It’s no secret that workplace coaching has made it to the agenda of organizations grappling with the challenge of maintaining employee engagement.
One of the most important relationships within an organization is the one between a manager and his/her team members. To accept this truth means that you accept the fact that workplace coaching is an important determinant of employee engagement.
After all, what better way to empower employees with new skills and guide them along the right path to achieving organizational goals than with workplace coaching?
If all this is true, then what do you need to do to improve workplace coaching so that it guarantees more engaged employees? Just like in sports, it takes work, commitment and continuous effort from both employees and employers to achieve the outcomes you’re after.
Did you know that disengaged employees cost companies up to $550 billion a year in the US? This, alone, is a good enough illustration of the importance of employee engagement to your bottom-line.
In a nutshell, engaged employees are those who are passionate about the work they do – so much so that they don’t work for you just for the money.
These types of workers are genuinely interested in the work they do, are satisfied, motivated, and are determined to grow, be continuously engaged, and committed.
Truth be told, there’s no one-size-fits-all method to kickstart exciting workplace coaching programs.
As a first step, however, it’s necessary to assess the workplace culture, personalities, and attitudes of your employees and get valuable insights about the level of engagement already in place.
A best practice, here, would be to use a personality assessment tool that will give you insights about everything you need to know, including employee attitudes and motivations. After gathering the insights you need, get to work on improving your workplace coaching practices in line with what you’ve learned.
Did you know that timely and accurate feedback for employees is a highly important part of your workplace coaching experience?
Managers must intentionally set aside time to provide feedback on employees’ performance and companies must strive to create a culture where regular feedback is the norm.
Your employees want to know how their performance is being perceived, how well they’re doing, and what they can do to improve their work. By knowing their strengths, struggles, performance indicators, talents, and compatibility indexes, you’re able to provide your employees with meaningful feedback that makes a noticeable difference in their performance and behavior in the workplace.
If you hope to get everyone working towards the same goals, you need to show them where to go.
Not only is this one of the most basic fundamentals of workplace coaching but is also the clearest and most effective way to communicate your goals to your employees.
Incorporate the insights you have on each employee and leverage them to achieve your business goals. Guide your employees on how to leverage their insights to achieve their personal goals, in line with your organizational objectives.
According to Forbes, listening is an important skill to have as a manager involved in workplace coaching. In fact, it has been discovered that employees who feel like their voices are heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work.
So really, one of the best qualities of a workplace coach is constant communication. This is relevant (and on point) regardless of whether it’s about giving feedback or discussing goals. If you don’t align your feedback with whatever happens in your company, in real-time, you miss out on making the right impact on your employees.
If you want to be a more effective coach and provide constant feedback that’s relevant, in real-time, you can utilize an assessment tool that will give your insights the edge and personalization they need.
If your company is not making sure that the above fundamentals are in place, you might be facing a crisis at work. This is why workplace coaching is an essential ingredient in the cocktail of strategies to improve employee engagement.
Communicate with your employees often, make sure each one is heard and give them the right level of confidence and approval through feedback to create more engaged employees.
