I recently read an article on the global context for increased focus on employee recognition. I thought it was interesting that leadership coaching was called out as an investment that paid dividends across multiple challenges. Here are the highlights:
“(1) Volatile Economy —As many Western organizations responded to the economic recession, they found themselves unable to increase compensation and had to decrease or eliminate bonuses. Further, many of those same organizations reduced portions of their workforce. The upshot was increased pressure on the workers that remained, but with fewer rewards for their harder work – resulting in lower employee engagement1. Coaching and development became a popular (and relatively cheap) alternative to show that the organization still valued the employees remaining on the job.
(2) The Need for Greater Adaptability—As we all know, business is moving faster than ever. Organizations need to be able to reconfigure their workforce to respond to their new business demands. The result is a dramatic need for practices that attract new employees and keep existing employees highly motivated and engaged. To do this, progressive organizations are creating recognition programs that align with business demands and the needs of the broader workforce.
(3) The Flattening of Organizational Hierarchies—The old days of a top-down hierarchy, in which the manager is the “king,” exist in fewer and fewer companies. Every day, more organizations are adopting collaborative work environments and reducing the levels of management within their ranks. The result is a decline in the number of promotion opportunities available to employees. To continue to show employees that they are valued, organizations are turning to a myriad of recognition approaches that do not include promotions.”
Coaching is a highly customized, high impact – often 5-7X ROI – investment to help individuals become aware of how their perspectives influence actions and habits which can often be counter to the need for more flexibility and creativity. When people are energized by who they are and what they’re working on, flexibility, collaboration, and creativity naturally flow. To expect it without also investing in it at the individual, team, and organizational level is simply dreaming.
“(4) Novel Uses of Technology — As we all know, social technology has grabbed hold of the public’s attention and time in a big way across the last 5 years. At the same time, transparency, collaboration and knowledge sharing have become more the norm within organizations. Many organizations are attempting to leverage both trends by using social technology to increase the transparency, collaboration and knowledge sharing within the organization. A key element of many social platforms (i.e., LinkedIn and Facebook) is the ability for individuals to give positive feedback directly to others within the network. It is, therefore, a natural extension that employee recognition has become more common in organizations following this approach. In fact, a whole host of technology providers are now offering services that enable this type of online social recognition.
(5) The Rise of the Millennial Generation in the Workforce—Younger employees typically require more feedback (both positive and constructive) and development than older generations. Given that many organizations are in a situation where baby boomers will soon start to retire in droves, employers are searching for a way to keep these younger workers engaged, productive and retained. Employee recognition can be a critical tool in doing all of these things. “
I’d also add that leadership coaching for these people would be especially valuable as they are typically data driven and expect feedback so they can make quick adjustments. It’s one thing to get a nice comment on the intranet from a colleague but an entirely different, more challenging thing to motivate and lead people.
Let’s grab a call or coffee if you’d like to explore the role of coaching in your organization. I’m guessing you’re dealing with many of the same challenges.
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Adaptive Talent is a talent consultancy designed to help organizations achieve amazing results and ongoing adaptability. Founded in 2008 and based in Vancouver, Canada we offer retained search, assessments, total rewards consulting, training, leadership coaching and development programs, and culture & organizational development consulting.