More Effective Coaching in Organizations Using Objective Measurement Tools

  Coaching is becoming increasingly important to the success of organizations and the development of employees. That said, the proliferation of coaches in recent years does pose a challenge-especially if you want to use coaching in a targeted way that delivers demonstrable results. One key solution is to support coaching programs with objective measurement tools, such as online questionnaires. In addition, a comprehensive organizational policy on coaching can make a significant difference.

The Challenge

Many organizations, HR professionals, and managers are still figuring out how to use coaching effectively, purposefully, and in a measurable way. For example, when it comes to one-off coaching programs for teams, employees, or managers, or because they want to modernize their performance review cycle with a greater emphasis on development discussions and coaching.

A Proliferation of Coaches

Coaching can be extremely valuable for taking the (personal) development and performance of employees or teams to the next level. The problem, however, is that the measurability of the results often leaves much to be desired. And this despite the fact that there has been a veritable proliferation of coaches in recent years. Anyone can call themselves a coach in this unregulated profession. Many coaches undoubtedly begin their new “calling” with the best of intentions, but there are concerns about unclear methodologies and results that can vary widely. And that’s not all. A coach can also have a significant influence on important decisions in people’s professional or personal lives. So you really have to handle that with great care. Two-thirds of occupational physicians and psychologists seriously question whether all these coaches are sufficiently qualified and whether they actually deliver high-quality services, according to a 2019 study by the National Stress Debate. At that time, this already represented an increase of no less than 66 percent compared to five years earlier. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the number of coaches specializing in stress and burnout alone has increased more than tenfold in 20 years (to 4,484 by 2019). Many occupational physicians and psychologists refer to this as a “proliferation,” and Intermediair calculated this year that this trend has been further fueled during the COVID-19 crisis. This data again shows a fourfold increase over the past five years.

Questionnaires for measurable results

How should an organization deal with this uncontrolled growth? After all, you do want to ensure you have high-quality coaches who are a good fit for your organization’s needs. Because career or lifestyle coaching is, of course, very different from, for example, coaching for personal leadership or for stress or burnout issues. And once a coaching program is underway, you naturally want to see measurable, objective results. This doesn’t require sharing the personal details of an individual coaching program with the employer. However, measuring progress is a key part of the solution to this current challenge facing organizations and HR professionals. Therefore, start by determining what types of coaching are needed. Ask prospective coaches or coaching firms about their experience in this area. And also ask how they address the need for measurable outcomes. There are now effective (online) tools available to monitor progress, such as the online questionnaires from hrmforce. These allow users to conduct an objective baseline assessment and then monitor the effects and track changes (such as behavior). This makes it possible to objectively assess the development of employees, managers, or teams. It provides insight into the effectiveness of the coaching and gives you greater control over a goal-oriented and effective coaching approach within your organization.

Organization-wide coaching policy

In addition, it is valuable for organizations to develop a comprehensive policy in the area of coaching. Employers often already have everything well organized when it comes to absenteeism, but this is often not yet the case for coaching. “Coaching is often implemented differently depending on the employee, department, or manager,” explains Michael Gijzenberg of hrmforce. He has been active as an organizational consultant, trainer, and coach for more than twenty-five years. Gijzenberg places great value on measurability and uses hrmforce’s online questionnaires for this purpose. Gijzenberg: “In coaching, awareness is the most essential component. To accelerate this process and make it concrete, we have our own talent portal where we can provide insights to get to the heart of the matter more quickly, effectively, and efficiently.” As an organizational consultant, Gijzenberg also helps employers develop broader (coaching) policies. A key reason such policies are often still lacking appears to be the fact that coaching in the Netherlands is still primarily viewed as a “personal process.” But this seems set to change in the coming years. Gijzenberg: “In part, coaching is a personal journey between an employee and his or her coach, but you cannot view an individual employee in isolation from his or her work environment. By taking all important factors into account, coaching can be deployed in a much more powerful, concrete, and goal-oriented way.”

Choosing the Right Coach(es)

A sound coaching policy can also help clarify what kind of coaching suits your organization and the key challenges it faces. Handy search tools are now available to help find coaches with (accredited) training. It may also be wise to choose a coaching firm that employs multiple coaches. In addition to their different areas of expertise, this can be valuable for providing broader feedback to your organization. After all, this is much more difficult to achieve with multiple individual coaches or coaching firms than with a single, dedicated coaching partner. When searching for the right partner(s), you’ll quickly come across various (English) terms for the different types of coaching available. Here are some common terms with brief explanations:

• Business coaching: for developing business-related aspects.
• Corporate coaching: focused on the entire organization.
• Counseling: more focused on emotional aspects and finding meaning.
• Executive coaching: focused on the development of top managers.
• Career coaching: focused on career development, hiring, and turnover.
• Mediation: for facilitating the resolution of disputes and conflicts.
• Performance coaching: for behavioral, competency, and mental development.
• Personal/Life coaching: for personal matters such as work-life balance.
• Team coaching: focused on coaching teams or departments.

It is also common for coaches to provide coaching in multiple areas. This can also be a valuable consideration. And once you seem to have found the right coaching provider, be sure to pay close attention to measurability. This provides insight into the value and concrete results of the coaching and offers input for further developing your coaching policy.