WORKLIFE GUIDANCE TOOLBOX
Introduction to worklife guidance
When we talk about the guidance offered for workers at the workplace, the established terms in english are 'guidance at the workplace' or 'workplace guidance / workplace counselling'.
Worklife guidance refers to the notion that people do not have separate working lives and personal lives - they are all parts of our one, whole life. These parts of our life influence on each other, reflecting the positive things in our lives as well as the challenges we face.
In the project 'Worklife Guidance' it was decided to use the concept 'guidance' instead of 'counselling', although we use the term counselling in the subtitle (Development of guidance and counselling in the workplace).
Read more about the terms here!
Worklife guidance is an answer to the demand and needs for guidance and counselling arising at the workplace, among employees. It is one form of guidance and unites different methods of guidance focused on employees. Worklife guidance embraces the wholeness of human life. Guidance can be of support, help and assist in employee's professional growth, in facing changes and challenges at work and in career development management. Guidance is an interstitial space, where the employee has a chance to stop, to breathe, to reflect, to study, to clarify and to conceive. Guidance offers an employee a chance to find meaning and sense and to construe comprehension at work and about work.
At it's best, worklife guidance creates a win-win situation for both the organisation / employer and employee. In organisational framework, guidance and counselling generate profits and productivity. On the individual level, guidance holds an understanding towards the employee's life as a whole. Guidance serves as a connector between demands and strategical objectives of the organisation and the employee's personal wishes and goals.
This is a picture of worklife guidance from Finland. Teea Oja, Oulu Adult Education Centre.
Read more about worklife guidance in different European countries!
In Worklife guidance project the partners from Iceland, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden described lifelong guidance practices. In this report you find a summary and comparison of all the key methods of worklife guidance in each country.