Coaching

Employees
for High

Performance
HR’S #1 TOOL FOR EMPLOYEE
TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT,
AND PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT

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About the Sponsors
QUANTUM WORKPL ACE is an employee
feedback software company that helps
organizations retain top talent, motivate
performance, understand turnover, and
build magnetic cultures. Serving 8,700+
organizations annually, the company’s
all-in-one platform powers the entire
employee experience with employee
surveys, peer-to-peer recognition,
goal management, 360 feedback, and
performance conversations. As the survey
partner for America’s Best Places to Work,
Quantum Workplace has honored top
workplaces for more than a decade. Above
all, Quantum Workplace is passionate
about making work better every day.
LEARN MORE
FUEL50 is a career pathing software
delivered by the Career Engagement
Group. Offering a powerful toolkit
for employee coaching and enabling
employees to “own and grow” their
careers, Fuel50 is the fastest way to
drive engagement and improve leader
conversations. Winning a coveted award
for Online Coaching Tools from Brandon
Hall in late 2016, Fuel50 also won Awesome
new HR Tech in 2014 and Gold Award
for Excellence in Career Management
Technology from Brandon Hall in 2015.
Fuel50 is passionate about making the
difference to careers in 33 countries across
the globe and seeing big improvements in
coaching and engagement in organizations
like MasterCard, Citigroup, and EBay
among many more.
LEARN MORE
Authors
NATALIE HACKBARTH
INBOUND MARK ETING MANAGER | QUANTUM WORK PL ACE

Natalie partners with engagement and culture experts to create informative and
entertaining resources that help organizations make work awesome. With a degree
in journalism from Creighton University, Natalie manages The QWork Future and
creates ebooks and webinars packed with up-to-the-minute research and proven
best practices. She’s mildly obsessed with Starbucks, Quantum Workplace’s website
traffic, and Marvel’s Avengers.

ANNE FULTON
FOUNDER & CEO | FUEL 50

Anne Fulton, co-author of The Career Engagement Game, has been a registered
Organizational Psychologist for more than 20 years, executive career coach, and
strategic contributor to organizational development strategies. Her work has resulted
in tangible ROI and, in particular, engagement uplifts in multiple organizations.
Working with Fortune 100 companies such as Citigroup, CocaCola, and Global Top
10 banks such as Westpac, Anne’s experience spans all sectors. Anne is a recognized
global expert in career management systems including onboarding, performance,
succession and talent planning, and consulting. She is a sought-after key-note
presenting her research on career agility and engagement trends in New York, San
Francisco, Toronto, London, and Sydney.
Contents
05 INTRODUC TION

06 WHY LE ARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR TALENT STR ATEGY

07 TOP 5 LE ARNING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

08 4 KE YS TO CRE ATING A CULTURE OF COACHING

09 MANAGER COACHING

14 PEER COACHING

19 CONCLUSION
COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 5

Introduction
YOUR TALENT WANTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN & GROW
Today more than ever, offering opportunities for professional development and career growth is
critical to engaging and retaining productive and high-performing employees.

In the last six years, the survey item, “I see professional growth and career development
opportunities for myself in this organization” has become a more important driver of engagement.1

DRIVER R ANK BY Y E AR

“I see professional growth and career development

opportunities for myself in this organization.”

? Stay tuned for Quantum

Workplace’s 2017
Employee Engagement
5 5 5 Trends Report to see
6 how the driver ranks

7 this year.

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

HR WANTS TO DEVELOP THEIR TALENT TOO

One quarter of HR representatives said IMPROVING THEIR

1/4 DE VELOPMENT AND TR AINING opportunities would be their top
people priority over the next 12 months.2

Highly engaged organizations said IMPROVING DE VELOPMENT

#2
PRIORITY
AND TR AINING OPPOR TUNITIES was their second highest priority
behind attracting top talent.2

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE
Why Learning and Development is
Essential to Your Talent Strategy
Studies prove that employees want to work at an organization that offers them opportunities
to learn and grow, but what’s in it for employers? A lot. Effective employee learning and
development leads to:
BET TER EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE
“The only thing worse than training
your employees and having them
leave, is not training them and having
them stay.”
HE N RY FO R D, FOUNDE R O F
FO R D MOTO R COMPA N Y
INCRE ASED EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
79.5% of employees who said
their organization had a formal
employee development program
were engaged, compared to only
57.8% who said they didn’t have an
employee development program.3
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6
MORE PRODUC TIVE &
MOTIVATED EMPLOYEES
As a result of learning & development
opportunities employees have taken…
• 71% felt motivated
• 64% felt more equipped to do their job
• 55% felt empowered
• 48% felt ready to take on more responsibility3
FULFILLING EMPLOYEE
E XPERIENCE
“ W H AT’S THE MOS T IMPO R TA NT PA R T O F YOUR
PRO FE SSIO N A L DE V E LO PME NT GROW TH? ”
“Feedback from my manager and coworkers.
Being able to hear where I need to improve
and where I’m doing well has effectively driven
me to achieve better results.”
A N O N Y MOUS EMPLOY E E AT MID -SIZE D TECH COMPA N Y
COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 7

The Top 5 Learning and Development

Opportunities
Below is a chart of the top five learning and development opportunities most utilized by
employees. When examining the engagement level of employees that prefer these five
modes of development versus those that don’t, one thing became clear: employees who
wanted coaching from their manager or peers as a form of learning and development were
more likely to be engaged, compared to those who didn’t want any coaching.

1 2 3 4 5
Online Training Coaching from Classroom-Style Coaching from Cross-Training
Sessions/Webinars Manager Learning Peer

+2.9% +5.6% -2.8% +8.0% -6.0%

HR’s Biggest Asset for Boosting Employee Learning,

Development, Engagement, and Performance

difference in engagement level for those who said they prefer a specific form of development versus those who don’t

Often when we think of methods of employee development, we think of taking a class

or attending a conference. But the most effective professional development — where
employees can truly identify individual strengths and weaknesses, target goals for
improvement, and receive feedback on their growth and progress along the way — can come
from assets within your very own organization: your managers and employees.

This ebook dives into employee coaching, both from a manager or peer, as HR’s biggest
asset for employee learning and development. Keep reading for research that supports
coaching as a form of development and best practices for implementing coaching in your
organization.

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 8

4 Keys to Creating a Culture of Coaching

In order for coaching to be an understood, desired, and effective form of employee learning and
development, it needs to be ingrained into your organizational culture. Think of coaching as an
ongoing organization-wide program, a cultural element that drives your internal people operations
and the success of your business. Here are four keys to creating a culture of coaching:

1 PROVIDE TRAINING TO COACHES AND COACHEES

Both giving and receiving feedback are skills. What’s more, they’re skills that are
rarely developed. Without any guidance, feedback is likely to be given poorly by
the coach and misconstrued by the employee. Support effective coaching in your
organization by providing training and resources organization-wide.

2 SET THE TONE FROM THE TOP

Like any element that you want to make part of your organizational culture, it
starts at the top. Effective coaching must be modeled. Your leaders must hone
these skills and set the example. They must ask for feedback (up and down the
hierarchy and sideways) and visibly show that they receive feedback well. And
they must do it, and do it again and again.

3 COMMUNICATE EXPECTATIONS AROUND COACHING

If giving and receiving feedback well is a quality leadership seeks, it must
be made clear. Communicate, and communicate often. Set organizational
expectations around what manager and peer coaching looks like in your
organization: Who gives it? Who receives it? How often does it occur?
How do we do it? What is the goal of a coaching session? Make coaching
part of your processes and traditions, from onboarding and appraisals to
everyday conversations.

4 LEVERAGE TOOLS TO STREAMLINE COACHING IN

YOUR ORGANIZATION
Leverage the tools and technology available to you to fully ingrain coaching into
your culture. Whether you utilize career path software to support powerful leader
conversations and employee career-growth ownership, one-on-one meeting
software to easily facilitate coaching sessions from anywhere, or even word
documents and filing systems to save and reference detailed notes, coaching
tools and technology will make each session less complicated for employees and
managing the entire initiative easier for you.

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Manager Coaching
Empower Leaders to Advise &
Develop Their People
COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 10

Manager Coaching is Crucial for

Employee Engagement

85% OF HIGHLY DISENGAGED

85% EMPLOYEES DON’T RECEIVE

ENOUGH COACHING FROM
THEIR BOSS.

Research shows that 85 percent of highly disengaged employees don’t receive enough
coaching from their boss.4 And we know from page seven of this report that employees
who prefer coaching from direct managers as a form of professional development are 5.6
percentage points more engaged than those who don’t want coaching.

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 11

Increase Employee Performance

with Manager Coaching

“People will produce MORE THAN THEY THINK

THEY CAN if they’re challenged.”
Ray Titus | CEO | United Franchise Group

When employees are pushed to learn and develop and coached on their performance,
they’ll be more equipped to do their job, more motivated to go the extra mile, and more
likely to produce high-quality results. In fact, organizations with employees who are coached
effectively and frequently improve their business results by 21 percent, compared to those
who don’t coach employees.5

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 12

HR’s Handbook for Implementing

Manager Coaching
While each manager coaching session will be unique, it’s HR’s duty to implement some
consistency and process to ensure these conversations are used to effectively engage and
develop employees. Use this implementation handbook to make manager coaching a part of
your employee development program.

SET EXPECTATIONS
Be upfront about the goal and expectations of manager coaching. Communicate that coaching
from managers will be a standard part of your talent development strategy in order to grow and
nurture employees for high performance.

EDUCATE MANAGERS ON THEIR ROLE

Managers play a crucial role in the success of this initiative — no surprise there. Educate them on
the role they should play in coaching sessions and long-term employee development. Arm them
with resources to help them succeed in their role.

CREATE STRUCTURE AND TEMPLATES

As HR, it’s your responsibility to create guidelines and structure around manager coaching
sessions. Are there different types of coaching conversations managers should have with
employees (e.g., developmental, behavioral)? Provide a set of guidelines and templates they can
follow to maximize each type of session.

SET A FREQUENCY FOR ENGAGEMENT BY MANAGER COACHING

COACHING SESSIONS FREQUENC Y
How often should your managers
be expected to coach employees?
82.2% 82.6%
Research shows that employees
75.0% 76.8% 73.4%
were more likely to be engaged
when they received coaching from
57.2% 53.8%
their manager once a month. As
coaching sessions became less
frequent, the likeliness of employee
disengagement went up.3
> Monthly Monthly Quarterly Biannually Annually < Annually Never

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 13

ENCOURAGE 2-WAY CONVERSATION

Too often, managers construe coaching as, “I talk; you listen.” In reality, it must consist of
two-way conversation where each participant engages in active listening. In order to coach
effectively, managers need to understand where employees are coming from, what obstacles
stand in the way of their development, and what motivates and drives their performance.

TRACK, MONITOR, AND MEASURE PROGRESS

Our research shows when manager coaching is an integral part of an organization’s talent
development strategy, engagement and performance improve. Monitor manager coaching
sessions to make sure they stay on track and in line with your goals as a business. Measure the
success of coaching by benchmarking and tracking improvement on employee performance,
team engagement, and your organization’s business results.

HR Tool Box for Effective Manager Coaching

A Practical Guide to

Giving 12
&Receiving RULES
Employee TO EFFECTIVE,
Feedback 1-ON-1S ONGOING EMPLOYEE
With a Growth Mindset
COACHING

HOW TO GIVE AND

Make work
Make work awesome.
awesome.
quantumworkplace.com
quantumworkplace.com | info@quantumworkplace.com || 1.888.415.8302
| bestplaces@quantumworkplace.com 1.888.415.8302 ONE - ON - ONES COACHING TO ENGAGE POWERFUL C AREER
RECEIVE FEEDBACK CONVERSATIONS
Leverage an online, Give your managers
Transform manager ongoing performance the guidance they need Support your leaders
coaching sessions from coaching tool that helps to become rockstar and transform their
awkward to awesome manager and employees coaches with these coaching sessions
with this guide to giving communicate, 12 rules for effective, with this guide full of
and receiving feedback. collaborate, and engage ongoing coaching. 50 simple manager
in real time. coaching tips.

DOWNLOAD LEARN MORE READ MORE DOWNLOAD

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Peer Coaching
Equip Employees to Give and
Receive Peer Feedback
COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 15

Peer Coaching is a Rising Trend and

It’s Here to Stay
Slightly more than one-half of organizations have a 360

½
FEEDBACK PROGR AM that allows peers to give one another
feedback. Furthermore, one-fifth of those organizations said
peer feedback has become even more important to their talent
strategy in the last six months.2

73.4% And managers believe it’s important too. 73.4 percent of managers
said peer feedback is valuable.5

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 16

Engagement and Performance: Why

Employees Need Coaching from Peers
Organizations that utilize 360 feedback as a means of peer coaching are more likely to
be highly engaged. In fact, highly engaged organizations were more likely have a formal
program for employees to give and receive feedback from peers, compared to any other
engagement level.2

PERCENTAGE OF ORGANIZ ATIONS THAT

USE 360 FEEDBACK

12.1%
4.1%
3.7%
1.8%
0%
Highly Engaged Engaged Somewhat Somewhat Disengaged
Engaged Disengaged

“Being able to hear where I need to improve and

where I’m doing well has effectively driven me to
achieve better results.”
Anonymous Employee | Mid-Sized Tech Company

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 17

HR’s Handbook for Implementing

Peer Coaching
Peer coaching can be counterproductive — and even have negative consequences — when it’s
implemented without structure and guidance. Set your peer coaching initiative up for success with
this implementation handbook to effectively engage and develop employees.

SET EXPECTATIONS
Peer coaching can be a foreign concept to some employees and even leaders. Be upfront about
the goal and expectations of peer coaching, and communicate that it will be a standard part of
your talent development strategy.

EDUCATE PEER COACHES ON THEIR ROLE

The employee coach has a difficult task — give feedback (often constructive) to colleagues,
teammates, and friends. Educate employees on how to give straightforward and clear feedback
in a way that helps their peers grow.

CREATE STRUCTURE AND TEMPLATES

Create guidelines and structure around peer coaching sessions. Are there different types of
feedback conversations employees have with their peers (e.g., project-based, level of teamwork)?
Provide a set of guidelines and templates employees can follow to maximize each type of
session. Take it one step further and give employees access to online coaching portals and 360
feedback software.

SET A FREQUENCY FOR COACHING SESSIONS

Unlike manager coaching sessions, peers tend to work with one another or have visibility to
performance on a project-to-project basis. Empower employees to request or give feedback to
peers anytime.

CONSIDER ATTRIBUTION
Feedback is higher quality and more effective when it’s attributed; however, it can also be more
awkward in a peer-to-peer setting. Consider if you want coworkers to coach one another openly
or behind the shield of anonymity.

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COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 18

ENCOURAGE 2-WAY CONVERSATION

In order to learn and grow from peer feedback, employees need to be able to engage
with the feedback. Equip feedback receivers with the ability to comment on feedback and
ask follow-up questions.

TRACK, MONITOR, AND MEASURE PROGRESS

Our research shows when peer-to-peer feedback is an integral part of an organization’s
talent development strategy, engagement and performance improve. Monitor peer
coaching sessions to make sure they stay on track and in line with your goals as a business.
Measure the success of the initiative by benchmarking and tracking improvement on
employee performance, team engagement, and your organization’s business results.

HR Tool Box for Effective Peer Coaching

A Practical Guide to

Giving 5
&Receiving EXAMPLES OF
Employee 360
EFFECTIVE AND
Feedback With a Growth Mindset
FEEDBACK
INEFFECTIVE
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK

HOW TO GIVE AND

Make work
Make work awesome.
awesome.
360S E X AMPLES OF FUEL 50
quantumworkplace.com
quantumworkplace.com | info@quantumworkplace.com || 1.888.415.8302
| bestplaces@quantumworkplace.com 1.888.415.8302

RECEIVE FEEDBACK EFFEC TIVE &

Leverage an online, Empower employees
INEFFEC TIVE
Transform peer-to-peer ongoing performance to own their career
FEEDBACK
feedback sessions from coaching tool that helps growth, access their own
awkward to awesome manager and employees Arm your employees coaches and mentors
with this guide to giving communicate, with a resource that within the organization,
and receiving feedback. collaborate, and engage shows them the receive continuous
in real time. difference between feedback, and gain
helpful and destructive visibility to future
peer-to-peer feedback. opportunities.

DOWNLOAD LEARN MORE READ MORE LEARN MORE

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CONCLUSION
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Don’t waste another minute. Start coaching employees today to:
• Help employees learn, develop, and grow
• Foster more productive and motivated employees
• Increase employee engagement organization-wide
• Boost employee performance and business success

Learn how Quantum Workplace and Fuel50 can help.

COACHING EMPLOYEES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE 20

Sources
1. Quantum Workplace eBook, “2016 Employee Engagement Trends Report”, 2016
2. Quantum Workplace eBook, “State of Employee Feedback”, 2016
3. Quantum Workplace Survey, Learning and Development, October 2016
4. Quantum Workplace eBook, “Employee Development Planning”, 2014
5. Bersin by Deloitte Study, “High-Impact Performance Management: Maximizing Performance Coaching”, 2011
6. Quantum Workplace Infographic, “Jumping on the Right Performance Management Track”. 2016

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