ROLE OF COUNSELLORS

Human Resource Development is a planned effort to improve knowledge, skill and attitude of employees. An HRD executive has very significant role to help people to work better. By developing competencies a counsellor helps employees to contribute their share in achievement of company's defined objectives. The following are some important aspects to be considered by him to do the job of HRD effectively and efficiently.

1. He should clearly understand the objectives of the organization:

Employees of the organization should be so trained that they achieve effectiveness with a point of view of achieving the targets and objectives. Their role in their department and organization should be clearly spelled out and understood by them in order to make their contribution and commitment more meaningful and forthcoming. Objectives and targets set by the organization offer a definite basis for comparison of performance of the company.

2. He should have awareness about key problems of the organization:

If HRD executive has appreciation and knowledge of the problems of the organization, he can design the training programme to fulfil the training requirements. If training programmes do not lead to better performance and results, they tend to be unproductive and wasteful.

3. He should be able to select the target group for training:

The HRD executive should make a distinction between the target group and other general employee group. The programmes specifically designed to cover learning objectives of the target group are expected to yield better results and achievement of learning objectives. Hence the success of a training programme largely would depend on specification of learning objectives. The learning objectives should be properly defined and clearly stated so that post course evaluation can be objectively done. The selection of target group should be so made as to allow employees of similar group training needs can be combined and repeated inclusion of same participants should be avoided.

4. He should know how to identify training needs:

It is required the person identifying training needs should have knowledge and appreciation of following factors:

A.  The job description to know what competencies are required to perform the jobs. Vis-a-vis traits and qualification of employees.

B.  The individual's training need and group training needs.

C.  Company's technological updating and future expansion plans.

D.  Possible rotation of personnel in different departments.

E.  Work culture of the organization.

5. He should be able to develop curriculum:

An HRD executive should be able to develop and chalk out course contents on systematic lines with proper time allotment for each session to be held for covering the topics decided. Each session should provide for enough time for questions and answers which will indicate to what extent the participants took interest and could understand the concept and skill discussed.

6. He should design training programmes systematically and as per the requirement of a particular group:

While deciding about the design and contents of a training programme, the individual's training needs are to be considered in the context of his being member of a working team, individual's training needs can be met by sponsoring him to an external training programme while a group's training needs can be fulfilled by designing and conducting a training programme to be addressed to training requirement of a group i.e. Target Group.

7.  He should provide physical & learning facilities:

A good trainer provides proper environment and physical conditions to the participants of a training programme so as to create conditions that are helpful in concentrating on the subject being discussed. Not only those physical conditions are important, he also ensures that proper background literature is also provided to the participants and trainees to be helpful for reference in future and also as a refresher course material.

8.  He is Administrator, Counsellor  & Manager of the Programme:

A good trainer is a good administrator in the sense that he keeps participants and trainees disciplined; he supervises them to see that the learning takes place at an accelerated rate and also he collects feedback of the training plan/programme. Not only that he is a good planner to see the proper execution of the programme and follow-up HRD activities but also be ensures that the time is well spent and learning takes place at a faster rate and all training targets are achieved in time.

9.  He should be able to budget the funds being spent for different HRD activities:

To balance the different training plans/programmes, he should be able to plan the budget in such a way that all important activities pertaining to training are carried on cost effective basis. The job of implementation and monitoring by a training officer is very vital.

10. He should be able to evaluate different systems and program:

Without proper and systematic evaluation of training programmes conducted to achieve identified objectives there will not be improvement in the course design on regular basis. Evaluation of a particular programme would pin point what improvements are to be introduced in the programmes to be conducted to similar contents and subject.   After a programme has been offered and addressed to particular groups of people at different levels, it becomes much easier job to identify the areas of improvement which need more stress to generate interest and accelerate learning of the participants.

11. He should evolve the feed back system to obtain views of trainees and participants:

The most popular method of obtaining views of participants has so far been taking their views on some structured questions in the form of a format containing a number of questions and giving multiple choice for answer against each factor. Such evaluations are likely to be based on the reactions are generally given of positive nature and negative feedback is mostly avoided.

12. He should be able to consolidate his views on the above items and put up a report to the concerned officers.

Much depends on the way feedback and comments collected on the structured questionnaire by the person evaluating a particular course programme. Even if suggestions for improvement are noted and discussed in the valedictory sessions of the programme, it is mostly observed that the points for suggestions are noted as information to be recorded and it is seldom that there is implementation of such points by including the points and acting upon suggestions by introducing changes in the course design for future conductance.

A training executive and counsellor can play the following roles. By no means this list is final. These are variety of roles of a training officer and counsellor.

Communicator

Manager

Problem solver

Monitor

Learning system creator

Learner

etc, etc…

QUALITIES FOR COUNSELLORS

Personal Qualities of an Effective Counsellor:

All the counsellors are not alike. They differ in various ways. Their personal characteristics, as well as, their personality differ quite substantially. A number of research organisations have tried to ascertain the personal qualities of a counsellor, which are essential to bring about therapeutical transformation in another person (i.e. the client). Three researchers namely Carkuff, Truax & Carl Rogers came up with the under mentioned characteristics, which are as follows:

a) Empathy:

The empathic behaviour is the ability of a counsellor to stand in the shoes of the client i.e. to see the things from the point of view of the client. The quality of empathy is a must for the counselling process to succeed. Empathy calls for 'forgetting oneself so that the counsellor surrenders himself completely towards the client. The process of empathisation is never total or complete, which leaves a lot to be desired, for the counselling process to succeed. Several empathy enhancing activities helps in enhancing the quality of empathy in a counsellor.

b) Genuineness:

Rogers as well as Truax considered genuineness, as a very important part of counselling. The employees of various public services are well trained to meet the public at large, in a very cordial and friendly manner. "Genuineness" is synonymous with good or honest intentions. A genuine interest in the client is a must for the counselling process to succeed.

c)  Warmth:

Personal warmth or being warm is a controversial issue. There is a hairline difference between being warm or being dubbed as 'sickliness'. The quality of being warm refers to a situation, where a person shows interest in other individual/group. 'Cold' individuals rarely become good counsellors. A word of caution here, a too warm counsellor may lead towards the development of over-dependence on the part of the client. The ideal feeling of being warm is the one which demonstrates that the counsellor is non-judgmental and is honestly interested in his/her client. Care should be taken to see that the counsellor does not try to dominate the process of counselling.

d)  Concreteness:

It can be termed as a type of skill. It is an ability to listen, to what is being said by the client, instead of what is being implied. Concreteness in counselling is essential, if the counselling process has to succeed. A counsellor possessing the skill of ‘concreteness' does not go for details (regarding psychological explanations) of what the client is speaking about, but instead tries to understand what the client is trying to express. Any quick, preconceived or initial judgment about what the client is saying will not be particularly helpful. In fact, it will be counterproductive. The concept of concreteness almost integrates all the important elements of the counselling process. A concrete counsellor, invariably, listens to and accepts what the client is saying and does not quickly make his judgments.

e)  Unconditional Positive Regard:

Rogers came up with a term called, 'unconditional positive regard' to refer to 'necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change' in the counselling relationship. Rogers emphasized that the counsellor's positive feeling for the client must never be conditional in nature. He further suggested that the counsellor should feel warmly disposed towards the client, irrespective of the client's feelings or emotions, which is almost impractical or unreal. This is impossible. Further, it is important that a counsellor is broad minded and initially non-judgmental. Also positive general disposition towards the client is a must for the counselling process to succeed.

f)   A Tragic Sense:

In order to get involved with a client's problem a 'tragic sense of life' must be developed. All human beings have some limitations. A tragic sense helps the counsellor to remain humble. It also inducts a sense of humanity in him. Counsellors are not people with better brains, but are the people who readily listen to the problems of their clients.

g)  A Sense of Humour:

A sense of humour comes quite handy, in rescuing most of the sensitive or delicate situations. It does not means that a counsellor should resort to a comedian's tactics. It also does not mean that a counsellor should start taking the conversation during counselling session lightly. But, it means to help a client to regain the sight of the larger picture of a problem. It helps in calming down the tense atmosphere, that builds up because the clients generally blow the things out of proportion. Even subjects dubbed as 'taboos', can be easily confronted with the help of a sense of humour.

h) Self-awareness:

It means to being aware of oneself i.e. to be aware of one's own limitations and strengths. It means to explore oneself. It is a realistic attempt of comparing oneself with other people. It means to explore one's own life situations.

A MAN is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

- James Allen in “As a Man Thinketh”