How Academic And Career Coaching Helps Your Business Excel
From high employee turnover and low job satisfaction to lack of engagement and connection to work and colleagues, professionals are struggling. And if they high performing, you can guarantee they’re testing the job market waters or getting hunted on LinkedIn by your competitors.
This was the case for tech giant Amazon and you know what they did? They hired academic and career coaches!
An academic and career coach can work one on one with your employees to help them thrive at work and in life. In this article, we examine how coaching helps your business excel utilizing career tools like professional development plans, continuing education opportunities like LinkedIn Learning and valuable management trainings to get your managers capable and competent in the next phase of their career.
Retention and Employee Happiness
From every level of the workforce from entry to executive leadership, people are leaving jobs. When asked why, sure people are saying obvious reasons like more money or increased flexibility but what is definitely coming forward with job seekers and unhappy employees is the feeling of being unappreciated and underdeveloped.
Doing exit interviewing is a great way to better understand why employees are leaving your organization. Short of that, go look at trends and themes in your industry. That is exactly what career coaches do. We want to understand why folks are leaving jobs, so we know what people value and prioritize in their next job search.
A career coach can work one on one with your employees to better understand what they want and need from work. How they want to professionally grow at work, specifically in your organization. How do they feel their path is going? Do they feel supported by management?
Don’t wait until employees start leaving to ask how it’s going. A career coach is a great third-party entity that can come in, gain your employee’s trust and simply listen and formulate solutions to help solve problems before they result in folks leaving.
Continuing Education and Professional Growth
As an Academic and Career Coach, I have built a career on how to get the best out of employees and how to keep them engaged in the organization, so they stick around. As a university professor, I’m very skilled in helping folks create long-term education goals like a university degree or micro-credentialing such as LinkedIn Learning or Google Career certificates.
This is the level of support career professionals (particularly Gen Z) are looking for from managers. Unfortunately, most managers don’t have the time, skill, interest or ability to offer academic and career coaching to their employees. This is where a coach can make a huge difference.
If your organization offers professional development funds or tuition remission, you should also employ a coach to help employees understand how they can use their growth and continuing education right here, right now in the job they have and in the company they work for.
If you are training your staff and giving them free resources towards education but not coaching them, they are going to leave! Give them a reason to stay, i.e., a caring, empathetic culture that honors people’s value and hard work, recognizes their achievements, and promotes them into management roles.
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Millennial Management
Ok, Millennials, you’re up! We are getting to the point in the workforce age that most of management is made up of Millennials- many of which never set out to become managers in the first place! Often, folks are pushed into management roles without much training, education or consideration on how to actually manage people, motivate teams, communicate, cultivate culture etc.
Bringing in a coach to work one on one with your managers not only empowers your managers in their career but makes everyone’s lives who report to that manager a little (or in some cases, a lot!) better. Don’t let unqualified managers flounder, and worse, force high achieving entry level folks out in pursuit of better management or leadership. Invest in your managers and they will pass those learnings down to their teams. It’s a win-win!
Lastly…
In a post pandemic world, providing a lukewarm job experience is not going to cut it. People want more from work than just work. Now is the time to invest in your systems, technology, people and yes, coaching! Coaches are versatile assets in your organization from one to one support, training programs and supportive partners of HR, having a coach or two on your team or in a freelance capacity is going to be the best investment you make this year. ROI guaranteed!
Related:
6 Ways To Advance and Enhance Your Career When Working Remotely
5 Ways To Be Gender-Inclusive In The Workplace (With Examples)
Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
