Late 2018 saw us introduce our new coaching proposition, which we call ‘Coach on Campus’. We developed it in response to the commonly held belief that coaching is only for senior leaders. And while many leaders can and do benefit from coaching, it should not be the preserve of the most senior people in your organisation.
‘Coach on Campus’ is all about offering workplace coaching to everybody else. We’ve designed it to make it accessible to individual contributors, technical specialists, recent graduates, team leaders and junior managers. These employees aren’t traditionally considered for coaching, but that’s something we want to change.
We’ve already rolled out the programme for clients in London, Dublin and Barcelona and I wanted to share some of the benefits to this approach.
What does this look like in practice?
Firstly, a quick overview of the process.
With ‘Coach on Campus’, your organisation buys a bundle of coaching days (a minimum of six days, usually spread over six months). Each day allows for six, one-hour coaching sessions, and our coach comes to you. Your employees can book slots with us directly via our online booking system, minimising the administrative load on you.
An employee may have a single, stand-alone coaching session and not require any additional support. They may opt to return for a follow-up session or may in fact benefit for multiple sessions spread across a number of months. The key thing here is that they don’t need to commit to multiple sessions at the outset. This means that all 36 coaching sessions available across six months can be used flexibly by a much larger pool of people than traditional coaching agreements.
We can de-mystify coaching via a webinar, or distribution of a briefing document, before coaching sessions are made available. This helps establish how the sessions could be used and what to expect from coaching if you’ve never had a coach. This also allows us to make best use of the time available in each session.
Now for those benefits
We see these as the main benefits of setting up a ‘Coach on Campus’ programme in your organisation:
Providing access to coaching to a wider population in your organisation. This helps to demystify and de-stigmatise coaching, presenting it as just another development support available to employees. In effect, it contributes to the development of a coaching culture – a worthwhile aspiration that often eludes organisations.
Access to high quality workplace coaching, minutes from your desk. The fact that our coach comes to you means that no time is lost traveling to another venue. With a few minutes to prepare, a one-hour session with the coach, followed by a few minutes of post-session reflection, there is minimal opportunity cost involved.
A cost-effective and flexible coaching solution. The mention of ‘coaching’ can prompt thoughts of significant cost, an assumption we want to challenge. A single six-month ‘Coach on Campus’ programme costs less than one executive coaching package! That equates to 36 coaching sessions for less than six for a single executive. We aim to be as flexible and pragmatic as possible when running these programmes – coachees can swap places and dates can be changed (with notice!) at no cost.
We minimise the administration involved. Price aside, the admin involved in booking appoints and venues can be a turn-off for some organisations. Our online booking platform means that the admin is minimised. In fact, when your employees log in, all they will see are the coaching appointments we’ve set aside for your organisation. Then all we need is a suitable room for the coach in your building and we’re good to go!
A scaleable solution. If demand for workplace coaching increases (and it often does once the benefits become apparent) we can scale up the number of days provided each month. We can either add a coach to the venue and run sessions concurrently, or simply have a coach attend on two different days per month. And should demand fall over time, we can scale back down to a single coach on a single day.
So how do I get started?
If you’re interested in learning more, why not get in touch with your details and we can schedule a no-commitment conversation to explore how workplace coaching could support your organisation.
