Getting Engaged

With more than 100 studies illustrating the link between employee engagement and performance, it is increasingly evident that promoting worker engagement – a responsibility once considered the province of an organisation’s human resource and communications departments – is everybody’s business, particularly as employee satisfaction and engagement rates decline in the wake of the global economic crisis.

The fiscal consequences of worker disengagement cannot be overstated; it’s estimated disengaged employees cost organisations approximately 35 percent of their payrolls, with US organisations experiencing a cost of $370bn annually.

Creating a coaching culture
One strategic organisational change that can yield significant rewards in the arena of employee engagement is the implementation of a professional coaching programme. Roche Turkey, a subsidiary of Roche Group, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, has experienced first hand the positive impact of coaching on employee engagement.

In 2009, a highly regarded human resources consulting firm demonstrated the company’s employee engagement was “indifferent” or lacklustre – but that the employees also felt Roche Turkey had great potential to become an emerging market leader. So Roche Turkey decided to pursue an option that’s still considered new for corporate development in Turkey: professional coaching.

The process is completely driven by coachees and their development needs

Roche Turkey coached high-potential leaders to become “internal” coaches and then offered another 45 high-potential employees 12 coaching sessions with an internal or an external coach. Berrin Yılmaz, Head of Human Resources at Roche Turkey, said: “What makes our coaching initiative unique is twofold: the coaching process in Roche Turkey involves the total life of the coachee – it is for both personal and professional development. The process is completely driven by coachees and their development needs.”

The organisation has dramatically increased employee engagement from 55 to 66 percent, expanded its talent pool by 22 percent, developed its leadership talent, and enhanced internal promotions and international assignments. Roche Turkey employees report using coaching skills in daily business dealings, and the HR consulting firm initially charged with evaluating the organisation has found employees to be more open and trusting since the initiative went into effect. Employee turnover has also decreased.

As a result of the coaching initiative, Roche Turkey has been rated a “high-performing” company – rather than being in the “indifferent” zone – in terms of engagement, and other companies in Turkey have inquired about how they too can create a coaching culture. In 2012, the organisation was awarded an International Prism Award by the International Coach Federation (ICF) – an honour bestowed upon organisations that have achieved a standard of excellence in the implementation of coaching programmes for culture change, leadership development, performance improvement and productivity.

+22^% Talent pool expansion due to coaching

Running the numbers
Coaching also boosts many of the indicators associated with employee engagement. According to the 2009 ‘ICF Global Coaching Client Study’, 70 percent of clients reported a positive improvement in work performance. The same study showed coaching improved clients’ ability to achieve a work-life balance by 67 percent.

Improving a company’s overall culture can help positively impact employee engagement, and coaching plays a role here too: in the “ICF Global Coaching Client Study”, 72 percent of clients who identified a change in corporate culture as one of their goals for the coaching interaction experienced positive change, while 20 percent of respondents identified culture change as an unanticipated but positive side benefit.

Coaching is a worthwhile investment in your employees’ well-being and your organisation’s future, particularly in an era when executives, managers and workers are all trying to achieve greater productivity with fewer resources – human and otherwise. The numbers tell the story: According to the ‘ICF Global Coaching Client Study’, most companies (86 percent) say they at least made their investment in coaching back, with 19 percent reporting an ROI of 50 times their investment and a further 28 percent reporting an ROI of 10 to 49 times their investment.

Contact details: to learn more about coaching or to find a professional coach through ICF’s Coach Referral Service, visit www.coachfederation.org