Executive Coach, Business Coach, Career Coach—terms that are not unheard of by businesses around the world. Success stories of companies using professional coaching to achieve strategic business goals continue to spread.
If your business has contemplated hiring a coach to offset traditional training and development programmes, you will be pleased to know case studies documenting high levels of satisfaction and return on investment exist. Two examples are BC Housing and JOEY Restaurant Group—both recognized by the International Coach Federation (ICF) for their successful use of coaching as a leadership strategy.
BC Housing
BC Housing is a developer and manager of subsidized housing across British Columbia, Canada, partners with private and nonprofit housing providers, as well as government agencies to find affordable housing solutions for the homeless, at-risk individuals, and those who are poverty-stricken.
To attract, develop, and retain top employees, BC Housing created a customized development programmedesigned for everyone who manages or supervises at least one person. The successful programme is part of the organisation’s all-encompassing People Strategy which has grown to include its Coach2Coach programme as of 2010.
“As a public sector employer, creating a coaching culture within our organisation has been fundamental in helping us achieve organisational goals and support our people as they carry out our social mandate. Our coaching programme is designed to have long-term impact, creating and maintaining both personal and organisational effectiveness,” said BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay.
Through the incorporation of coaching, BC Housing has witnessed a significant positive change in its organisational culture. They have developed a community of leaders that will forever be a legacy to the investments made in leadership development, and so far that investment is certainly paying off.
BC Housing has calculated that based on the initial capital investment the company made in their leadership development and coaching programmes, they have seen a 70 percent return on investment. Due to the success of the in-house coaching initiative, they have been able to scale back the amount of external training from various service providers, giving the company significant savings.
Over the past five years, BC Housing has managed to successfully sponsor 15 rounds of the programme across the entire organisation, and see the graduation of 200 leaders from all business units. These graduates now all understand the concept of leader as a coach and importance of the coaching for performance framework that BC Housing has in place.
“Leaders are taking coaching skills not only back to the workplace, but they are bringing those skills to the executive table,” explained VP of Human Resources, Agnes Ross. “They are taking it to their peers, and they are taking it to their home lives. It’s an enriching experience! It’s good for our bottom line at BC Housing, and really good for our employees who access the programme.”
JOEY Restaurant Group
JOEY Restaurant Group, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, has expanded from one location to 25 restaurants across Canada and Washington State over the past 20 years. JOEY began its coaching initiative in 2009. They wanted their development programme to be heavily focused on leadership development, conflict management, and personal growth. They also wanted an internal programme that could be sustained and replicated—and would be the best fit for their organisation and culture.
“People think we are here to serve food,” explained JOEY Vice President of Operations Al Jessa. “We are actually in the people development business. If kids can come here and work while going to college or sorting out their young lives and then whether they choose to stay or leave, they say they started their self-awareness journey and learned their coaching leadership skills at JOEY, then we’ve succeeded.”
After the investment of over a million dollars and the participation of over a 1,000 employees and counting, to simply say that their coaching programme is making a difference is a gross understatement. By firmly supporting the programme during an extremely difficult economic time period, they have experienced a 30 percent growth in revenue, as well as a 682 percent return on investment on the coaching initiative.
As an employer of young college students, they typically have a higher than average turnover rate. The adoption of a coaching culture has changed that reality. Employee turnover has dramatically dropped from around 200 percent to 66 percent! Amazingly they also now have virtually no turnover at the senior level. JOEY has a line-up of highly qualified and skilled staff competing for the next open position and promotion.
JOEY was also recognized as one of the Best Workplaces in Canada by the Great Place to Work Institute—the only restaurant group to ever have made this exclusive list.
For more information on professional coaching and tips for selecting a coach, visit Coachfederation.org/value.
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