Coaching New Hires

Establishing a coaching culture can start with your most engaged employees - the new ones.

It's not easy transitioning to a new job at a new organization. With the excitement and challenges of meeting new people, and exploring insights into work that may require new skills and talents, newly onboarded employees face changes at nearly every turn in their new roles.

Coaching new hires can offer them a relationship-first approach to personal and professional success.

Here are a few areas where coaching new hires can be beneficial for them, their team leaders, and the organization as a whole:

Organizational Branding

Before job candidates are even hired for a job, they will research your organization's onboarding process as part of your brand recognition.  So publishing your strategy incorporating coaching as one of the first steps to successful employment and brand ambassadorship at your organization is a big commitment to your employees' retention and growth. Most companies that use this marketing tool for job candidate traction publish the information on their Human Resources or Careers web page. It's also a great idea to include a brief definition of coaching as it relates to health & wellness, workplace culture, and overall professional development. 

Clarifying Goals

One of the most important aspects of any coaching relationship is establishing goals for success. When team leaders engage new team members in the onboarding process, establishing mutually-understandable goals can be a helpful tool in gaining insights into the new hire's talents that also fit with organizational goals.

www.td.org

Common Coaching Goals and Techniques to Achieve Them

Coaching supports meaningful change by using certain techniques. Some of those techniques are discussed here, including conflict management; business budgeting; building confidence; self-reflection; and delegation.

Building Relationships

Whether your organization focuses on mentoring or coaching as an early phase of employee onboarding, it's important to recognize that new employees need a trusted colleague to ask questions and develop an understanding of the work culture. In fact, Gallup's Q12 Employee Engagement Survey asks three key questions that assess whether employees' basic needs are being met as well as their individual needs. 

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?

The question is about the basic needs of doing the job they were hired for.

• Do you have the materials and equipment to do your work right?

The question is also about basic needs and asks if there are unnecessary roadblocks that might trigger stress at work, particularly in the resources to do the job.

• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

The question promotes a relationship with the new hire, and "How well do you know me?" It also asks what contributions the new hire sees them contributing to the organization

If teamwork is central to your organization, the Q12 asks employees to answer, "I have a best friend at work."   All of these questions can be leveraged toward building a coaching relationship with individuals for increased engagement and performance. 

Leaders and Managers

Whether leaders and managers are promoted to new positions within the organization as part of a restructuring or succession plan, or the new leader comes from the outside of the organization, coaching provides opportunities for dialogue and problem-solving to issues they may never have encountered before. Coaches can support

leaders' skills for the future as well as perspectives on emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, people development, and strategic influence. 

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 Virtual Coaching 

56% of managers surveyed believe that coaching is a crucial leadership development practice. Sounding Board Coaching Pulse 2022-2023

Organizations have taken to virtual onboarding in light of the recent pandemic. Virtual coaching has also taken off the ground, allowing leaders and teams the flexibility of an anywhere, anytime coaching support system.

If you are considering integrating coaching into your onboarding of new employees and your new executive leaders, here are some first steps:

1. Define what coaching will mean in the organization.

2. Present a business case for coaching at the executive and team member levels.

3. Determine if training current employees on coaching is best, or if hiring a third-party coach is right for your organization's culture.

4. Model coaching as individualized professional learning, growth, and development from your own experiences.

5. Develop systems and processes aligned to your organization's values where coaching is the best form of sustainable personal and professional development.

Keider Consulting Group works with clients to develop cultures and systems where coaching can thrive. Starting off with new hires is a great place to begin the habits and systems for a long-standing coaching culture.