Developing your employees is an integral part of keeping your business a successful one. How you choose to do this, however, is another question. It varies greatly from business to business, because more often than not, it depends on the organisation itself and the skills needed.
Training and coaching often go hand in hand, and can work well together as part of a complementary development programme.
Training
Training is, simply, sharing of knowledge. Those who are experienced or have knowledge and expertise in a particular field teach individuals who have less knowledge of that field. This can vary from an instruction on the best way to lift a heavy box, to language classes to a wine tasting session.
Training is direct. The trainer is the expert, and will tell the trainee(s) what to learn and how to do it.
Coaching
A coach is not necessarily more knowledgeable, or has more expertise or experience in a particular area than the ‘coachee’ or ‘mentee’. Instead, a coach facilitates development in an individual. They don’t impart knowledge; instead, through coaching methods, a coach will raise awareness of the individual’s skills, knowledge and expertise, and their own possibilities. The coach will then motivate the individual to utilise these skills to be who they want to be or do what they want to do.
Coaching or Training?
The best answer is both, but it depends on how you want to support your employees. A typical training and development programme within an organisation looks a little bit like this:
Introduction – for new starters, an introduction to the company is essential. The company’s goals and how they as an employee contribute towards those goals, is a good place to start.
Review the Job Description – Identify anything that they don’t know how to do, or things that they want to know about in more detail.
Training – group training or individual training; make sure that your employee is competent and able to do their job.
Ongoing Development – on site training should be confirmed and updated regularly. Offsite training at conferences or workshops help your employees feel that they are valued, and equally have something of value to contribute to the company
Coaching – Coaching will help employees develop their skills, not only as employees, but in other aspects of their life as they begin to identify ways that they can develop themselves. You can hire a company like Watt Works Consultancy who can mentor your employees for you, or you can develop your own coaching programme, using other employees as coaches.
