Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2017 - 56

CLOSING
D E A L S

COACHING AS PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
USING TECHNOLOGY FOR EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND FEEDBACK
- TARYN OESCH

In October, Peter Cappelli (Wharton
School) and Anna Tavis (Columbia
University) wrote a Harvard Business
Review article titled "The Performance
Management Revolution." It may seem
extreme to call a change in performance
management a "revolution," but from
the perspective of the team leaders
who must evaluate employees-and
the employees who must receive
those evaluations-it really isn't.
Thanks to a shorter supply of talent,
talent development is becoming an
important differentiator for employers.
Employees are more motivated by
development than they ever have been
before, now that millennials are such a
prominent part of the workforce. And
because of increased job complexity,
it's impractical, if not impossible, to set
performance goals one year in advance,
so that development means "frequent,
informal check-ins."
Harvard Business Review reports that "by
some estimates, more than one-third of
U.S. companies...are replacing annual
reviews with frequent, informal checkins between managers and employees."
These companies include Microsoft,
IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, Gap
and General Electric. Annual reviews,
according to Cappelli and Tavis, focus
on past behavior rather than current
and future performance. "In contrast,"
they write, "regular conversations about
performance and development change
the focus to building the workforce your
organization needs to be competitive
both today and years from now."
Coaching can provide this continuous
performance
evaluation
and
management that employees need
to thrive and grow. Closing the gap

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between training and on-the-job
performance,
coaching
supports
behaviors that lead to both shortterm and long-term success-for the
individual and the business. By focusing
on employee strengths and how to use
them, coaching avoids the traditional
negative responses to feedback. By
using technology to scale the reach of
coaching, training managers can also
integrate data, provide instant feedback
and even decrease the likelihood of bias.
Early this year, ADP acquired The
Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC),
expanding its talent portfolio with
TMBC's cloud-based coaching platform,
StandOut. Now called ADP StandOut,
the solution provides data and tools to
managers that they can use to coach
team members. The platform is truly a
coaching platform, since it focuses on
employees' strengths and uses machine
learning to individualize strategies.
StandOut is based on TMBC's research
on high-performing team leaders and
the philosophy that those leaders'
ability to foster an engaging culture is
critical to organizational success. That
research, according to a TMBC white
paper, shows that for the best team
leaders, "a year is not a marathon, but
is instead 52 weekly sprints." Weekly
check-ins ensure that coaching is
"future-focused and specific to the
work at hand." The platform uses a
list of engagement and performance
questions to gather information and
provide practical tips for team leaders
to coach employees.
"Historically," says Don Weinstein,
chief strategy officer at ADP, "talent
management
has
been
largely

subjective." Traditional assessments
tend to reflect more about the assessor
than the employee. ADP StandOut uses
algorithms that ADP says "eliminate
rater bias." Additionally, by using data to
tailor coaching objectives to individual
employees' strengths and weaknesses,
coaches and team leaders can maximize
their effectiveness.

BY USING DATA TO TAILOR
COACHING OBJECTIVES,
COACHES CAN MAXIMIZE
EFFECTIVENESS.
Regardless of platform, any coaching
program should use data to measure
the effectiveness of the program.
Weinstein says that metrics such as
performance improvement and even
employee retention can be tied to
coaching effectiveness. Technology
makes it easier for training managers
and coaches to establish a baseline and
measure progress, which then makes it
easier to change the program as needed
and improve results.
Coaching no longer needs to be
considered a "nice-to-have," without
measurement
or
accountability.
Rather, it should be a useful program
that produces measurable results for
individuals, teams and organizations.
Using
technology,
training
organizations can develop, implement
and evaluate coaching programs
that make a real impact in employee
development and evaluation.
Taryn Oesch is an editor at Training Industry,
Inc. Email Taryn.
https://www.hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution https://www.hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution http://www.trainingindustry.com/leadership/press-releases/adp-acquires-the-marcus-buckingham-company-to-expand-talent-portfolio.aspx http://www.trainingindustry.com/taxonomy/c/coaching.aspx
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2017
