Priya Sridharan, M.A.
Organizational Consultant

Organizations are made up of people. As such some of the everyday issues and concerns that can arise are: stress, absenteeism, low morale, conflict, prejudice, apathy and tardiness. These all have a singular effect on the company: inefficiency and low-productivity.

Unhappy employees make for an unhealthy organization. It follows, that the goal of any CEO, Director or Manager should be to ensure all their employees and associates are emotionally stable, functional and capable. When employees' issues are not addressed the result can be highly damaging to the organization as a whole. In some cases this damage can be irreversible- failure to meet deadlines, poor work, constant tension and anxiety, loss of concentration, and finally resentment of the ‘bosses' can build. Relationships between employees can sour and lead to sabotage of projects, ultimately leading to the organization's failure.

Is counseling in the workplace necessary or is it just an added expense? Recent research in Organizational Psychology shows that companies that provide support for the well-being of employees reflect high performance. These ‘healthy' organizations have fewer turnovers and spend less money on needless training and orientation processes, medical insurance claims are decreased, fewer sick days are taken and absenteeism declines. As employees believe that their organization cares they begin to feel a sense of belonging and a need to give back. Performance and quality of work is maintained at a higher level and there develops a sense of pride in the success of the organization.

Personal problems can become personnel problems. To fight the advent of unhappy employees companies are turning to Organizational Psychologists and Consultants. The study of behavior, motivation, morale and performance allows for the improvement of productivity. When management is attentive to employee attitude and provides the necessary assistance, studies have found a high positive correlation to positive productivity of the organization.

Assistance to employees comes in different forms. An Employee Assistance Program is one of the more effective methods. Essentially an EAP can be outsourced or set up internally as support to the Human Resource team. In either condition the most important factor is confidentiality. Employees must believe they are ‘safe' to discuss issues with the counselors. To maintain honesty and positive results strict confidentiality is the basis of all services provided by the EAP. These services include counseling sessions for personal and clinical concerns, training in skills such as anger management, emotional intelligence, time management, leadership and empowerment, stress management and self-efficacy, to name a few. While an EAP is the first step for employees, there are situations when a counselor may refer the employee to other clinical orientations as needed. The existence of an EAP provides a source of support every employee can be certain of when facing personal or work-related problems.

Counselors are professionally trained to manage emotional and behavioral issues related to personal and work stress. Stress can result from family issues such as divorce, death, or conflict issues within the workplace. A circumstance when an EAP is vital to organizational well-being is when there is a critical incident at the workplace. This could be an accident or violent situation. Counselors provide trauma assistance immediately and ensure that all employees are fully supported emotionally.

Organizations providing consistent training for their managers in the areas of conflict management, communication and cross-cultural awareness and leadership, to name a few, are finding employees are more satisfied within the organizational environment. Managers with the skills needed to respond to the ‘human' factor are able to prevent negative behaviors and attitudes with their teams before they set in. In essence, managers have become the initial ‘counselors' who then use EAP services as support.

As diversity and globalization cast greater influence on the world of business, the idea of management is changing. More companies are finding that in order to maintain a higher morale and efficiency, managers are now focusing their skills more on the management of people. There is a growing trend to provide supportive services to employees. In paying attention to the behavioral, cognitive and emotional well-being of employees, organizations develop and grow with greater quality.

Priya Sridharan is a consultant with Comprehensive Medical Center