July 2004
Career Counseling is a Valuable Benefit for Employees
By Linda Ginac, President
Preserving employee commitment to company goals despite organizational instability is paramount. Organizational changes may cause your employees to experience career challenges that could affect their success at the company. Career counseling is a resource that employers can rely on when work performance, career transition or cultural fit becomes an issue.
One of the most crucial issues facing management is preserving employee commitment to company goals and objectives despite organizational instability. We are experiencing a time of great organizational change led by oversees outsourcing, downsizing, global restructuring, and diminishing career advancement paths. Because of these changes, employees are less likely to rise up the ranks and more likely to change jobs or area of specialization often. With performance being a fundamental cornerstone to financial success, employers will need to implement continuous learning programs and enable employees to acquire new skills to thrive.
At any time, your employees may experience career challenges which may seriously affect their success at the company. If these difficulties go unresolved for a period of time they are likely to impact their ability to cope effectively on the job. For senior-level professionals, the impact can be even more devastating because their work usually has a direct impact on overall business strategy and direction. Career counseling is a strategic resource that employees can use and managers can rely on when work performance, career transition, personal conduct in the workplace and/or culture fit becomes an issue. It provides a means for employers to encourage their employees to seek career assistance early to prevent small problems from getting out of hand and creating greater barriers to success. It’s also a way to help key employees reach higher career aspirations so that they continue to add significant value to the company.
What are the benefits to the employer’s organization?
Employers use career counselors not only as a cost saving measure, but, more importantly, to "do the right thing" for both the employees and the organization. The benefits of having career counselors in-house may include:
- increase in employee productivity
- increase in supervisory effectiveness
- retention of valued employees
- less time spent managing poor performers
- increased quality in employee performance
- improved employee morale
- feeling that your organization cares about employee well-being
- resource base for professional, experienced facilitators of training and staff development programs
What is a Career Counselor?
A career counselor is someone educated, trained and experienced in helping employees tackle their toughest career problems and achieve their highest career aspirations. Career counselors typically are experienced in dealing with assessment, performance improvement, career transition, career pathing, workplace, and work/life balance situations that plague all of us at one time or another. Career counselors are experts in tailoring strategies and techniques to the specific needs of people or groups seeking help.
What does a Career Counselor do?
Career counselors can provide a wide range of services. They will do one or more of the following:
- Administer and interpret assessments and inventories to asses work values, interests, skills and competencies
- Identify alternative internal career options for people in transition that capitalize on individual knowledge, skill and ability profiles
- Develop specific career paths with experience, knowledge, abilities, and skills defined
- Create career development plans to help employees grow and learn
- Maximize person-job-organizational fit
- Explore and prepare employees for internal job searches, including resume preparation, in-house interviewing and networking
- Identify and cultivate internal mentor and career advisor networks for personal career development
- Link employees with internal and external training programs based on performance improvement needs
- Provide unbiased, objective career counseling intervention/mediation/facilitation for people experiencing job stress, job loss or transition during corporate reorganizations, mergers or downsizing
- Teach internal career advisors and mentors how to be more effective in guiding employee development
- Facilitate employee training and development initiatives
Will a Career Counselor keep my issues or concerns confidential?
Yes. Confidentiality is a requirement and a guarantee we make to all employees. Without it, the career counseling program wouldn’t work. Every career counselor knows this rule. No information goes anywhere without your request and written permission.
How much will career counseling cost?
Most organizations hire career counselors on retainer and can expect to pay between $85.00 and $200 per hour. Rates are negotiated based on the number of days a counselor is on-site at the client’s facility and the duration of the contract. For example, one employer may pay $3500 per month for 4 full-time days of service, while another employer may pay $9000 per month for 12 full-time days of service. Many career counselors also price using a fixed-fee model based on project. For example, if an employer wanted to assess a department, a career counselor may propose a total fee for the assignment. Employees are not expected to pay for the service when it’s offered via their employer.
How does career counseling work?
Career counselors typically sit on-site at the employer’s place of business. Most employees usually require 6-12, one-hour sessions but this depends on the nature of the career initiative. Employees typically make appointments with the career counselor and develop a meeting schedule based on availability. For services such as organization-level assessment and development of new or enhanced organization-wide processes and infrastructure, the approach for delivery of services and counselors' time on site is usually determined on a project by project basis.
Business is not only about achieving financial results, it is about valuing and developing human resources. This article suggests some ways for employers to understand the value of offering career counseling to employees. Career counseling serves the organization by developing internal talent, helping employees adjust to major change initiatives, improving the collective I.Q. of the organization and working to counter low morale associate with uncertainty and instability. If you are not currently employing a career counselor at your organization, please consider the many benefits of doing so and contact the Ginac Group, Inc. for more information.
This article originally appeared in NCDA's web magazine, Career Convergence at www.ncda.org. Copyright National Career Development Association, May 2004. Reprinted with permission.
Corporate News
The Ginac Group to deliver training and development to the Department of the Army
The Ginac Group will deliver training to the Department of the Army. Entitled, Re-energize the Organization," this program focuses on providing leaders with the skills and tools they need to embrace and foster positive changes within the Army. The training covers the following topics:
Helping individuals become aware of their typical reaction to organizational change and identify ways to manage it effectively;
Enabling people to understand how their behavior impacts relationships required to grow and sustain an organization;
Ensuring that individuals discover their preferred conflict strategies and learn how to deal effectively with conflict; and
Helping people identify the extent to which they practice the specific skills associated with effective coaching.
If you are interested in learning more about this program, please contact us at 512.732.1254 or send email to contactus@ginacgroup.com.
New Website
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website. An updated list of corporate and individual services has been added to the site. Please visit us at www.ginacgroup.com to learn more about how we can help you with career planning and organizational development initiatives.
New Team Members
We would like to introduce you to two new team members of the Ginac Group, Inc. This addition to our management team allows us to address the increasing demands of our employer base as well as provide higher levels of service our individual client base.
Margarethe Uglum
Career/Organizational Consultant
Margarethe Uglum is a Career and Organizational Consultant with The Ginac Group, Inc. With over 7 years experience in the area of organizational and workforce performance consulting, Margarethe works with both organizations and individual clients to help them effectively manage change and achieve their goals related to improved performance and career development.
Margarethe holds a M.S. in Social Psychology from the University of Florida and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
To learn more about Margarethe, please review her biography.
Kristin Peterson
Career Consultant
Kristin Peterson is a Career Consultant with The Ginac Group, Inc. With over 7 years experience in counseling, recruiting, and assessment, she supports individuals and organizations in planning and managing a wide range of work life and workplace issues. Her area of expertise includes career change and transition, job search strategy, skills identification and career exploration.
Kristin holds a Masters degree in Counseling from the University of Georgia, and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Texas. She is a certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR).
To learn more about Kristin, please review her biography.
New Office Location
The Ginac Group has moved into new office space, so please update your contact information.
The Ginac Group, Inc.
7000 BeeCaves Road
Canyon Vista Building
Third Floor, Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78746
Phone: 512.732.1254
Fax: 512.857.1047
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