A Guide to Employee Coaching

A Guide to Employee Coaching

When employees are not meeting goals or have performance problems, the objective is to bring their performance back to an acceptable level. This is achieved through coaching sessions. Some performance problems do not mean that employees are willfully doing something that violates your policies; rather they may just need some guidance. Some performance problems may even be the result of morale problems. 

Advantages of Coaching

Effective coaching can be difficult and challenging, but has its advantages: 
- Employees learn more about their jobs and perform better. 
- Employees develop a sense of loyalty toward you and the business. 
- Working conditions are improved. 
- Productivity is enhanced and maximized. 

Characteristics of a Good Coach

The characteristics of a good coach are that he or she is: 

- Confident in the abilities of individuals 
- Enthusiastic 
- Supportive 
- Goal-oriented 
- Knowledgeable 
- A good listener 
- A good communicator 
- Patient 
- Responsive 

In order to counsel employees, you must focus your attention on the goals that you are trying to get the employee to achieve. Those goals may be to increase profits, increase market share, create new products, reduce error rates, or achieve other business-related objectives. In order for employees to know how their work can contribute to the goal, they must be taught: 

- What the goal is 
- How it is achieved 
- What part their work plays in reaching the goal 

Conducting a Productive Coaching Session

The first communication should be a coaching session that includes what the expected performance should be and a commitment by the employee to improve. Coaches shouldn't issue warnings, at least not at first. Coaching is an attempt to help whereas a warning is a threat. It must be made clear that termination is a consequence of the employee's performance, not a punishment by management. 

Here are some guidelines to follow to ensure that a coaching session is productive:

- Put the employee at ease.  This step is important when the coaching session is a response to poor performance. 

- Focus on the actual behavior. Get the employee's agreement on what the actual behavior has been. 

- Express the performance standards for the job and review past performance of the employee. Explain why it is important to the business for the employee to perform well. 

- Describe the areas of performance that the employee must improve. As much as possible, describe desired performance in terms of results that are to be achieved. Explain what happens to the department or the company when the employee does not perform well. Describe what good performance looks like, providing concrete examples of good work, if possible. 

- Ask for the person's view on why performance does not meet standards. Does the employee believe there is a problem? 

- Discuss possible solutions. What does the person propose to do to solve the problem? Get the employee to develop steps to solve the problem to create a sense of ownership in the solution. Suspend the session if the employee needs more time to develop a plan. If the employee cannot develop a plan, develop one for the employee. 

- If the employee does not have a plan or is unwilling to discuss it, you lay out a plan and encourage suggestions and questions. If the employee makes suggestions, include one or more in the plan, if possible. Then, ask them if they’ll be ready to commit to the plan.

- If the employee won't commit, send the employee home to think it over. Not committing to improve a performance problem is the same as quitting. If the employee won't commit, bring in a high level manager or human resources professional to talk with the employee. If the employee still won't commit -which rarely happens-, termination is necessary.

- If things do go well however, agree to a written action plan containing specific goals and timetables for meeting those goals. 

- Ask if there’s anything you can help out with. Unless the employee wants you to take responsibility, if it is in your capability, agree to provide any help. 

- Have the employee orally commit to the action plan and provide them with a copy of the plan. Retain another copy as documentation of the meeting. 

- Follow up on performance based on the goals stated in the action plan. Provide feedback on how the employee is doing. Offer suggestions to improve performance. Praise instances where performance has improved. 

Interpersonal Issues

Beyond the technical aspect of setting goals during a coaching session, it is critical to pay attention to certain interpersonal issues. As the coach, you must: 

- Set clear expectations 

- Set performance standards 

- Set specific objectives regarding what should be done, when and how

- Measure performance 

- Focus on behavior, not value judgments 

- Correct deviations from performance standards 

- Make it clear that you are on the same side as the employee and that the objective of the meeting is for the employee to be successful

- Provide guidance while preserving the employee's self-esteem 

- Give an employee with more service a longer time to improve. Also, set the time for improvement in accordance with the specific behavior involved. 

Sources:
www.hrtools.com
www.wright.edu
www.spconsultants.org
www.vault.com


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Motivating Your Employees