Coaching becomes an essential program in the workplace when there are issues and inconsistencies in the overall productivity of the company as well as employee relationships. In common situations, coaching will be conducted to any of the following:

• Coaching inexperienced learners in order to help them develop skills and improve performance
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• Coaching experienced learners who lack the motivation and willingness to improve work performance

There are employees who do not have first-hand experience of the task but have the competence to perform it. Others are task-experienced but lack the necessary skills to perform the task. Yet, there are also employees who are both inexperienced and unskilled.  These individuals can be helped with dedicated coaching.  The company should not see them as a liability and a hindrance to company goals.

In the first place, manpower is not easy to produce, not to mention the time and effort invested by the recruitment team in searching, hiring, and training their people.

Coaching inexperienced learners and even those who lack the needed skills is not a problem as long as these individuals have the willingness and commitment to improve their performance and learn new things applicable to their job. However, it is a problem if they are uncooperative and apprehensive about being coached. So a coach must make a point out of conditioning the employees first by setting expectations and stressing the benefits that they will gain from the coaching sessions.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Giving feedback is a very critical aspect of the coaching process. The learners must know the comments and remarks of the coach on their performance during coaching sessions. Inexperienced learners may probably be eager to know how they are doing while experienced employees may ask how else they can improve. Feedback provides trainees with opinions and information about how others view their behavior or performance.

Effective feedback is both positive and constructive in manner. It must not be a myriad of negative comments and heavy criticisms. With a positive and constructive feedback, learners feel motivated. When their efforts are recognized, they are encouraged to improve even more. One technique to use in giving feedback is the “sandwich method” which starts with providing a compliment or a positive comment, followed by stressing the areas for improvement, and wrapped up by an encouraging or positive remark.
Coaches have to demonstrate their skills in giving effective feedback. The following are helpful feedback-giving tips:

• Show sensitivity to other people’s feelings
• Provide honest feedback, balancing positive and negative points
• Choose the right tone and language to use
• Be descriptive instead of being judgmental
• Prepare the feedback session in advance
• Be a good role model
• Lead the employee to take responsibility of actions

The Use of Coaching Tools

The coaching plan for inexperienced learners must largely involve carefully selected coaching tools and useful techniques and to really focus on feeding them with sufficient knowledge needed for their scope of work. These tools would include drills, activities, simulations and testing materials utilized during coaching.

For example, if the employee lacks know-how about upselling the products, the coach can design drills and simulations that will teach the individual to do upselling. The time for the coaching sessions must be maximized using any coaching tool and material that will allow active participation and feed learning to the employee. The goal is to increase awareness and hone their skills in order to develop their performance at work.

Be a Role Model

Setting a good example as a coach to the inexperienced learners is a manifestation of good leadership. These individuals need a role model who will demonstrate how to develop their potentials, widen their knowledge and understanding about the nature of their work. Newly hired employees and fresh starters take inspiration from their bosses, their team leaders, and supervisors.

Apart from new hire training, they need a reinforcement of what they learned, the job they need to perform, and the skills they need to demonstrate to carry out their tasks. This is where coaching sessions come in the picture. Ongoing and regular coaching will eventually mold their potentials as well and will produce an outstanding work performance.