Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the provision of
counselling services on employee productivity in Ghana Cocoa Board.
Descriptive research design was adopted for this study. Proportional stratified
method of sampling was used to select 311 participants from a population of
1630 employees in the Ghana Cocoa Board. The data were collected through
the use of an adapted questionnaire, and both descriptive and inferential
statistics were utilized in the analysis. The results of the study showed that,
counselling was rarely provided for employees at Ghana Cocoa Board. Also, it
was revealed that the respondents perceived counselling to be important at the
workplace. The respondents also had the perception that workplace
counselling is a sign of a caring organisation and also a symbol of good
working conditions. Further, results showed that the respondents saw
workplace counselling to be beneficial for employees and the organisation as a
whole. In terms of challenges, the study found that the lack of professional
counsellors, lack of awareness of counselling among employees and lack of
resources needed for counselling were the main challenges hindering the
provision of counselling. Finally, the findings showed that because
counselling was rarely provided counselling service did not significantly affect
productivity. From the findings, recommendations were made that authorities
of the Ghana Cocoa Board should set up vibrant Counselling Units (Employee
Assistant Programme) across all their offices to help employees resolve their
issues at the workplace.
