The future of talent development: Why one-to-one coaching is vital in the era of flexible work
The world has changed. Work-life has changed. Companies, employees and leaders have changed. These are the facts that have been discussed, dissected and debated over the past year. However, businesses haven’t as thoroughly explored how employee training and development will need to change to fit into this new flexible working era.
For any business, it’s vital to keep employees trained up and sharp as technology and approaches change, ever improving their skills to increase their value to your company and reducing the need to hire new leaders in the long term. Putting effort into enhancing your team’s skills and increasing their ability to achieve their own personal goals demonstrates your care for their progress, in turn, building more loyalty and trust.
But leaders can no longer command and control as they may have done in the past. The new post-pandemic hybrid working model calls for a shake-up of training styles – so leaders need actually to retrain themselves to become coaches and mentors. It is their job to not only train but nurture workers, teach valuable skills with a clear learning roadmap, help teams solve problems with new intuition and answer any questions, opening up a safe space for learning and growing.
The pandemic has changed the way employees can learn and grow. For younger team members especially, less time spent in the office means less interaction with managers, less over hearing conversations and less time interacting with fellow team members. How leaders continue to enable these younger team members to move up through the company is where the challenge lies.
We’re already working with a number of businesses on this exact challenge and we believe that a successful pivot will allow managers to draw out new energy, creativity and innovative approaches to education from their teams in the era of flexible work.
So, with that in mind, here’s how you as a leader can begin to make positive change when it comes to talent development.
Reassign money saved on office space
In our so-called ‘new normal’, less or even no office space is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. Workers are demanding flexible work to continue after the pandemic, so an increasing amount of businesses are answering this call by reducing office time and space. It makes sense to reinvest the budget saved on the office into your employees when, in order for businesses to thrive in this world of constant flux, they should be evolving in real-time and putting their workers at the forefront of change.
Be advocates for their progression and think ‘people’, not ‘property’. If your business was willing to spend a significant chunk of your budget on property before, why not reassign it to your people.
Leave the old ways behind
The old ways of talent development no longer work to keep employees engaged while working from home. Your teams want to feel seen, heard and understood, meaning that one-size-fits-all approaches will no longer cut it. Forget almost everything you knew about talent nurturing from before the pandemic hit: your employees are adapting to a whole new world, and it’s critical that you as a leader do the same.
To discover new ways to help employees learn, try facilitating a few question and answer sessions with a group of team members, emanating a ‘there are no silly questions’ policy. These discussions will help you understand the latest triumphs, challenges and worries that have come about due to life during the pandemic, giving managers a starting point for what might need to change in their approach to training.
Learn the difference between coaching and mentoring
Management styles will vary, as will your employees’ learning preferences and capabilities. There are key differences in training approaches and outcomes that are important to highlight before going ahead with a new strategy, ultimately aiding in your business's future success.
Coaching involves shorter timelines, with the point being to transfer a specific skill or knowledge to another in a team. For example, a process that aims to improve performance in the here and now. It can be tailored to suit unique development needs and is an approach which helps with leadership skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, part of the essential toolkit of being a great leader.
Mentoring, on the other hand, is a much longer process. This approach is particularly ideal for junior workers or those you have identified as future managers and leaders in the organisation. It allows a designated senior to be on-hand for any questions and queries, as well as to mentor the individual in both soft and hard skills during one-to-one conversations.
Create a foolproof strategy
It's a smart idea to hire a professional third party to create tailored coaching strategies for you based on your business's specific needs and goals. Finding the proper assistance for your company can be tricky, but it’s worth spending time exploring potential providers. Since third parties do this kind of work every day, remember to trust their expertise in business fit and training strategies.
For example, here at Gingko, we choose to only work with like-minded businesses as obsessed with making positive changes to their HR processes as we are. If it’s clear we are not a good professional fit at the client exploration stage, we let would-be clients know as soon as possible, avoiding time-wasting and unnecessary costs for you and us.
Assign a one-to-one coach or mentor
Since COVID-19 happened, workers outside of the office are no longer on a metaphorical level playing field. With circumstances, settings and situations varying so much between colleagues, group training is out. Coaching and mentoring needs to be provided on a one-to-one basis, allowing employees space under their own circumstances to develop their skills and ultimately help them to thrive.
These one-to-ones will also, in turn, allow senior staff to understand the gaps in their company culture, alignment of business goals and even onboarding. These are all critical aspects of employee engagement. It’s vital that your business knows its weaknesses, as well as strengths, to boost job satisfaction, employee tenure and save on future recruitment costs and unnecessary hiring.
Nurture the new generations
It’s no secret that young professionals have had a hard time learning the ropes and progressing during lockdown. New hires may not have had the training they were promised during the application process. Less-experienced workers are not invited to online meetings the same way they might have been asked to join in the office. There’s limited exposure to the ad-hoc conversations that happen in the office which means less opportunities for junior employees to volunteer themselves for projects or skills development initiatives. Much decision-making now takes place at board and managerial level rather than in team discussions.
In one-on-one mentoring sessions, younger and more junior workers get the chance to learn in a similar way to how they might in the office. Seniors get to teach them and listen to their questions and qualms when it comes to life in the business. Better communication and learning are the key to more nurtured talent and employees who are actively engaged with their development opportunities.
Leaders need to lead
For any coaching or mentoring programme to work, the implementation of new approaches needs to stem from leadership. Accountability and ownership will be critical when it comes to the success of a new training strategy to work, and managers must be ready to lead by example.
In turn, the hands-on approach to coaching will enable workers to feel at ease with their managers, creating a positive environment for mutual trust, empathetic leadership and satisfaction with superiors.
Think long term
The future is now, so long term thinking is crucial. Short term thinking got the business world into this turmoil: we assumed the office was the only way of working, but it took a global pandemic to change this perception. This realisation happened all too late for employee support and satisfaction, leaving workers feeling not only isolated from the virus but isolated from colleagues and work life.
Talent development happens on an evolving scale and should be treated as such – instead of asking where employees see themself in a year, think bigger, broader and more proactively. Five to ten years is a long-term strategy, and your business needs to adjust year on year to support their career progress and boost tenure.
One thing that’s for sure is that it’s people, not property, who will reign supreme in the future of work. Talent development in 2021 and beyond requires a tailored, one-on-one approach as it’s clear that the hybrid work model is here to stay. So rather than pushing for the day your employees can migrate back to the office and stay there, you should immediately act upon the knowledge that a new and improved talent development strategy is needed in order for your company and employees to thrive in the future.
The time is now if you want your business to succeed in this new era of flexible work. If you’re ready to reassess your talent development strategy and make real change, speak to one of our experts today.
