EFFECTIVENESS OF EMPLOYEE COUNSELING AT THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNIT OF DIFFUN, QUIRINO

I. THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

The Importance of Developing and Preserving Human Resources Counseling programs geared specifically for employees in or near their work settings have grown steadily in recent years in the Philippines, primarily because employers have come to recognize the importance of developing and preserving valuable human resources. Managers have begun to listen to the ideas of people like Peters and Waterman, whose best-selling book on corporate excellence exhorts, Treat people as adults. Treat them as partners: treat them with dignity; treat them with respect. Treat them - not capital spending and automation - as the primary source of productivity gains… In other words, if you want productivity and the financial reward that goes with it, you must treat your workers as your most important asset (1982).
In general, counseling services for employees can be divided into two major categories, namely, those dealing with personal problems and those dealing with career development.
The employee counseling programs that deal with personal problems will focus on employees’ mental and physical health and deal with personal problems that might, even indirectly, affect job performance. Those that deal with career development programs will use assessment, counseling, planning, and training to help individuals make and act on career decisions within the context of the organization’s human resources plans. Each of the two approaches is built on the theory that individual and organizational needs can be compatible (Lewis & Lewis, 1986).

Background of the Study
It is estimated that the Philippines, in experiencing an astounding pace of development and as it maintains its current growth rate of 8.5% per annum, will become an industrialized nation in the year 2020. However, being part of an emerging industrialized nation, the Filipino workforce is already suffering from some of the ills that have befallen developed countries, such as an increased rate of family violence, divorce and stress-related illnesses.
The Local Government had been fully aware of the effects that had taken toll upon the Filipino workforce. Generally, in any organization an average of about 10% of the employees are incapacitated by acute or chronic personal problems such as family and marital problems, financial difficulties, legal problems, drug and alcohol abuse, emotional upsets or career problems. All these will affect work performance. Studies also show that employees have three times as many accidents, four times the rate of absenteeism, make more health insurance claims and more likely to make mistakes at their work and take more sick leave, under such circumstances. All in all, this will add on to the loss of work time and productivity for the organization. This in fact constitutes the major loss of work time rather than industrial action.
Employee counseling was to be a major activity in the promotion of employee development. He stressed that supervisors and managers should be engaged in formal counseling sessions for the purpose of handling grievances, dealing with discipline matters, improving performance, disseminating information about benefits, policies and procedures, and helping employees in career development.

It is therefore evident that there is a real need for employee counseling programs to be implemented in the workplace to address the various social and psychological problems being faced by the Filipino workforce.
Objectives of this study
This study aimed to:
1. Study the benefits of employee counseling in LGU Diffun, Quirino.
2. Examine the essential elements necessary for the successful implementation of employee counseling taking into consideration the culture and custom of the people.

Statement of the Problem
The main thrust of this action research is to know the effectiveness of employeescounseling in the Local Government Unit in Diffun, Quirino Province.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions: 1. What are the employees’ attitudes towards employees counseling? 2. What are the qualities of a good counselor? 3. What are the problems encountered by the respondents?
Significance of the study
This study provides the conceptual framework upon which counseling programs are based, as well as the types of activities and skills that are involved. The focus is on such programs that will help employees deal with personal or health problems that might affect their productivity. The study will show that an employee counseling program can succeed only in the context of an organizational commitment to its goals. The successful programs tend to be the one that is carefully planned, efficiently implemented, and well received by the people it has been designed to serve.

With the increasing emphasis on workplace productivity at the workplace, employee counseling programs can create a conducive work environment for them to produce value-added work. Continuous guidance and counseling becomes a key factor for improved workplace productivity.

Such a study will definitely interest the LGU’s which are planning to implement or had already implemented employee counseling programs in their workplace. The study will provide vital information for these corporations either to know how to start right or to improve their existing programs.
Scope and limitations of the Study
The scope of this study covered a study that was carried in a Local Government Unit (LGU) in the Municipality of Diffun, Quirino Province to assess the effectiveness of counseling services and the common problems faced by the employees.
The population of the study included employees of positions from general clerk to managers.
The limitation of the study is that it is focused on the sample of the population and is therefore confined to the response of this sample. Also as stated above, the duration of the study is limited to a three months period only. If the duration could have been extended, the study may perhaps have been able to cover a bigger sample size.

Definition of Terms
Employee Counseling. Employee counseling can be defined as a process which is initiated by the counselor or the manager to assist the employee or subordinate to gain knowledge, understanding and insights on a performance concern. This could relate to the counselee’s attitude, motivation or interpersonal skills. Essentially the counseling is to provide timely professional and confidential aid for employees whose personal problems might otherwise lead to work impairment, absenteeism, reduce productivity and cause accidents and conflicts in the workplace, or even job termination.

Culture. Culture can be defined as a shared and commonly held body of general beliefs and values which define the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘oughts’ of life for those who hold them. As stated by Hofstede (1984), culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. It is the cumulative deposits of knowledge, experience, meanings, beliefs, values, attitudes, religions, concepts of self, the universe, hierarchies of status, role expectations, spatial relations and time concept acquired by a large group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
Values. Values have a great influence on the way we think, behave and relate with people and perform our daily tasks. The current thinking is that values drive the business. An organization’s values, what it stands for and what its people believe in are crucial to its competitive success. Values provide a common language for aligning organizational leadership with its people. It gives shape and character to the organization, and in turn the organization gives recognition to actualizing the values through shared practices (Westwood, 1990).
In the context of this study, the word value refers to the cultural responses to the concept of counseling and the benefits that will be derived from such services.
Psychological tests. Psychological tests need objectivity and posses standard measurement on the response of the sample. Psychological tests like other scientific tests, are conducted on a small but carefully selected sample. The reaction of the sample can be observed according to the responses from the subjects. The responses can be taken as scores or data for analysis.
In answering the psychological test, there is no right or wrong answer because the focus is on getting the descriptive response that is representative of the individual views and values. Therefore the test was to be a measurement that is objective, uniform and standard in measuring the response of a selected sample (Anastasi, 1982).
Measures of Effective Counseling. Employee counseling programs are meant to provide effective means of dealing with problems in the workplace. Each program therefore must be designed to meet specific goals that have been identified as important to the well-being of the organization and its members. Planning a program and evaluating its effectiveness go hand in hand. At the planning stage, goals and objectives are set; at the evaluating stage, the success of the program in meeting its stated objectives is measured.

II. RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Foreign Literature
The connotation of the word “counseling” is misleading. Some of the skills and techniques used in employee counseling resemble those used by professional therapist. It is imperative to emphasize, however, although the techniques are similar, the purpose of the sessions are dramatically different. Employee counseling is reserved for work-related problems. A major role of employee counseling is to help employees recognize problems and seek appropriate assistance. It is important to realize the fundamental difference between therapeutic and workplace counseling. The major goal of therapist is to make individuals feel good or better about themselves. Work-place counseling is concerned with developing employee competence, in order to succeed in corporate lives. It would be foolhardy to expect supervisors to be fully trained as functioning counselors. In fact, many problems are created because supervisors fail to realize their limitations as counselors. They sometimes delve too deeply into non-work place problems, and inadvertently cause more harm than good. The most effective supervisory counselors are those who are trained (Lewis & Lewis, 1986).
The Origin of Employee Assistance Programs
However, globally, the employee counseling programs had evolved from employee assistance programs. In Western countries, employee assistance programs concept had emerged from scattered attempts during the last forty years to establish alcoholism rehabilitation programs in a few industries. These programs were essentially alcohol-only treatment programs in the major industries. Over the years, their development had broadened to include employees whose work efficiency has been reduced by other personal problems. Most employee assistance programs today offer a variety of services for the employee for everything from marital problems to financial management. Other specific problems upon which the 1980s model employee assistance programs focus include : depression, stress, anxiety, domestic trauma, and serious psychiatric and medical problems (Dicman & Emener, 1982).
A further development in the recent years has been the widespread adoption of employee assistance programs in hospitals, governmental units, and educational institutions. Roman (1980) pointed out that there are a number of problems in using the industrial employee assistance programs model within a professional work population characteristic of schools and colleges. Nevertheless many colleges, smaller business, public schools, and hospitals in the United States of America did adapt to and adopted the employee assistance programs.
Continuing action in employee assistance programs had produced a widespread national marketing training effort. Specialist in marketing human service programs have been training human service delivery personnel in how to promote employee assistance programs to business, industry, governmental units, schools and colleges (Bilik, 1982).
Employee assistance program is a system for identifying and treating a variety of medical or behavioral problems that might be responsible for an employee’s poor job performance. Its main objective is to restore an employee to normal work behavior and productivity. By offering an alternative to being fired, employee assistance programs can help the employee to be a better producer for his employer as well as to function better as an individual.
The major assumptions underlying the early employee assistance programs are as follows:

1. Unless job performance is impaired, a person’s life or problem is his own.
2. Most problems, regardless of their nature, eventually manifest themselves in poor job performance.
3. It is the role of supervisors to measure and evaluate job performance. Thus they can identify deteriorating job performance without having to diagnose the nature of the underlying problems (Googins, Bradley, 1975).
Evolution of employee assistance programs
Forrest (1983) gave a brief, evolutionary history indicating some major events that have affected the use of growth of employee assistance programs in the United States of America:
1911 - Frederich Taylor published “Principles of Scientific Management.” This book was greatly read in the business world and emphasized the use of workers as though they were machines.
1940s- The Dupont Corporation efforts became the first systematic U.S. corporate program to assist employees with alcohol programs.
1960s - For the first time a serious slippage in the rate of increase in productivity per hour was observed in American industrial workers. This trend has continued.
1971 - NIAAA formed. The National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse was created under Public Law 91-616. This marked the first heavy infusion of federal funds into occupational alcoholism programs.
1972 - NIAAA provided 3 year grants to states and territories to employ state occupational alcohol programs among public and private employers.
1974 - For the first time there was a decline in productivity per hour in American industry.

During the early 1970s, manual workers who earned their living by job skills became outnumbered for the first time in any society by knowledge workers whose work depend on mental skills rather than physical skills and whose productivity is directly related to formal education. This historic shift in the nature of work made the adoption of theory “Y” or theory “Z” management a necessity because knowledgeable workers seem not to produce well under the old directive theory X model. 1973-74- J. Wrich (1980) wrote and published the monograph titled , “The Employee Assistance Program for the Hazelton Foundation, Center City, Minnesota”. This model, called the broad brush approach, advocated a volunteer self-referral component and service to wider range of employee problems beyond alcoholism.
1973-74- NIAAA officials recommended dropping the words alcohol and alcoholism out of the then existing occupational alcohol treatment program titles. They suggested employee counseling or employee assistance service as titles.
1975 - The first national program on employee alcoholism in higher education was held at the University of Missouri. Four subsequent yearly programs have been held to discuss adaptation of employee assistance programs to college and university environments.
1976 - The employee assistance programs model became the dominant model in business, industry, and government.
1977 - An estimated 2,500 employee assistance programs are found to be in existence.
1981 - Over 5,000 employee assistance programs are found to be in operation in the U.S.
Current employee assistance programs philosophy
The early employee assistance programs were sold to management on the basis of the cost effectiveness of treating the most prevalent problem - alcohol abuse. Lowered productivity and performance were the issues of interest to the leadership, and programs that positively addressed these issues were acceptable. The operational process, once the program was in place, was that the employee whose work efficiency was affected negatively by alcohol was confronted by his supervisor and advised to accept help or to risk being fired (Roman, 1980).
The employee assistance programs operational philosophy has changed considerably since the 1950s, and many of the programs put into operation in the 1970s and 1980s are far more humane and broader in focus. Forrest (1983) had observed the following statements that seem to reflect the basis upon which many employee assistance programs are operating in the early 1980s:
1. A trained employee is a valuable asset to be protected, if possible.
2. It is more cost effective to rehabilitate a competent employee with problems than to hire and train another.
3. Statistical estimates on employee problems and the national cost to business and industry in absenteeism, accidents, health claims, turnover, and low productivity is staggering, costing from 15-30 billion dollars per year.
4. Employee assistance programs can have a preventive and remedial focus, both of which are good for the employer, the family, and the employee.
5. Employees’ personal problems are private unless they cause the employees’ job performance to decline and to deteriorate.
6. Employee assistance programs give the employer more flexibility in dealing with problems that used to be ignored or covered up.
7. Employees are beginning to hold their employers liable for mental, emotional problems, and stress that are said to be work related. Employees are winning lawsuits in this area.
8. Productivity is related to worker feelings of well-being. Efforts to improve worker well being should improve productivity.
9. Employee assistance programs are both humane and cost effective.
Today the employee assistance programs are fast growing programs which are being implemented in corporations all over the world. In Malaysia, the more advanced and open corporations have taken note of the proven track records of the employee assistance programs and are ready to invest in such programs for their returns of the benefits.
One important determining factor that will dictate the success of the employee assistance programs will be the culture of the workforce into which the programs are to be integrated. The culture of a country has a strong influence on the way people behave. It plays a significant role in determining and developing the culture of an organization, its expected norms and practices and the training programs available for increasing the productivity of the local workforce. Without a clear understanding of what constitutes acceptable behavior, styles and practices at the work place, programs such as the employee assistance programs may be labeled as being too Western, too foreign and therefore are unacceptable for the local context.
The Cultural Issues
Ultimately, the types of programs which are being offered and adopted should take into consideration the cultural and individual values of employees of the organization.
Culture
As defined in chapter 1, culture is a shared and commonly held body of general beliefs and values which define the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘oughts’ of life for those who hold them.

Culture manifests itself both in patterns of language, thought and in the forms of activity and behavior.
Ethnic Values
Culture is very closely linked to the concept of values. Also defined in chapter 1, values have great influence on the way we think, behave and relate with people and perform our daily tasks. The current thinking is that values drive the business. An organization’s values, what it stands for and what its people believe in are crucial to its competitive success. Values provide a common language for aligning organizational leadership with its people. It gives shape and character to the organization, and in turn the organization gives recognition to actualizing the values through stated practices (Westwood, 1990).

III. METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the research design, the target population, the data collection procedure and the analytical procedure.

Research Design
The descriptive method of research was utilized in this study. The study sought to determine what attitudes the employees have towards the employee counseling within the workplace.
The study was also concerned with the types of problems commonly experienced by the employees.
Respondents of the Study
The respondents of the study included employees of the Local Government Unit of Diffun, Quirino. This includes a total of fifty (50) employees.
Research Instrument
A structured survey questionnaire was the primary data gathering tool employed in this study. It consists of three parts. Part 1 includes the attitudes of the respondents towards employee counseling. Part 2 includes cover the qualities of a good counselor. Part 3 includes the problems encountered by the respondents.

Data Gathering Procedures

The researcher followed the following steps in the gathering of data needed in the study to ensure systematic flow of study:
1.Prepared and validated a permission letter to conduct the study .
2.Finish the final draft of the questionnaire to be floated.
3.Presented the questionnaire to the adviser for checking and further revisions and/ or modifications.
4.Floated research instruments to the target respondents.
5.Retrieved the questionnaires from the respondents after they have answered it completely and accordingly. After retrieval of research instruments, logical interpretation and analysis of data will follow.
Statistical Treatment of Data
Weighted Mean. It was utilized to measure the attitudes of the respondents The formula below was used to compute the weighted mean: Xw= fx

N
Where:
Xw = weighted mean Fx = sum of the product N = total number of scores To interpret the attitudes of the respondents towards counseling program, the scale below was used;

Weight Range Verbal Interpretation
5 4.51 – 5.00 Strongly Agree 4 3.51 – 4.50 Agree 3 2.51 – 3.50 Sometimes 2 1.51 – 2.50 Disagree 1 0.51 – 1.50 Strongly Disagree

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the analysis, interpretations and tabular representation of data gathered for this study. The presentation conforms to the arrangement of problems stated in Chapter 1 of the study.
The questionnaire that elicit responses from the subjects reflecting their attitudes towards counseling services were analyzed by a Descriptive Analysis.
Table 1
Employees Attitudes towards Employees Counseling

Statements | WM | Interpretation | 1. In my opinion, counseling plays an important role in solving employees’ problems. | 4.09 | agree | 2. In my opinion, counseling services should be maintained in this company | 4.74 | Strongly agree | 3. Counseling service is only effective for lower-level employees | 4.94 | Strongly agree | 4. I believe that counselor is not a good adviser in solving problems | 4.52 | Strongly agree | 5. With the experience of counseling, may beneficial information can be obtained by the employees. | 4.68 | Strongly agree | 6. In my opinion, counseling services is not too useful to the employees | 4.56 | Strongly agree | 7. I believe that counseling helps employees in defining their problems | 4.07 | agree | 8. Counseling can help employees in dealing with social problems | 4.51 | Strongly agree | 9. Counseling enables employees to be more responsible towards their duty at work | 3.96 | agree | 10. Counseling enables employees to adapt themselves with colleagues and working environment | 3.82 | agree | 11. To meet and discuss problems with counselor will at least lighten the pressure on the Employees | 4.12 | agree | 12. I realize that the role of counseling in this company is to help the employees in tackling their problems | 4.01 | agree | 13. In my opinion, counseling service is one of the important facilities in an organization | 4.03 | agree | 14. Attending a counseling session helps us to know and realize our weaknesses and problems | 4.08 | agree | 15. Counseling is an important element in improving job satisfaction among the employees | 4.00 | agree | OVERALL WEIGHTED MEAN | 4.27 | agree |

Table 1 shows the employees attitudes towards employees counseling within work place.
It shows that the overall weighted mean was computed at 4.27 with an interpretation of “Agree” using the Likert Scale.
As the results showed a positive attitude towards counseling program, it was clear that the results were indicative that the employees understood the importance of counseling and how it could have benefited them as employees in the organization. The findings of this study concurred with the other similar studies carried out by Cheh (1993) and Ramli (1992).’
The positive attitudes of the employees indicated that they valued the services of the counseling programs. This is also indicative that the employees were open to the counseling services being offered.
Table 2 showed the counselor’s qualities most favored by the subjects were patience, experience and trustworthiness with obtained frequencies of 23, 17, and 13, respectively.
Table 2
Qualities of counselor

Statements | Frequency | Patience | 23 | Qualified | 3 | Responsible | 7 | Honest | 5 | Warmth | 4 | Experience | 17 | Trustworthy | 13 | Attractive | 6 |

*Multiple responses

The subjects had chosen patience as the most important quality that a counselor should posses. This could be due to the perception that this quality will enable the counselor to spend time to understand more deeply the problems of the counselees.

Table 3 showed that in terms of degree of severity of the problems experienced by the employees, the order of was as follows: career, financial, health, emotional, family and social. This clearly showed that a larger number of staff have more problems in their career than any other areas. The following were some reasons given by the employees as they expressed their concern in their career: incompetence in carrying out their duties, contemplation of career move, problems with their superior, dissatisfaction with their job, etc.

Table 3
Problems encountered

Statements | Frequency | Financial | 27 | Career | 29 | Marital | 11 | Health | 25 | Work environment | 12 | Chemical dependence | 11 | Family | 17 | Social | 16 | Emotional | 19 |

*Multiple responses

V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The responses in had conclusively shown that employees were open to the counseling services provided and were willing to utilize the services so provided. The awareness of the importance of the counseling programs enabled the employees to overcome the shyness and embarrassment in order to utilize the services provided.

It was evident that the employees will appreciate the management for providing the counseling services. Thus organizations should not just focus on productivity but also to consider the importance of the employee welfare. Mahler and Wrightbour (1973) did a study on the effects of counseling given to employees by 210 managers in three different organizations. The results showed that if managers give counseling to employees whether in formal systematic interviews or in informal sessions, the employees 1) feel more satisfied with their jobs, 2) trust their managers more, and 3) reported that they were happy with the way their managers motivated them.

Employees who are satisfied, motivated and happy with their jobs are more productive. Effective counseling programs are therefore beneficial both to the organizations and the employees.
Recommendations
1. The employee counseling service be strengthened to reach out to more employees. 2. A similar study be conducted at other LGU to verify results. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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