Employee engagement – Why coaching adds value

February 16th 2017 | Posted by phil scott

Employee engagement – Why coaching adds value

Providing employees with opportunities to develop within your organisation is a vital tool for staff retention as well as helping to create a sustainable competitive advantage over other businesses. Engaged employees perform better and enjoy greater personal well-being. Coaching is a highly effective training method, usually involving one-to-one support aimed at helping a person to develop or improve particular skills.  It is a very practical form of training and can provide great results for individuals and organisations.

One size doesn’t fit all

All employees are different and investing time in getting to know your employees as individuals, finding out what motivates them and what their areas for development are is never a waste of time or resource.  Training managers to take a thoughtful approach to team development and encouraging individuals to progress within the organisation ensures maximum performance and employee loyalty.  Coaching is a great tool to enable employees to recognise their potential and faciliate development.  Employees engage when given an open platform to express their own views so as well as helping to develop new skills, coaching can help change attitudes and approaches to job roles, making employees more personally fulfilled.

Empowering employees through coaching

When employees feel encouraged and supported by management they become motivated and empowered – in short, they become engaged. Coaching is particularly successful when used in conjunction with best practices such as goal setting and ongoing performance management. Coaching in a broader context like this enables personal development which creates a supportive work environment. In turn, this encourages loyalty, motivating employees to reach higher performance levels.

Using coaching sessions to highlight positive work practices, suggest areas of improvement and praise existing strengths, is a great opportunity to motivate employees and create a cohesive workforce striving together to achieve business goals. Rewarding development engages employees, making them feel valued and less likely to look for a new job.

Success breeds success

The actions and attitudes of managers has a huge impact on employee engagement. If senior staff appear disengaged from the workforce, it damages morale and productivity. As a manager, developing your team not only motivates them to achieve, but also aids personal development, so it pays to lead with best practice from the top. True employee engagement requires dedication from managers committed to employee improvement. If an employee has done a good job, that success should be praised and shared to motivate others to strive for their own success. Cross-training coaching sessions and open lines of communication from the most senior staff down through an organisation supports individual personal development.

Investing in continual workforce engagement

Scheduled coaching session should be separated from performance evaluation reviews to create an environment where employees can share concerns and become part of the solution. Creating a safe coaching environment is an essential step towards being an effective coach. Managers should be trained to respond to ‘coachable moments’, recognising areas of improvement as they present themselves and addressing coaching needs.
Developing employees day-to-day through a continual process of ‘coaching moments’ naturally increases employee engagement. Coaching drives engagement because employees feel their organisation cares about how they feel, respects them and is investing in their personal values. And when an employee feels valued, they strive to do better and that maximised performance benefits the whole organisation driving business success.