Career development coaching gives employees the opportunity to develop specific skills to become more proficient when performing required tasks. It also gives employees the chance to learn skills needed to excel within their organization. Because of this, corporate coaching is considered one of the first steps to improve an individual’s performance within an organization.
Employee coaching programs are so effective that some of the largest companies in the world have implemented them. These companies, including Syngenta, Mayo Clinic, and Network Rail, have seen amazing benefits. These benefits aren't only for the individuals being coached but also for the organizations. The 5 key benefits that you can expect to see when implementing an employee coaching program include:
1. Increased Employee Engagement:
Using coaching as an employee engagement strategy allows the individual to actively participate in their role within your organization. They are also provided constant feedback from their coach. Because of this, coaching gives individuals a connection to their work, effectively improving employee engagement as well as company culture.
Your organizations should always be looking to improve employee engagement. Research shows that highly engaged individuals deliver 21% higher profitability. This makes coaching a simple solution to increase the profitability for your organization.
Employee engagement has also been linked to lower absenteeism by 41%. This is due to the increased happiness of engaged individuals, as well as a higher level of commitment to the organization. Decreased absenteeism improves productivity and minimizes lost profits.
2. Identified and Developed High-Potential Individuals:
Identifying high-potential individuals in your organization is a huge step in the right direction for corporate success. High-potentials are the ones to consider for future leadership, because their potential sets them, and your organization, up for success. That means you want to identify them early so you can place them in leadership development programs.
A coach can identify high-potentials efficiently through assessments from coaching software. The coach can also work on developing leadership skills with these individuals to properly prepare them in the succession pipeline.
Coaching can identify more than individual development opportunities, though. It can also identify the areas in your overall organization that need extra help
To take it a step further, consider integrating your coaching program with mentoring. Coaching and mentoring can work together to develop your high-potential employees. The combination will also improve your overall company culture and the employee experience in your organization.
3. Increased Communication:
While coaching employees is largely known to develop technical skills they may lack, it also works well for improving soft skills. Most notably, coaching can improve communication skills.
Communication skills are vital to productivity and profitability for your organization. It’s been revealed that an average of $62.4 million per year has been lost in large companies due to poor internal communication.
The benefit of coaching for your organization is clear here in potential money saved, but there’s also productivity. Improved communication can increase overall productivity 20-25%. Plus, it helps reduce internal conflict and improve client relationships.
4. Stronger Management Relationships:
Relationships between employees and managers can often be strained. In fact, bad managerial relationships are often cited in the top reasons why employees quit. Because corporate coaching involves the individual’s manager, it is a perfect channel to improve the relationship.
A coach can facilitate meetings between managers and employees to ensure that they are productive. These sessions can also be used to develop communication between the two and improve the relationship in general.
Coaches also often report the progress of the coaching relationship to the manager regularly. This allows the manager to see the employee’s development and show recognition, which provides subsequent benefits.
5. Demonstrated Organizational Commitment to Career Development:
Today’s workforce is extremely invested in their career development, and they expect their organization to be invested as well. A coaching program is a great way to show individuals that you are meeting this expectation. This increases the likelihood that they will stay with you.
The benefits of employee retention are huge. It leads to lower hiring costs, prevents a dip in productivity, and retains important employee knowledge.
Proven investment in your employees also makes your organization more marketable to potential job candidates. This helps you compete in the war for talent, recruiting the very best individuals and securing the future of your organization.
