Today the world of work has totally changed. The old scenario of an employee devoting 30 years of their life climbing the corporate ladder with a single employer and then celebrating their life-long career accomplishments with a generous retirement package and a gold watch is no longer the norm. In today’s workplace economy, the average employee will change careers five to nine times in their lifetime.
Statistics show that more than 80% of employed workers are unhappy in their jobs and that 70% of U.S. workers are disengaged from their work. In First, Break All the Rules (Simon & Schuster, 1999) and in the April 2002 edition of the Journal of Applied Psychology, Gallup published research proving that a more emotionally-engaged employee is also a more productive employee. It also proved that a more engaged employee is a more profitable employee, a more customer-focused employee, a safer employee, and an employee who is more likely to withstand temptations to jump ship. Because of this new heightened awareness, Corporate America has begun to stand up and take notice to the importance of their employees being engaged and experiencing job satisfaction and fulfillment in their work.
Career Coaching Can Help Career coaching as an industry has evolved just within the last 12 years and because of the dramatic results achieved through coaching, it has become a very popular catalyst for helping individuals find fulfilling and engaging careers.
Coaching has become such a hot topic that six out of every 10 companies now offer coaching or similar services to their managers and executives. Many companies have hired onsite career coaches to help ensure the right employees are placed in the right jobs of their organizations and that they are developing emotionally-engaged workforces.
The number one action by companies today to help “engage” their employees is to provide them with training. However, a recent study revealed that training produced a 22% increase in productivity, but when training was combined with coaching, productivity rose to a whopping 86%.
Cindy O’Neil, director of training for Time Warner Cable in Denver, CO, recognized the potential results of combining training and coaching. “Finding people who will be happy as customer-service reps is the most important thing,” says O’Neil. New hires spend three weeks in job skills training before being paired with an experienced coach or job mentor until they feel confident to work on their own. As a result, Time Warner experienced higher customer service ratings and a more satisfied and engaged workforce.
If the average person spends nine hours a day at work, one hour preparing to go to work and one hour in travel time, then work activity consumes almost 70% of the average person’s day. It only makes sense that it should be spent doing something that you actually enjoy.
