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THEY were boring days but they were happy days - if you liked
being a cog.
The corporate ladder to comfortable retirement beckoned those who
kept their shoes clean and laughed at the boss's jokes.
Today, computers do the repetitive tasks at knockdown prices. People
lucky enough to have kept their jobs must show the flexibility once
associated with the selfemployed - hence the surge of interest from
some of the tough-est companies in career counselling.
Staff can go to the on-site career counsellor and let rip about anything,
from how they hate their job to how they could take the boss's place.
Another touchy-feely fad from America? Don't believe it. Employers
are convinced it is a small price to pay to ensure that staff give
their best.
Layers of management used to take care of decision-making. Now all
employees are expected to show initiative, and if they perform badly
the organisation suffers.
Rob Nathan, of the long established Career Counselling Services in
south London, is blunt about the reasons for the trend - 'The organisation
won't carry people any more. It won't allow people to stagnate. It's
the same in most organisations.'
Career Counselling Services has run career counselling workshops
for Wellcome - now Glaxo Wellcome - for eight years.
What made the drugs group take up career counselling ahead of the
pack? Nathan says: The workshops stemmed partly from people asking
for meetings with Personnel Managers. Somebody might ask how reorganisation
was going to affect him, and inquire what other opportunities were
available.,
Wellcome realised this was an opportunity to harness unfulfilled
ambitions for the group's benefit.
Nathan is emphatic that, at its most successful, career counselling
takes a broader approach than career guidance.
Career guidance, he says, assesses People's skills and slots them
into the right job. That was fine when jobs were for life.
Career counselling is meant to enable people to look at their interests
and abilities and decide what they want to do as the world changes
around them.
Last month Career Counselling Services held the first courses on the
subject. Nationwide building society sent its personnel manager, Paul
Mehra. He says: 'It enabled us to practice career counselling by putting
us through the process.'
He says that career counselling improves the morale of the workforce
because it shows concern for staff. More tangibly, it enables employers
to gain from their staffs' hidden talents and interests.
'Organisations are changing so fast that people must be more flexible
in what they do - for example, in moving from retail to marketing,,
he says. 'It's also an opportunity for the organisation
to tell workers how they need to adapt to changes such as new technology.
The employer can identify the skills needed and work out whether they
can be developed in-house, as Nationwide likes to do if possible,
or whether they should be bought in.'
Nathan adds, however, that as a result, workers cannot expect to move
automatically to more senior positions. 'There's more opportunity
for development, but less for promotion.'
One aim is to ensure that workers choose the most fulfilling job from
the much wider range now available. For example, an engineer drifting
into management because of corporate change should be sure he is not
leaving the work he values.
Some of the technological giants have used career counselling to help
employees to adapt to change. A careers action centre set up by Cable
& Wireless takes 1,500 calls a month from employees. The group
is to follow up by starting other centres.
Is career counselling redundancy in sheep,s clothing? Nathan insists
that usually it is aimed at people who mean to stay. He says career
counsellors will tell workers what qualities are needed and advise
them to say to the boss: 'Hey, I'm really interested in this. I could
do it really well. Let me have a go.
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Gains : Staff morale improves, says Nationwide's Paul Mehra,
Counsellor Rob Nathan, above
Says times are changing
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