Despite the economic difficulties that have arisen from the global downtown that began 6 years ago, the business coaching industry has continued to flourish and grow. However, in the unregulated world of business coaching, how can companies ensure that they are utilising coaches effectively and getting the most out of their investment? Optimus Sourcing decided to write a whitepaper on the subject to guide you so you can make the best out of coaching for your company. Below is a small look at the whitepaper.
Training and mentoring, external and internal: What is business coaching and who is it for?
Business coaching used to be thought of more as something for senior management to help them in their personal lives however the coaching industry has increased substantially over recent years to include more and more lower level, career building employees in order to boost performance and increase employee retention. Specialisation has also increased with numerous subjects being covered from international relocation to achieving specific goals. Business coaching is different to mentoring and other techniques as it aims to encourage the learner to come to the conclusions themselves rather than teaching them. There are also no seniority issues and there is emphasis on the relationship.
What benefits do external business coaches bring to companies that use them?
Whilst classroom led training is still an integral part to any learning strategy, more and more businesses are seeing the advantages of the personalised, specific learning business coaching can provide. External business coaches can bring fresh ideas and viewpoints to a company’s culture as well as produce a safe environment where sensitive issues can be discussed more freely. Coaching cultures are also becoming more popular to supplement the actual business coaches by making more senior staff skilled at coaching methods so they can carry on the business coaching process continually.
Measuring the success of business coaching and ensuring quality
Only a small proportion of businesses have actually been found to regularly measure the effectiveness of their business coaching activities however the four most common units of measurements used are individual performance appraisal, increase of individual productivity, employee satisfaction with the programme and increase of individual assessment tool scores. The lack of measurement by companies has been largely attributed to the lack of a recognised methodology to do so.
To read this full unique whitepaper please download it here. The full paper looks at these sections in more details and also includes more information on saving costs whilst still increasing quality and Optimus Sourcing’s definitive 13 tips to making the most out of coaching for your company.
