In the fast-paced world of modern business, the well-being and growth of employees are paramount to an organisation’s success. Organisations increasingly recognise the importance of supporting their staff’s personal and professional development.

Organisations looking to provide coaching and career development for their managers and teams often lack the capacity or expertise to provide qualified career coaching.

Often, we see in-house measures struggle to succeed due to the lack of confidential, nonjudgmental, and supportive space for employees to explore their working approach. This leads to an inability to consider their contribution to the organisation and to identify routes for development without influence. What’s worse, any development process tends to start strong and quickly taper off.

What’s needed is an opportunity for staff at all levels to reflect on their performance and recognise their strengths, skills, and impact with a coach who is attuned to them. Supporting and keeping them accountable to the goals they set out. Guiding the actionable development of the team member and cementing the change into the organisation itself — top to bottom. Only then can real change to performance, well-being, fulfilment, and retention be achieved at an organisational level.

To understand how this can be done and how career coaching positively affects staff resilience and engagement, we spoke with the team at Guestwise, which has benefited from Stay Nimble’s plug-in career coaching for organisations.

Artificial Intelligence & Human one-on-one coaching

No person or team is alike, nor are the challenges and goals of the organisation they work within. In light of this, a flexible and modular approach to coaching is needed. We’ve seen an uptick in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool for Career Development. Although new, early results have evidenced that, while it reduces costs initially, it has demonstrated acute drop-offs in usage and engagement after introductory rounds of coaching.

In a recent AI coaching trial by Sam Isaacson from AICoach.chat for NHS staff members:

• 81.1% of the participants only undertook a single session
• 11.3% completed two sessions
• 3.8% completed three sessions
• 9% completed four sessions
• 1.9% completed five sessions.

Intrinsic to Coaching and Career Development is the relationship between the ‘Coach’ and the ‘Coached’. AI is a significant step forward and will speed up the efficiencies of coaching delivery, much like video appointments, which have made scheduling appointments more flexible for busy teams. What we‘ve experienced, however, is the need for human connection as a sticking point of continued engagement and accountability.

Fueling the personal and professional growth of tomorrow’s leaders.

Denny Casabianca, Product Manager at Guestwise, shares his transformative journey after joining Stay Nimble’s Elevate for Teams® programme.

“My coach consistently greets me with a warm smile and punctuates our discussions with insightful questions about the progress I’ve made between sessions. This level of attention and care truly resonates with me and underscores the value of our conversations.” — Denny Casabianca, Guestwise.

The coaching environment encouraged Denny to embrace vulnerability, a key component of personal growth. In his sessions, Denny learned to articulate his thoughts and communicate effectively, especially amid busy workdays where pausing for self-analysis is a luxury.

“As an extreme extrovert, he found it crucial to balance his outgoing personality with the need for introspection and self-reflection.” — Denny Casabianca, Guestwise.

Denny’s experience highlights how coaching sessions enhance self-learning and awareness while improving self-confidence and organisational engagement.

The value of coaching for organisations

A recent Gallup poll found that 90% of the organisations with coaching embedded had performance increases at or above the following ranges.*

“Coaching consistently delivers on the investment better than the many other interventions commonly used in organisations today.” — Dominic Atkinson, CEO of Stay Nimble.

Awakening ambitious mindsets

Through conversations with his coach, Denny discovered connections between his personality traits and work style. This newfound self-awareness allowed him to leverage his strengths while addressing areas needing improvement, all while staying aligned with his career aspirations.

“Qualified coaching demonstrates just how important it is to have the time to think about my professional and personal development, and having regular half-hour coaching sessions has given me the kickstart and motivation to look at my continuing professional development.” — Denny Casabianca, Guestwise.

Carey Benn, CEO at Guestwise

“Career coaching is not just an investment in your employees; it’s an investment in the future of your business.” — Carey Benn, CEO at Clicks and Mortar.

A competitive investment

Career coaching that integrates with organisations isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s smart business. Investing in employee development is about securing the future of the business:

• Solve productivity and efficiency problems faster when your team can better process emotions, develop effective plans, and effectively influence positive outcomes.
• Gain back highly focused time for managers and team leaders. So they can leverage their valuable time for competitive business outcomes and innovation.
• Passionate and engaged employees are the driving force behind a company’s success. Career coaching at an organisational level sends a signal to employees that they are supported and they will be setup to succeed.

This was written in collaboration with the Career Coaches at Stay Nimble, an award-winning social enterprise that brings plug-in and on-demand, qualified career development to everyone.

If you’d like to know more about how Stay Nimble is plugging career coaching into organisations, visit us here.

You can also book a free consultation to see how we can help your organisation.