The Essential Guide to
Career Development and Coaching
SUCCESS
For anyone who thinks career development doesn’t matter — or isn’t top of mind for their employees — here’s a wake-up call. New research suggests that lack of professional growth is the biggest reason many of your workers may be looking to leave you — and they might be saying goodbye sooner than you think.
According to a recent Harris Poll survey,1 about one-third (32%) of employed adults in the U.S. said they were currently looking to leave their jobs — and many stated they planned to leave within the next six months. Why are they so anxious to part ways?
The number one reason cited was lack of development. In fact, nearly half (47%) of those searching for new jobs said they were seeking more growth opportunities. In order to stay ahead of this curve, growth-minded companies need to rethink their stance on career development — not only making sure it’s available to all employees, but making it personal in ways that were not possible until recently.
A Wake-Up Call
for Employers Everywhere
INTRODUCTION32
%
of employed adults
in the U.S. said they
were currently looking to
leave their jobs
What’s Changed? ... 1
Challenge #1: Employees Have New Expectations. ... 1
Challenge #2: Traditional Development Methods Haven’t Worked. ... 2
The Answer: Personalized Development and Coaching ... 3
Getting Started with Personalized Development ... 4
Five Strategies for Success ... 4
Strategy #1: Ditch the one-size-fits-all approach. ... 4
Strategy #2: Reach across the silos and make employee development a team effort. ... 6
Strategy #3: Rethink your performance management process ... 7
Strategy #4: Teach your managers to coach. ... 9
Strategy #5: Explore new technologies that make truly personalized development possible. ... 11
Pulling It All Together ... 13
CHALLENGE #1
Employees Have New Expectations.
From Lifetime Loyalty to WIIFM (What’s in It for Me)?
Complicating the idea of career development is the modern relationship between employees and employers. In decades past, many people’s vision for a career path was simple: Find a great company, work hard and stay for life, ultimately retiring with a nice pension or nest egg. Nowadays, that’s not a reality for employers or employees.
Instead, today’s workers focus on something entirely different — short job stints that span their entire careers. These three- to five-year chunks of time typically take employees through a broad range of roles across many companies, and along the way, their only loyalty is to themselves.
The rise of technology, economic pressures and a different mindset from a new
generation of workers — they all contribute to the conundrum: employees just don’t stick around like they used to. Essentially, the old “employer-employee contract” has changed.
What can be done? It’s clear that smart companies need to do three things: (1) accept the idea that
employees are staying for shorter periods of time, (2) get serious about investing in employees at all levels who are critical to their business success,
and (3) realize the time to act is now.
What’s Changed?
Invest
Accept
Act
CHALLENGE #2
Traditional Development Methods Haven’t Worked.
They’re Too Slow, Too Selective, Too Limited
If shorter tenures are the new model for employment, how can you get more out of your talent in less time? How can you speed up time to productivity and drive engagement, so both employees and employers have a reason to stay together?
Let’s start by defining what you want from your talent. You want them to do four things:
• Be engaged and productive
• Perform — help the company achieve its business goals
• Stay — long enough to make a meaningful contribution
• Grow over time — evolve with the business and the market
Unfortunately, with employees gravitating to shorter tenures, companies need to encourage all four of these behaviors faster than ever before. Since job tenures are shorter, there’s no time to waste. Growth-minded employees expect more — and organizations often have a hard time delivering.
Why? Most companies’ old-school models of career development — the ones they’ve been relying on for years — are largely ineffective. They’re either:
• Too slow (requiring more years than employees want to give)
• Too selective (reserved for high-potential employees only)
• Too generic (offering a one-size-fits-all formula), or
• Too hands-off (placing all the burden on employees, who may not know where to start) In other cases, an organization might promise career development, but then fail to deliver. Regardless of the cause, employees focused on growth are often left out in the cold. It’s no wonder they’re taking their talents elsewhere.
While you may not be able to alter the trend toward shorter work tenures or revamp traditional development strategies overnight, you can do certain things to develop your employees and encourage them to stick around (at least a little while longer), which will be beneficial to both employee and employer.
It starts with new thinking about development
and coaching.
In the past, development was often given lip service for all but high-potential employees. Yet by creating more personalized programs that every employee can access, you’ll empower employees to take charge of their career paths and discover hidden leaders across the organization. And by creating more
leaders — at all levels of your business — you’ll likely witness vast improvements in productivity and engagement across the board, too.
The Answer
Personalized Development
and Coaching
Five Strategies for Success
So how can the learning and talent teams work together to meet the changing expectations of today’s workforce, while improving engagement and retention? How can your organization create and deliver dynamic, personal development opportunities to all employees, regardless of level or location?
This section outlines five strategies you can put to work today.
STRATEGY #1
Ditch the one-size-fits-all approach.
Just as every employee is different — including their skillsets, backgrounds, personalities, goals and aspirations — so must be their career development plans. Development can no longer be one-size-fits-all, and it can’t be prescribed from the top down.
In a recent blog post,2 one Saba executive outlined exactly why personalized
development is the key to engaging the leaders of today (and tomorrow). In the post, Adrienne Whitten says, “The future of learning and talent management
Getting Started
with Personalized
Development
SECTION 3The future
of learning
and talent management is
dynamic, personalized,
user-generated content
is dynamic, personalized, user-generated content. Informal, on-the-job learning has more timely, flexible and resonant content and represents the bulk of how most people learn what they need to be effective. When the market changes in a blink, you can’t go out and buy content that tells your employees how to react. You need a platform that enables them to share the information in real time and create solutions on the fly. You need a platform that promotes the exchange of ideas and links to the outside world.” Looking far beyond just millennials, all of today’s workers are social beings who want to share information on their own terms. Therefore, to be effective, learning content and programs must be self-directed, social and informal. They should also incorporate user-generated content and leverage technology to deliver personalized development opportunities — the more social and personalized, the better.
PROBLEM 2
PROBLEM #2
THE
BOTTOM
LINE
When it comes to development, today’s employees expect more from their employers — and a one-size-fits-all approach (especione-size-fits-ally if it’s reserved for high-potential employees) simply won’t keep your talent in place.
STRATEGY #2
Reach across the silos and make employee
development a team effort.
You may already be thinking: “Sure, personalized development is a great idea, but we already have a dedicated learning department for that.” Or you’re asking yourself, “Isn’t employee development the manager’s (or the employee’s) responsibility?” For personalized development to work best, it can’t exist in a vacuum. And it needs to tie in to the organization’s current and future talent needs, thus aligning to the organization’s goals. Within HR, for example, the learning leader’s efforts should closely align with those of the talent and performance management leaders. And at the business group level, managers and employees must also be active participants. Simply put, it’s not just one person or group’s responsibility. Here’s why:
• Learning leaders: Need the collaboration of the employee and manager.
• HR talent leaders: Need to build employee development goals into the performance process.
• Managers: Need tools, resources and company support (not to mention employee buy-in).
• Employees: Need career path visibility, encouragement, guidance and one-on-one coaching.
THE
BOTTOM
LINE
For the best results, your organization needs to implement a program that involves everyone, with contributions coming from all the key stakeholders.
STRATEGY #3
Rethink your performance management process.
Incorporate regular check-ins that cover long-term development and career goals. Personalized development is the conversation that flows naturally from a good performance review process. It’s a chance for managers and employees to discuss what’s happening now and what the employee wants to happen next in terms of career growth.
Yet not all performance review processes are created equal. Plenty of studies indicate that the widespread ranking- and ratings-based performance review approach (not to mention the “one-size-fits-all” merit pay matrix) causes more harm than good. In many cases, the flawed process is actually damaging employee engagement,
alienating high performers and causing costly turnover. And employees aren’t alone in recognizing the weaknesses. According to a 2014 Deloitte article, only 8% of companies believe their performance management process is highly effective in driving business value, while 58% say it’s not an effective use of time.3
A better approach is one where the annual evaluation is supplemented or even replaced with ongoing feedback and coaching designed to promote continuous employee development. The idea is to create a process that fosters regular discussions
only 8
%
of companies believe
their performance
management process
is highly effective
in driving business value
between employees and managers — one with continual feedback and coaching built in. Continuous check-ins, specifically focused on employee development, can give managers a better sense of where employees see themselves and if they are making ongoing progress toward their development goals.
THE
BOTTOM
LINE
To facilitate personalized development, start by reviewing your performance management process and adding more transparent (and frequent) discussions into the mix.
For a complete discussion on the drawbacks of a traditional performance review process — and how
you can adopt a whole new approach
— please see our companion eBook, Winning Your Workforce: The Essential Guide to Improving Retention and Employee Performance.
STRATEGY #4
Teach your managers to coach.
Helping employees see the vision of where they could be in the future (and laying out the precise steps to get there) can do wonders for employee engagement and retention. But if employees aren’t naturally self-motivated — or struggle to clear certain hurdles — that’s where coaching can be the perfect solution.
Coaching enables a manager to provide guidance in a friendly, non-threatening way — so employees feel like they’re being encouraged by a trusted friend. Indeed, the right employee coaching and development, at the right time, can pay huge dividends for employers seeking greater loyalty, productivity and contribution.
If your company is already investing in learning and talent development programs, adding employee coaching can go a long way toward making your existing programs
more effective. And if you’re not already investing in employee development, now’s a great time to start tapping into the benefits.
Recent research from Human Capital Institute (HCI) and International Coach Federation (ICF)4 shows that having a strong coaching culture is incredibly good for business. According to the study, companies with a strong coaching culture see:
• 67% faster onboarding
• 70% increase in productivity
• 71% faster leadership development
And if you’re concerned about how coaching fits into your talent management programs, let us ease your mind. The correlation is highly positive. Bersin by Deloitte5 reported that organizations that are good at training their managers to coach not only have 42% higher productivity and are 48% more effective at developing leaders, but
they’re also 75% more likely to have effective recruiting, learning and performance programs than companies with no or weak coaching programs.
Furthermore, coaching intertwined with personalized career development can become a key employer brand differentiator — a great way to attract and retain talent. However, just because you know coaching is valuable, doesn’t mean your managers have the skills necessary to do it. In fact, one statistic proves just the opposite.
According to Korn Ferry Institute leadership development researcher Robert Eichinger, the ability to “grow talent” is ranked 67th out of 67 competencies for managers, despite decades of investment in performance management systems. In other words, on average, managers are worse at developing their employees than at anything else they do.6
Recognizing the value of coaching also doesn’t give you unlimited financial resources to invest in training for your managers. That’s why we suggest training your managers on a frequent and informal process of short “check-ins” that can deliver the ongoing coaching and guidance employees need, without demanding tons of time or money.
THE
BOTTOM
LINE
Your managers will need some training on how to coach effectively, so plan to develop a strategy to address that.
For practical ways you can teach your managers to coach — quickly and very
cost-effectively — please see our
Employee Coaching Playbook.
STRATEGY #5
Explore new technologies that make truly
personalized development possible.
If you haven’t checked out the latest software offerings available today — the virtual
mechanisms that make personalized employee development possible — it might be time you did. You may be working with an older talent or learning platform that simply doesn’t have the functionality you need to support today’s business environment. Recent technology advancements, including machine learning and prescriptive analytics, mean that today’s platforms
can create dynamic learning and career paths, providing the personalized career guidance that today’s workforce wants (and the simplicity and reach organizations need). These solutions offer intelligent and highly customized recommendations for content, courses and connections — based on the skills, interests, activities and aspirations of each employee.
How does it work? Advanced software harnesses the power of big data, using sophisticated algorithms to sift through incredible amounts of data from user input and activity to make personalized recommendations for each employee, based on their unique skills, interests and career goals. It’s only through this level of sophisticated technology that personalization is truly possible, enabling organizations to address employee development in a whole new way, for the very first time. Many of the older platforms attempted to provide personal recommendations through a rules-based
overwhelming in today’s fast-paced business climate. The machine learning algorithms require minimal attention from the HR and learning teams, perhaps just an hour or two of “fine tuning” every month.
This software is also useful for promoting internal mobility by giving employees more transparency into different career opportunities — even lateral moves they may not have been aware of before. It’s a great way to encourage career development (while also keeping your top-performing employees from leaving your company). Today’s software can help employees identify skill gaps, take more ownership of their career development, view multiple paths forward, build roadmaps, and access specific tools and learning resources that can help them succeed. It also provides more transparency to managers and talent teams, who can now use the knowledge to build talent pools, as well as coach and develop employees individually.
By using advanced software, HR can easily enhance existing leadership development programs, while also
spreading career advancement opportunities to virtually every employee, regardless of location or level.
THE
BOTTOM
LINE
Until the advent of machine learning and the power of big data, truly personalized employee development wasn’t possible. But now that it’s here, smart organizations would be wise to get on board so they can keep their employees engaged (and on-site) for as long as possible.
Pulling It All Together
Whether you’re directly involved in employee learning and performance management programs or not, you likely recognize the value of personalized development and coaching — and what these efforts can do to strengthen your workforce productivity, engagement and retention, while also aligning talent to your organization’s goals for a competitive advantage.
We hope you’ve also learned that some of the best ways to deliver personalized and meaningful development start with either manager coaching, advanced technology — or both.
And thanks to new expertise, advanced software tools, and a wide range of online books and resources, a new strategy for personalized development can be only a few decisions away.
1 Saba Retention and Leadership Survey Conducted by Harris Poll, Harris Interactive/ Nielson Study, December 2014. (www.saba.com/us/press-releases/go/2015/us-workforce-expected-to-experience-massive-shift-in-2015/)
2 Saba Blog: “Content is king, but only if it’s personalized, timely and relevant,” Adrienne Whitten, August 26, 2014. (www.saba.com/us/blogs/2014/08/26/content-is-king-but-only-if-it-s-personalized-timely-and-relevant/)
3 Alex Nabaum, “Performance management is broken,” Deloitte University Press, March 4, 2014. (http://dupress.com/articles/hc-trends-2014-performance-management/?id=gx:el:d c:dup677:cons:awa:hct14)
4 Human Capital Institute (HCI) webcast presenting findings from the 2014 “Building a Coaching Culture” study. Research was conducted in partnership between the International Coach Federation (ICF) and HCI. (http://coachfederation.org/about/landing. cfm?ItemNumber=3674&navItemNumber=3675)
5 “High-Impact Performance Management: Maximizing Performance Coaching,” Stacia Sherman Garr, Bersin by Deloitte. (www.bersin.com/News/Details.aspx?id=15040) 6 Strategy+Business, “Kill Your Performance Ratings,” August 8, 2014.
(www.strategy-References
wFor more information
about personalized development, coaching and creating
a more engaged and productive workforce,
click here
.
And check out other related resources from Saba:
• eBook: It’s Game Time: Your Practical Employee Coaching Playbook• eBook: Winning Your Workforce: The Essential Guide to Improving Retention
and Employee Performance
• Brandon Hall Group Knowledge Blast:
Employee Engagement: The Key to Stronger Retention
