When looking at career interventions, one-on-one career counseling is one of the most effective and firmly established types of intervention. Furthermore, career counseling process quality has been validated as a predictor of job seekers’ reemployment. To elucidate the underlying components of a high-quality counseling process, the effects of counselor behavior in mandatory counseling sessions at three Swiss job centers are investigated. Based on a transfer of psychotherapeutic effectiveness research into the domain of career counseling, three behavior categories are proposed as components of a high-quality counseling process: providing structured guidance during the counseling process, providing personalized support, and activating job seekers’ resources. Scientific observers rated these counselor behavior categories in 32 counseling sessions. The ratings of “providing structured guidance” predicted job seekers’ reemployment speed at a correlation of .58. The measured effect equals yearly savings of 831 million Swiss Francs CHF (US$839) in Swiss unemployment benefits. The correlations with the other two behavior category ratings were in the same direction but nonsignificant.
AzrinN. H.HolzW. C. (1966). Punishment. In HonigW. K. (Ed.), Operant behavior: Areas of research and application (pp. 380–447). New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
2.
BanduraA. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
3.
BehrendtP. (2006). Wirkung und Wirkfaktoren von psychodramatischem Coaching—Eine experimentelle Evaluationsstudie. Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie, 5, 59–87.
BehrendtP.GöritzA. S.HeuerK. (2019, this issue). Career counseling process quality promotes reemployment. Journal of Career Development.
6.
BehrendtP.MatzS.GöritzA. S. (2017). An integrative model of leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 229–244.
7.
BehrendtP.MühlbergerC.GöritzA. S.JonasE. (submitted). Relationship, purpose, and change—An integrative model of coach behavior. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research.
8.
BloomH.HillC. J.RiccioJ. (2001). Modeling the performance of welfare-to-work programs: The effects of program management and services, economic environment, and client characteristics (MDRC Working Papers on research methodology). New York, NY: MDRC.
9.
CicchettiD. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6, 284–290.
10.
DebP.GalloW. T.AyyagariP.FletcherJ. M.SindelarJ. L. (2011). The effect of job loss on overweight and drinking. Journal of Health Economics, 30, 317–327.
11.
DoltonP.O’NeillD. (2002). The long-run effects of unemployment monitoring and work-search programs: Experimental evidence from the United Kingdom. Journal of Labor Economics, 20, 381–403.
12.
EstesW. K. (1944). An experimental study of punishment. Psychological Monographs, 57, i–40. doi:10.1037/h0093550
13.
FarringtonD. P.GallagherB.MorleyL.St.LedgerR. J.WestD. J. (1986). Unemployment, school leaving, and crime. The British Journal of Criminology, 26, 335–356.
14.
FayR. (1996). Enhancing the effectiveness of active labour market policies: Evidence from programme evaluations in OECD countries (OECD labour market and social policy occasional papers no. 18). Europe: OECD.
15.
FergussonD. M.HorwoodL. J.WoodwardL. J. (2001). Unemployment and psychosocial adjustment in young adults: Causation or selection?Social Science & Medicine, 53, 305–320.
16.
FukkinkR. G.TrienekensN.KramerL. J. C. (2011). Video feedback in education and training: Putting learning in the picture. Educational Psychology Review, 23, 45–63.
17.
GassmannD.GraweK. (2006). Allgemeine Veränderungsmechanismen: Die Beziehung zwischen Problemaktivierung und Ressourcenaktivierung in erfolgreichen und erfolglosen therapeutischen Interaktionen [General change mechanisms: The relation between problem activation and resource activation in successful and unsuccessful therapeutic interactions]. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 13, 1–11.
18.
GessnitzerS.KauffeldS. (2015). The working alliance in coaching: Why behavior is the key to success. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 51, 177–197.
19.
GinevraM. C.PalliniS.VecchioG. M.NotaL.SoresiS. (2016). Future orientation and attitudes mediate career adaptability and decidedness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 95, 102–110.
GraweK. (2007). Neuropsychotherapy: How the neurosciences inform effective psychotherapy. Counseling and psychotherapy investigating practice from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
22.
GraweK.DonatiR.BernauerF. (1994). Psychotherapie im Wandel: Von der Konfession zur Profession[Psychotherapy changing from confession to profession]. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
GuanY.GuoY.BondM. H.CaiZ.ZhouX.XuJ.…YeL. (2014). New job market entrants’ future work self, career adaptability and job search outcomes: Examining mediating and moderating models. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 85, 136–145.
25.
HawthornR.AllowayJ. (2009). Smoothing the path: Advice about learning and work for disadvantaged adults. London, England: City and Guilds Centre for Skills Development and the CfBT Education Trust.
26.
HeppnerM. J.HeppnerP. P. (2003). Identifying process variables in career counseling: A research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 429–452.
27.
HeppnerP. P.DixonD. N. (1981). A review of the interpersonal influence process in counseling. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 59, 542–550.
28.
HooleyT. (2014). Die Eevidenzbasierung lebensbegleitender Beratung—Ein Wegweiser zu zentralen Forschungsergebnissen für eine effektive Politik und Praxis(ELGPN Tools No. 3). Jyväskylä, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network.
29.
IaniroP. M.SchermulyC. C.KauffeldS. (2013). Why interpersonal dominance and affiliation matter: An interaction analysis of the coach-client relationship. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 6, 25–46.
30.
KanferR.WanbergC. R.KantrowitzT. M. (2001). Job search and employment: A personality-motivational analysis and meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 837–855.
31.
KarverM. S.HandelsmanJ. B.FieldsS.BickmanL. (2005). A theoretical model of common process factors in youth and family therapy. Mental Health Services Research, 7, 35–51.
32.
KlonekF. E.Lehmann-WillenbrockN.KauffeldS. (2014). Dynamics of resistance to change: A sequential analysis of change agents in action. Journal of Change Management, 14, 334–360.
33.
KlonekF. E.WunderlichE.SpurkD.KauffeldS. (2016). Career counseling meets motivational interviewing: A sequential analysis of dynamic counselor–client interactions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 94, 28–38.
34.
Lipshits-BrazilerY.GatiI.TatarM. (2015). Strategies for coping with career indecision: Concurrent and predictive validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 170–179.
35.
LiuS.HuangJ. L.WangM. (2014). Effectiveness of job search interventions: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1009–1041.
36.
MeyerB. D. (1995). Lessons from the US unemployment insurance experiments. Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 91–131.
37.
MoyersT. B.MillerW. R. (2013). Is low therapist empathy toxic?Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27, 878–884.
38.
O’ConnorB. P. (2000). SPSS and SAS programs for determining the number of components using parallel analysis and Velicer’s MAP test. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 32, 396–402.
ShawB. F.ElkinI.YamaguchiJ.OlmstedM.VallisT. M.DobsonK. S.…ImberS. D. (1999). Therapist competence ratings in relation to clinical outcome in cognitive therapy of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 837–846.
41.
SmithE. C.GraweK. (2005). Welche therapeutischen Mechanismen funktionieren wann? [Which therapeutic mechanisms work when? A step towards the formulation of empirically validated guidelines for therapists’ session-to-session decisions]. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 12, 112–123.
42.
SpurkD.KauffeldS.BarthauerL.HeinemannN. S. R. (2015). Fostering networking behavior, career planning and optimism, and subjective career success: An intervention study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 87, 134–144.
43.
Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft SECO. (2015). Vereinbarung RAV/LAM/KAS—Wirkungsmessung 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2016, fromwww.tcnet.seco.admin.ch/
TheeboomT.BeersmaB.van VianenA. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9, 1–18.
46.
TschacherW.JunghanU. M.PfammatterM. (2014). Towards a taxonomy of common factors in psychotherapy—Results of an expert survey. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21, 82–96.
47.
WampoldB. E. (2001). The great psychotherapy debate: Models, methods, and findings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
48.
WampoldB. E. (2015). How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update. World Psychiatry, 14, 270–277.
49.
WhistonS. C. (2002). Application of the principles. The Counseling Psychologist, 30, 218–237.
50.
WhistonS. C.BrecheisenB. K.StephensJ. (2003). Does treatment modality affect career counseling effectiveness?Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 390–410.
51.
WhistonS. C.RossierJ.BarónP. M. H. (2016). The working alliance in career counseling. Journal of Career Assessment, 24, 591–604.
52.
WhistonS. C.SextonT. L.LasoffD. L. (1998). Career-intervention outcome: A replication and extension of Oliver and Spokane (1988). Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 150–165.
53.
WirtzM.CasparF. (2002). Beurteilerübereinstimmung und Beurteilerreliabilität: Methoden zur Bestimmung und Verbesserung der Zuverlässigkeit von Einschätzungen mittels Kategoriensystemen und Ratingskalen. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
