn’t know was unacceptable. There are a few common areas you’ll want to cover in your
employee handbook and training:
● first is Employment at-will is not a federal law. Rather, it’s a standard practice business owners often
adopt. It means that employers can terminate an employee for any reason with or without notice,
second
● Attire and dress codes are a common struggle for businesses, particularly when your workforce is
made up of younger workers.
● Behavior rules are tricky to define. They include how employees get along with coworkers, how they
treat customers, discriminatory actions, appropriate use of language, and so on.
● Productivity and work ethic involve how much you expect an employee to do, and specific duties and
benchmarks for specific jobs. You will also want to address tardiness.
● Mobile device usage has become so prevalent that it’s worth noting on its own instead of burying it in
behavior codes. Be specific about what you allow and what is unacceptable.
● Illegal behavior, such as theft, illegal drug use, intoxication, or violence, are grounds for immediate
termination, whether you use a progressive discipline process or not.
3. Establish clear rules for your managers

All managers must be consistent in putting your disciplinary policies into action. There are federal laws
that require you to apply discipline equally and consistently. To keep managers on the same page:
● Hold regular manager training, and make discipline policy review a prominent part.
● Be sure managers understand they should not make promises of future employment if behavior
or productivity improves, since this can be seen as contractual by employees.
● Pay attention to disciplinary issues to be sure all employees are having the same experience.
● Have a common form for all managers and departments to use when they write up an employee
for a disciplinary infraction, if you use written notices as part of the process. Be sure they fill out
the form in full.
● Have a system which allows you to easily review disciplinary write-ups.
● Pay attention during employee reviews for hints that there are issues with equal treatment of
employees by different managers. Make it a point to ask about this issue.
● Discipline your managers if they fail to uphold your own policies.
4. Decide what discipline method you will use.

There are any number of discipline methods you might use. All discipline methods are based on
the idea that there is a goal or benchmark that needs to be met, and that not meeting it puts
something into motion. First is Progressive discipline is the process where you increase the
level of severity of your discipline when an employee fails to correct an issue. Second is
Training and performance improvement plans are less about fixating on a problem and using
the threat of termination, and instead see each employee as valuable and worth investing in.
They are a rehabilitative approach. And third is Reassignment or suspensions are often
associated with behavioral issues or severe conflict in which the employee has to be removed
from a situation immediately but termination isn’t called for.
5. Document employee discipline.

When you suddenly find yourself in a worst-case scenario, documentation is going to help you
out. If employee discipline leads to firing or legal action, having no documentation to refer as a
reason for disciplinary action will leave you open to possible legal consequences.Documentation
consists of two types:

● For the employee file. This is the documentation and notes you make and keep in the
employee file but do not share with the employee. These are often the notes you might use
during an employee review or when you’ve given the employee a verbal warning.
● For written warnings. If you’re using written warnings, this is the type of documentation
you share with an employee in private that is part of your discipline process.
6. Be proactive by using employee reviews.

Regular employee reviews, even for small businesses, are a proactive approach to
employee discipline. Reviews are pretty flexible; they can be worked into just about any
discipline process. They’re also useful if you don’t want to get locked into a progressive
approach but instead want to help build the employee up and encourage (through
coaching and training) better performance or behavior. Documentation of behavior
(good and bad) and productivity over time is what makes the difference between a great
review and a waste of time. You have specifics to talk about, and that’s helpful.
7. Get the right mindset.

It’s important that managers don’t see employee

discipline as punishing an employee. This is a common
failure in progressive discipline in which it’s easy to slip
into a mentality of “if you don’t do X, I’ll punish you by
escalating this. ”Employees aren’t your children, and
thinking that negative punishment will bring about a
positive result is foolish. At best, you’ll get the right
behavior but the employee will likely feel resentment. As
soon as a better job opportunity comes along, you’ll
probably see those employees leave.
8. Stop focusing on productivity as your ultimate measure.

If managers are so focused on productivity, it’s too easy for them to let bad behavior slide as
long as productivity goals are being met. Guess what inevitably happens? You could call it the
nuclear option. Problems grow and grow and it gets to the point where the only option a
manager has, after ignoring issues for so long, is to take immediate and drastic action.
Productive employees can still be creating problems, possibly even making employees around
them less productive.
9. Follow your own guidelines.

Last but not least: whatever employee discipline policy you create, follow it. It’s surprising
how many employee rules and guidelines are created and then ignored by management. If
you have it in the handbook and employees have agreed to it, your managers must follow it.
POP
QUIZ!
1-5. Give atleast 5 objectives of
counseling.
6. Give one way on how to reduce the
number of complaints
7. It is the process of listening to an
employee’s problem, deciding with the
employee what should be done and
motivating the employee to do it. It is
considered to be “full counseling”.
8. What is the number one step in
responding to a complaint or
grievance?
9. What is the difference between a
complaint and a grievance?
10-12. The three basic ingredients of
the process are:
13. It is the process of skillfully
listening to the emotional problems
of an employee, understanding
him/her and determining the course
of action. It is considered to be
“client centered”.
14. Every counselor must concentrate his/her full
attention on two aspects, using assessment tools,
and utilizing counseling methods, choice of which
differs from person to person, situation to situation,
and from case to case.
A.Developing the New Patterns
B.Desensitization
C.Participative Counseling
D.Catharsis
15.This method can be used to overcome avoidance
reactions, so as to improve the emotional weak
spots. It is difficult for such superiors to be effective
counselors, unless such superiors prove otherwise
through their behavior or action on the contrary.

A.Developing the New Patterns

B.Desensitization
C.Participative Counseling
D.Catharsis
16. It is a counselor-counselee relationship that
establishes a cooperative exchange of ideas to help solve
an employee’s problems. It is neither wholly counselor
centered nor wholly counselee-centered. Counselor and
counselee mutually apply their different knowledge,
perceptions, skills, perspectives and values to problem
into the problems and find solutions.
A.Developing the New Patterns
B.Desensitization
C.Participative Counseling
D.Catharsis
17.Originally, the term was used as a
metaphor in Poetics by Aristotle to
explain the impact of tragedy on the
audiences.

A.Developing the New Patterns

B.Desensitization
C.Participative Counseling
D.Catharsis
18.What is the process where you
increase the level of severity of your
discipline when an employee fails to
correct an issue?
19.What are the two types of
documentation?
20. If you were faced with an
employee who always complains
and creates an uncomfortable
atmosphere in the workplace, how
would you handle the situation?
Thank you
Report by:

Almadrigo, David Ludy Andre

Navajas, Allana Ayon

Serrano, Elwin Merc M.

Ty, Dominic Edward G.