Remember Peter Gibbons, the main character from cult 90s movie Office Space? When talking about his lack of motivation at work to external consultants known as The Bobs, he explains, “It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.” Employee coaching is evolving. Here’s why you should offer life coaching for your employees.
According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 53% of American workers are “not engaged” in their job, and an additional 13% are “actively disengaged”. This means there’s huge potential for improvement within many businesses to address the participation needs of their employees.
There’s been a growing emphasis worldwide on workplace wellbeing. Now in the midst of a global pandemic and recession, it’s more important than ever to ensure your people have the resilience and confidence to maintain productivity and to balance their work and home life. Big companies such as LinkedIn and Facebook are already offering their workers free life coaching as part of their wellbeing programmes. So, can life coaching for your employees benefit the business, and if so, how?
1. A more productive, motivated and engaged workforce
Unlike traditional employee coaching, personal life coaching deals with the person as a whole, not just in the context of the workplace. Some workers may have underlying personal issues they would never disclose to a manager, but may be harming their performance.
Coach-client confidentiality is an important component of effective coaching. It’s vital that the client feels free to open up about matters of concern to them. They should feel free to do so without judgement or fear of reprimand. The client should know the coach is always on their side, and that any plans put in place are for their personal benefit.
The foundations of coaching usually begin with clarity around the client’s values and priorities. When you know what these are, it’s easier to align them with what you truly want. This means being more motivated and engaged in what you’re doing, because it fits with your purpose.
An International Coach Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Client Study conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that “80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.”
2. Increased individual responsibility and accountability
Life coaching encourages you to take responsibility for your own life, and to be accountable for your own actions and behaviours. A good coach is able to teach practical skills around goal-setting and habit-building. Coaches don’t tend to “give advice” to their clients. Instead, they create plans together that move the client towards what they want in life and work.
3. Less absenteeism
Coaches work with clients on an individual basis. This makes it easy to identify and target specific areas of development such as communication skills, emotional intelligence, leadership, conflict resolution, confidence and time management. Initially, the client is accountable to the coach. There’ll be agreed actions to complete and homework to do on a regular basis. But the ultimate aim of coaching is for the client to be accountable to themselves. This leads to the coachee having a greater sense of control in their life.
If you’re in a low physical or mental state, you tend to take more days off. On the other hand, if you’re feeling generally healthy and energized, you’re much more likely to go to work.
Life coaching can involve looking at your overall lifestyle, and creating systems that optimize your health and wellbeing on a long-term basis. This may include discussion around eating and drinking habits, exercise, play, hobbies and relationships. A good coach can help you to understand that self-care is a priority if you want to be successful in your life and career. If you’re generally happy, healthy and have a good life balance, you tend to be more resilient and less prone to illness.
4. Greater workplace harmony
Coaches can help to address issues around work relationships too. Without getting involved in office politics or interfering with reporting structures, they can help their clients to improve their communication skills to enhance workplace harmony.
This may consist of working on such things as active listening, speaking with confidence, body language, building empathy or improving social skills.
Open and honest communication between colleagues builds trust and leads to greater understanding. This in turn leads to a more pleasant working environment.
5. Bigger profits
All these benefits are wonderful, but for many business owners, it’s profit that really counts. With that in mind, will offering life coaching services to your workers have a positive effect on the bottom line? The answer? Probably.
The ICF/PwC study concluded that 86% of companies surveyed reported that they at least recouped their coaching investment and more.
In addition, a 2019 LSE Business Review meta-analysis of 339 studies accumulated by Gallup involving over 1.8 million people and 82,000 business units, found that higher employee wellbeing is associated with higher productivity and company performance. In the concluding remarks it was noted that although there is a need for more research in order to make a clear business case, the study “is suggestive of a strong, positive correlation between employee wellbeing, productivity and firm performance.”
Conclusion
Providing life coaching for employees can be a powerful and cost-effective way to help your business thrive through increased engagement, motivation and productivity. Give your workers a reason to care – and watch your business flourish.
Click here to find out how you can partner with me to easily implement an amazing and affordable coaching plan for your workers.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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I read your content. Very nice. Your content is very informative. Five reasons why employees should be given life coaching will really help.