By Sarah O’Brien
It shouldn’t be news to anyone that highly trained and mentored employees are less likely to leave their jobs.
Millions of dollars are spent every year on training and engagement programs with the goal of keeping employee turnover low. For good reason — the cost of replacing trained staff can range from 16% to 213% of their wages or annual salaries.
Most industries have turnover rates well above 15%, which means the cost of a serious employee retention issue could cost your company a few million dollars annually. Yikes.
Implementing formalized coaching within your training program can be an intimidating endeavor, and most people don’t take advantage of the benefits of formalized coaching, believing it isn’t cost effective, time effective, or they don’t have the personnel, or that they themselves do not have the right demeanor for coaching.
Here we’ll cover five reasons organizations should bypass their hesitations and introduce formalized coaching into their training program.
Formalized Coaching Reinforces the Transfer of Learning
Whether you’re developing an employee’s communication skills or training them on hard or technical skills, your end goal is for the trainee to be imparted with new behaviors to drive improved results. Hands down, the best results occur when a trained coach is present and active in transferring their knowledge and skills to the trainee.
Over 70% of polled employees report better work performance, communication skills and better relationships after being formally coached on some aspects of their work.
Coaching Nurtures Engagement
We know engagement is a promising indicator of employee retention. We also know that engaging employees requires more effort than providing competitive benefits packages, complimentary lunches, or infinite paid time off. Even offering training and development opportunities will not guarantee that your employees feel engaged.
Feedback, an intrinsic part of formalized coaching, is a critical component of employee engagement. 65% of employees want more feedback — that’s essentially 65% of the workforce begging to be coached and developed.
Provides Clear Expectations
The next time you’re planning on sharing feedback with an employee, consider that it is actually a coaching opportunity. Making your feedback as meaningful, descriptive, and non-judgmental as possible helps your team member understand what the expectations of them are — which is another area of employee engagement.
This means that your negative feedback should be constructive and free of judgments, and your positive feedback should focus on things that truly matter. 92% of employees report that feedback (even negative feedback) helps them improve their work.
Coach for Confidence
When asked, over 80% of polled employees report that when implemented in their training program, formalized coaching increased their self-confidence in their ability to do their jobs.
When employees feel confident along with having effective transfer of skills, you’ll absolutely see their productivity increase.
Bonus: Confident and skilled employees make excellent future coaches!
Worth the Investment
86% of companies who incorporate formal coaching into their training programs report at least a 100% return on their coaching investment, as well as significant gains in other initiatives.
In addition, you don’t have to outsource to find good coaches. Look to your leaders! An investment in the development of your leaders into coaches is always advisable, as you’re not only developing an employee, you’re increasing the overall engagement at your organization, and creating a systemic solution to employee turnover.
Still not feeling like you’re ready to introduce formalized coaching into your training initiative? Check out our Advanced Supervisor Series on Coaching in The BizLibrary Collection for more excellent tips on formalized coaching.
Watch a 1-minute preview of “Coaching Others to a Higher Performance” from The BizLibrary Collection here:
Download our ebook on developing workplace leaders into coaches for more practical steps toward building a culture of coaching in your organization.
Sarah O’Brien researches and writes on a variety of business topics, including workplace dynamics, HR strategies, and training trends and technology.