Workplace Coaching as an Effective Human Resource - Essay Example

Workplace Coaching and Human Resource Development Name Institution Course Tutor Date Today’s business world is a competitive one. Globalization has also made things more complicated for organizations who are striving to handle competitive pressures. Organization competitiveness depends on its ability to manage performance and improving the development of employees’ skills and competencies (Adhikari 2010, p. 306). Performance management and concurrent development of employees’ skills and competencies is a pre-requisite in achieving competitiveness. Members of an organization are crucial in the development of effective strategies to deal with these issues among others. There is a need for nurturing and development of staff in order to optimize performance. Human Resource Development (HRD) is a crucial tool in this process. HRD coordinates the efforts of the organization in the provision of training and development to its employees (Sims, p. 165). Workplace coaching has emerged as an effective HRD intervention in improving the performance of individual and organization than training and development. This essay contends that workplace coaching is an important HRD intervention in improving individual and organizational performance. Human resource development focuses on having productive systems in the organization. Workforce is an important resource that HRD attempts to develop in order to have an individual and organizational success. Individual and organizational learning and performance are the core elements of HRD (Swanson & Bolton, p. 03-04). Employees are required to regularly learn about new ways of performing their work in order to improve their performance. HRD has become dominant because it intends to improve the expertise and performance of individuals, work groups and processes and the entire organization (Swanson & Bolton, p. 12). It is crucial in the development of managers and employees. Performance in organizations is required to increase if the organization is to achieve its goals and at the same time become competitive. Developing human resources is the key to the realization of the kind of performance organization needs. HRD is an organized formal or informal activities that are designed for purposes of enhancing human capital and improve performance of individual and organization (Van Tiem, Moseley, & Dessinger, p. 629). It also entails achievement of personal growth such as training, coaching, mentoring or career development. Coaching is one of the HRD interventions for improving this performance. HRD interventions are planned, deliberate and conscious individual and organizational growth activities devised for improving human and organizational performance as well as solving workplace problems (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, p. 629). Coaching is one of this interventions and it is promising in the development and improving performance. Workplace coaching is a relatively new organizational intervention for improving employees and organization performance. Typically, coaching process involves coaches hired by an organization to work with individuals on one-on-one basis or with small groups in order to diagnose the present business situation, elaborate the future goals, identify internal and external resources and then assess and plan a process whereby those goals are to be achieved (Porter, p. ). Its focus in skillful questioning for purposes of helping an organization finds its own solutions rather than depend on professional advice. Additionally, workplace coaching focuses on development of employee skills that is required in achieving the desired organizational results rather than development of career or personal goals of the person undertaking workplace coaching (Clegg, Rhodes, Kornberger & Stilin 2005, p.243). However, coaching also helps individuals further their personal and career goals by identifying weaknesses in their performance and then set goals of achieving them by the help of coaching. In a competitive market, responding quickly to issues related to training and development puts an organization in a good position to unprecedented success in the future. In this case, recognition of the importance that heavy investment of the workforce does in the first stage. Development of human resources is then carried out in the achievement of organizational success. Coaching has emerged as a developmental approach and it is supported by the kind of systematic and transformational changes witnessed in the corporate settings (Bozer, Sarros & Santora 2013, p. 277). Corporations are conducting coaching sessions to its employees by providing them relevant and up to date information on how organizational processes are carried out in a more effective manner. Workplace coaching is promising but it should not be expected to provide immediate solutions to organizational challenges but to promote change and learning as time passes (De Haan, Culpin, & Curd 2011, p. 40). The learning is intended to rectify the issues that slow down organizational performance and improve how individuals perform their respective functions. Historically, sports and improvement of performance at work has been associated with coaching. In sports, experts work closely with a team or a certain performer in managing and directing their development. At the workplace, a remedial activity that involves some set of skills is conducted in case an individual is failing. Organizational coaching evolved in late 1970s a tool for managing and supervising performance improvement (Roman 2008, p. 402). Workplace coaching can involve internal staff, external specialists or managers who work hand in hand with an individual on identification and attainment of specific goals for development and learning purposes and impacts on performance (Gibb 2011, p. 269). Coaching entails the improvement of the team and individual performance, skills, and productivity. It is about working closely with people in an organization and their respective teams in changing, sensitive and complex environments in supporting leadership and talent management. Linley, Harrington, & Garcea 2010, p. 176) assert that coaching is a conversation that is collaborative and action-oriented and it facilitate enhancement of self-directed learning, goal attainment, performance and life experience in the professional and/or personal life of an individual being coached. Coaching is a diverse tool, but there are common principles that underpinned them. It is a collaborative relationship that a coach and the person being coached forms for purposes of attaining professional as well as personal development. It is a process that facilitates attainment of certain goals. A model for coaching is normally prepared in workplaces. It includes a definition of the coaches’ role, the people to be coached, coaching guidelines, and possible coaching scenarios (Bianco-Mathis, Roman & Nabors 2008, p. 16). This is an important step in setting the mood for the coaching process and focus to be on the achievement of the set targets. In order to have a successful coaching process, the executive role as defined by the organization should be first assessed, then the present performance expectations (Kaufman 2006, p. 288). The perceptions that have been developed over time that includes superiors, peers, and subordinates feedback should also be assessed for coaching to be effective. In most organizations today, workplace coaching is carried out all organizational levels. It encompasses various specialties and services. Team coaching, career coaching, skills and performance coaching are some of the examples (Roman 2006, p. 403). In particular, performance coaching has been regarded as an important HRD intervention in improving performance of individual and organization. Organizations have embraced this kind of coaching. This has been forced partly by the rapid acceleration of technological innovation that requires organizations to invest in training, coaching and development interventions for their employees (Rowold 2008, p. 32). Coaching is part of HRD intervention. They are designed to prepare employees for the future and update their skills, abilities and knowledge (Brooks & Nafukho 2006, p. 119). It is daily activity dedicated to helping employees solve problems that are related to their work and career. The main goal of all HRD interventions including coaching is an enhancement of employee performance. This is supported by various research and academic literature. Organizations need to have a workforce that is competent, well trained and can perform their roles and responsibilities with minimum supervision. HRD intervention tools help in this course. Coaching is designed to improve some aspects of job performance just like other HRD tools. This is because some tasks are highly complex and, therefore, requires several HRD interventions for purposes of high-performance achievement by employees (Rowold 2008, p. 34). Issues such as dealing with difficult customers, soft and hard skills, problems with working with certain equipments and technological innovations are some of the things covered in workplace coaching. As customers are now equipped to handle all these issues, they have the necessary mindset to accomplished assigned tasks and improve their performance and that of the organization. Rowold (2008, p.32) found out in his study of coaching impacts on employees’ performance those employees that participated in coaching can predict job satisfaction. Since employees have been coached on ways of handling issues that were disturbing them or did not know how to handle properly, they can know perform their jobs with no pressure or worries. In this case, an employee can know that he or she will be satisfied with the job after coaching. Organizations that do not perform at their maturity stage are with the reality of their inability to compete in the long run. In fact, the last several years has accelerated the importance of leaders in helping their organizations fulfill these challenges. Delivery of high-quality products and services, empowering breakthrough results, retaining the top talent and managing continuous change are some of the challenges that needs to be addressed. In meeting these challenges, it is essential to create a coaching culture in the organization (Payne 2006, p. 03). Organizations that lead know the way of delivering customized and high-quality products and services at costs that are competitive. Coaching assists in keeping employees focused on matters relating to quality excellence (Payne 2006, p. 03). Moreover, it enables employees to work in a manner that is more effective, efficient and productive. Organizations that want to progress and achieve its targets within the stipulated time value their employees. They attempt to ensure that organizational members are stimulated and properly developed in order not to lose an organizational member. As people are given new roles that are more engaging, new demands are expected of them from the management. To fulfill the new roles successfully, employees need to acquaint themselves and adapt to their new role. Coaching is important its achievement. Coaching helps individuals in focusing on the action and skills needed in the production of the required results (Wilson 2004, p. 98). Every employee has a potential of growing and developing in the right environment. In supporting this development, coaching can be an important tool. Employees will know exactly what they are expected of them and are able to pursue their career development. The popularity of coaching as an HRD tool has increased because of its benefits. People who are engaged in workplace coaching expect the attainment of different or new perspectives on various organizational challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, they also expect an enhancement of decision-making and thinking skills. Improvement of interpersonal effectiveness can be attained through coaching. Employees need to have a boosted confidence when undertaking their work and coaching in workplaces is a means to achieving this end. Coaching is, therefore, a structured approach use to question people for purposes of helping them improve their awareness and take appropriate actions in achieving goals (Gibb 2011, p. 270). For some time, workplace coaching was an unacknowledged tool of management. However, this situation has since changed and it has become an important HRD intervention used in improving performance. The uniqueness of coaching from traditional trainings makes it an ideal employee development intervention. In coaching, learning process occur on-the-job in order for work itself to act as basis of learning experience (Syed & Cheema 2011, p. 28). This is a departure from the traditional employee HRD intervention like traditional classroom trainings in which source of a learning experience is designed simulated exercise in the lab. The learning that is gained as a result of this intervention is both effective and efficient. It involves the application and simultaneous learning process rather than requiring the need to transfer classroom learning to the place of work. Coaching is a unique HRD intervention as pointed above. It has distinguishing feature- the simultaneity of learning and application (Syed & Cheema 2011, p. 28). This involves receiving instant feedback by the people who are being coached concerning their performance. It, therefore, enables them to have an opportunity of quickly mending their mistakes. For this reason, the entire learning and improvement of performance is speeded up. It is an efficient intervention because there is no need of removing an employee from the job into the classroom. Productivity does not suffer as a result of an employee leaving his or her work to attend classroom training on how to improve individual and organizational performance. Rather, two things are accomplished at the same time, that is, employee learning and performing the assigned duties simultaneously. Workplace coaching as HRD intervention has various benefits to the organization, performers and also coaches. It is often said that a visionary organization sets its goals and objectives and puts mechanisms in place to achieve them. In coaching, performers select their goal and what they intend to achieve at the end of the coaching exercise. They experience the attainment of goals and objectives under their terms. This is supported by research done by (De Haan, Culpin, & Curd 2011, p. 27) that found out that managers who work with an executive coach are more likely to set specific goals than others. Employees’ morale, self-esteem, and confidence are boosted. They are offered opportunities to talk about an issue of great importance with confidence. This is required in increasing their performance and that of the entire organization. After setting workplace coaching goal, coaches take appropriate action in achieving the set goal. Breakthroughs in performance are also achieved as well. Organizations benefit as employees are now energized and self-reliant (Syed & Cheema 2011, p.28). This process is generative and the organization benefits through an improved organization. Essentially, coaching is a goal-oriented process that benefits workers and individuals. Before it coaching starts, agreement of the goals hoped to be achieved and the length of the process is often agreed (Rider 2002, p. 233). Coaching is started and the focus is on learners improving on their weaknesses by providing feedback to the coaches about the coaching progress and what needs to be improved. Closure is experienced from workplace coaching (Bowerman & Collins 1999, p. 294). Real issues and/or goals are dealt with by employees in real time. In organizations, many projects lack formal closure which is draining. The clear time frame set in coaching is energizing and enables the set goals to be finished formally and successfully. Coaching enables performers to be coaches themselves the next time coaching is conducted (Bowerman & Collins 1999, p. 294). The potentiality of being coaches increases employees’ self-esteem. This leads to more involvement and creativity. Moreover, employees also demonstrate leadership. Formal development and programs on training that were previously emphasized is increasingly declining in organizations as on-the-job approaches to development are being favored all over the world. Workplace coaching is becoming an important HRD intervention as on-the-job learning technique that improves individual and employee performance. It depends on setting of the goal, giving feedback and building of a relationship that is based on trust (Roman 2008, p. 402). Coaching is a developmental tool that assists the organization sets clear performance expectations and improve the performance. References Adhikari, D. (2010). Human resource development (HRD) for performance management: The case of Nepalese organizations. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 59(4), 306-324. Bianco-Mathis, V., Roman, C. H., & Nabors, L. K. (2008). Organizational coaching: Building relationships and programs that drive results. Alexandria, Va: ASTD Press. Brooks, K., & Muyia Nafukho, F. (2006). Human resource development, social capital, emotional intelligence: any link to productivity?. Journal of European Industrial Training, 30(2), 117-128. Bowerman, J., & Collins, G. (1999). The coaching network: a program for individual and organizational development. Journal of Workplace Learning, 11(8), 291-297. 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