Top strategies for effective workplace coaching
Developing a workplace coaching culture will improve individual performance and drive capability, ensuring your organisation is set to meet its strategic goals.
What is workplace coaching?
Workplace coaching is a structured process where a workplace coach, typically a team leader, supports an individual employee to meet behavioural and performance objectives. Delivered in the workplace through one-on-one conversations, employees and coaches together set goals and track progress towards them. Coaches play a critical role in helping to identify capability gaps, focus on achievable goals and provide the relevant support and resources that will drive the change that needs to take place.
Because workplace coaching programs are delivered at work, they keep the focus on critical goals where the work takes place. This ensures that employees are continuously developing their skills and achieving their objectives.
The benefits of workplace coaching
Workplace coaching helps employees close capability gaps, learn new skills and improve their performance. Of course, when you’ve got a workforce operating at its best and continuing to improve, you’re going to see benefits across the business, including:
- increased employee engagement
- improved retention rates
- more innovation
- higher sales and productivity.
Employee coaching can be used to meet a range of organisational objectives (such as leadership coaching and succession planning, for example), but let’s focus on how it works to improve employee development and job performance.
Developing new skills
How do you currently train new staff in your organisation’s processes? How do employees transitioning into new roles gain an understanding of what they need to do? How does your business introduce innovations and new systems that require workforce development and training? If your answer to these questions is through formal training that takes place outside of the day-to-day operations of your workforce, then you’re missing an opportunity to train people where it matters most – on the job. While formal sessions delivered via e-modules or in a training room play a critical role in sharing knowledge about new systems and theory, on-the-job coaching provides opportunities for employees to develop new skills on the job, putting theory into practice!
Closing capability gaps
Coaching in the workplace improves job performance by addressing specific employee challenges and skill gaps. Through targeted coaching techniques, employees are guided and supported to focus on areas where there are gaps. Because the coaching is done in the workplace it means that employees can practise new behaviours and new techniques while they’re at work – where it really matters – helping to embed new learnings and improve overall performance.
Supporting employees
Regular workplace coaching provides team members with the opportunity to set their own goals, reflect on their progress, identify areas to work on and celebrate success. With guidance from their leader and coach, team members improve one new skill or behaviour at a time.
Coaching empowers employees to take greater responsibility for their actions, aligning their personal goals with the organisation’s goals. It provides opportunities for employees to identify their development needs and work towards achieving them. This alignment of personal and organisational goals ensures that both the individual and the company benefit from the coaching process.
Not only will employees perform at higher levels, but you’ll also see employee growth and higher job satisfaction.
Building resilience and a future-focused culture
Workplace coaching will help you build a workforce that’s more resilient and open to working through workplace challenges and change. It creates a culture where people build self-awareness and are keen to take advantage of development opportunities. This leads to a more innovative, engaged and motivated workforce.
Don’t forget: most development is learned on the job
The 70:20:10 rule states that 70% of employee capability is learned on the job, 20% is learned from peers and leaders, and 10% is learned from formal training programs. With 70% of development taking place on the job, it makes sense to ensure that your workplace coaching program is robust.
Types of workplace coaching
At YakTrak we see the benefits that one-on-one coaching brings to organisations but there’s also a place for group or team coaching, business coaching, executive coaching and so on.
One-on-one coaching
One-on-one coaching takes a highly personalised approach that involves regular individual sessions between the coach (typically a manager) and the employee. Sessions can be short, but they need to be consistent. Coaching sessions can focus on specific challenges and behavioural practices ensuring that the coaching is tailored to the employee’s needs.
This type of coaching provides you with an opportunity to check in with your employees:
- What is their development focus?
- What does success look like?
- What are the areas they need to work on to build capability?
It also offers an opportunity for employees to practise skills – ensuring they know how to utilise the behaviours you want to see.
A one-on-one coaching program then gives you the opportunity to provide resources and goals and to track employee progress first-hand and provide immediate feedback.
When an entire business embraces one-on-one coaching, you’ll start to see a coaching culture begin to form. This boosts the capability of the whole workforce, from frontline staff through to leadership, and this, in turn, boosts overall organisational performance.
Group coaching
Group coaching brings together individuals with similar learning objectives, fostering collaboration and shared learning experiences. Participants can benefit from the diverse perspectives and experiences of their peers.
Peer coaching, a form of group coaching, involves pairing employees at the same level for candid discussions and feedback. This approach encourages open communication and mutual support, making it an effective method for employee development.
Team coaching focuses on improving collaboration and alignment towards common objectives within a team. This type of coaching can be beneficial for teams that need to work closely together to achieve their goals.
GROW coaching
The GROW coaching model uses four steps to provide a structure for coaching sessions:
- Goal – the desired outcome
- Reality – the current situation
- Options/Obstacles – possibilities and challenges
- Will/Way forward – the actions to achieve the desired outcome.
The model was developed by business coaches Graham Alexander and John Whitmore in the ’80s and continues to be used. It’s easy to apply and can be used in different situations.
Read more about the GROW model and find out why the ACDC model might be even better than GROW.
Power up your workplace coaching
Tips for successful workplace coaching
Keep these tips in mind so you get the best out of your workplace coaching program.
Be goal-oriented
Coaching should be goal-oriented. This means the coaching process begins with identifying skills gaps and determining the area of focus, where measurable and specific goals are identified. Goal-oriented coaching helps leaders and the people they coach create effective action plans. Spending time at this stage helps you set the scene for future success.
Track and document
Once you start coaching it’s critical to keep a record of the coaching conversations you’re having and to track progress towards goals. Following up on previous conversations is essential for accountability and ensuring that employees stay on track to achieve their objectives.
Build a rhythm
Workplace coaches should build a weekly rhythm of where they should spend their time coaching. Spending time with employees receiving coaching can mean a five-minute check-in. The main thing is to stick to a regular schedule as this keeps the focus on development and shows your employees that you are invested in their coaching.
Use the right coaching tools
Ensure people have access to the right software and tools, like YakTrak. This helps to keep track of employees’ coaching and goals. YakTrak can be used to document regular employee coaching conversations and huddles, track and report on goals, and provide prompts and reminders to keep daily development top of mind.
Know what good looks like
What does best practice look like in your organisation? A consistent set of behavioural and best practice frameworks will help everyone to understand what they’re aiming for.
Want more employee coaching tips? Read our keys to workplace coaching.
Overcoming common workplace coaching challenges
Let’s explore some of the common challenges in coaching employees and how to overcome them.
Lack of consistency
Coaching is effective when it’s done consistently. A loose approach with infrequent coaching conversations will result in a loss of momentum.
Coaching sessions need to be held consistently and planned. YakTrak provides the framework to hold regular coaching conversations, keep track of employee goals and report on progress. It also provides handy reminders and notifications, meaning there’s no excuse to forget a coaching session. In short, YakTrak helps to build coaching consistency.
Time and distance
Time commitment and geographical barriers can hinder the effectiveness of workplace coaching. Remote coaching can be done through video conferencing tools and recorded sessions, allowing employees to participate regardless of their location. Also, when time is a challenge, well-planned coaching need only take five to 15 minutes.
Company culture
A culture where coaching isn’t supported will impact learning and engagement.
A positive workplace culture supports coaching efforts and promotes collaboration across the entire organisation. Employees at all levels (yes, even those in leadership positions) need to recognise the advantages of coaching and its impacts on professional development. Leadership should model best practice. Leaders who coach will need to develop the coaching skills that will enable them to effectively coach their employees.
Only focusing on underperformers
It can be a mistake to think that only those who are struggling need to be coached.
Coaching helps your entire workforce to understand what’s expected of them and how they can contribute to organisational success. Ongoing workplace coaching can mean the difference between average and outstanding performance. It builds team effectiveness and communication skills and helps teams to achieve goals. Even your best performers will have something to gain; they’ll be able to reinforce strengths, learn new skills and build skills that will take them to the next level in the organisation.
Power up your workplace coaching
Building a coaching culture
A coaching culture encourages sustainable ongoing performance development and engages employees. It can help your workforce to address challenges and can foster innovation and collaboration.
If your company culture doesn’t already embrace workplace learning then you may need to examine the business’s unwritten rules, values and behaviours to find out where you need to make changes to be able to embed coaching into its identity. You may need to address a shortage of coaching skills and consider different coaching styles. Here are some tips for building a coaching culture:
- Encourage leaders to play a crucial role – senior leadership should demonstrate support and team leaders should commit to regular coaching of their teams.
- Coach the coaches – give leaders the coaching skills they need to be great coaches to their team members. Team leaders may need training on negotiation, problem-solving, conflict resolution, delegation and how to give feedback.
- Commit to regular coaching – team leaders should lock in regular times to check in with their team members and block out time to prepare for team coaching sessions. If everyone does this, you’ll develop a coaching mindset across the organisation.
- Acknowledge that something may have to give – when an organisation commits to building a coaching culture, be ready to find tasks leaders can stop doing to free up time and help them develop their team.
- Celebrate success – sharing and celebrating success stories can motivate and inspire others. Sharing stories of employees who have achieved success through coaching can help to encourage others to embrace coaching.
Investing in developing a coaching culture is a strategic move that can lead to long-term business success, so consider how you’ll get your leaders involved and sustain progress towards this goal.
Measuring coaching
A successful coaching program should lift performance and engagement. If you are investing in a workplace coaching program, you’ll want to make sure you can see and track those improvements in employee performance, engagement and motivation.
Analysing data and using key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you to assess the effectiveness of your coaching initiatives. Employing a data-driven approach to coaching can align individual performance metrics with overarching company goals, ensuring continuous improvement and success, which can be tracked against KPIs.
Measuring the results of coaching programs will help you to understand if your program is delivering results.
YakTrak’s real-time reporting gives leadership insights into the quality and quantity of coaching activity – and the corresponding lift in capability and outputs.
Track engagement
Monitoring employee engagement will help to assess the impact of a coaching culture on overall satisfaction. It will also help to identify areas for improvement and create strategies to ensure employees are feeling supported, valued and motivated.
Power up your workplace coaching with YakTrak today
Workplace coaching unlocks potential, enhances performance, improves job satisfaction and drives organisational success. YakTrak can help by wrangling all the information you need to build capability and delivering the insights you need to power workplace coaching.
YakTrak is designed to improve coaching outcomes in workplaces, tracking the quality and quantity of on-the-job coaching activity. YakTrak:
- works with the coaching or conversation methodology adopted by your organisation so that the language is familiar to team members
- improves accountability so everyone is aware of progress towards individual and team goals
- supports a regular cadence with in-app and email reminders
- empowers employees to take ownership of their development goals
- helps to pinpoint behaviours that require coaching interventions
- provides team members with the opportunity to give anonymous feedback about their coaching interactions to improve coaching capability.
Get in touch with us today.