Coaching Skills Training: Making the Case for Coaching: Part One

These days employees expect to be developed as part of the deal. Human Resource folk mumble (and sometimes grumble) about something called the psychological contract. This is an unwritten, tacit contract that sits alongside the formal, written employment contract and is just as important. The employment contract sets out the basic consideration which will be along the lines of "if you do what we ask you to do, we'll pay you X". In reality things are of course more complex and the nature of the work required will be detailed in role profiles and the like, while the reward part will be similarly defined as salary, bonus, etc. and a range of non-financial rewards such as holidays. The psychological contract is each party's understanding of what each other will do to play 'fair'. For most of the 20th Century that ran along the lines of 'turn up for work and do a reasonable job and we'll employ you for life' But this contract was torn up as part of the way working life was transformed from the 1980s to date. The 'job for life' has gone forever and it is probably impossible and certainly unwise to assume that we will have only one or two employers throughout our working life. The psychological contract these days runs along the lines of 'in exchange for my efforts at work I expect to be developed and build my CV so that I increase my overall employment prospects'.

In the UK at the time of writing, there is still a scarcity of skills which means that employers are having to work harder to recruit and retain the best people; the so-called war for talent. This makes the job market a seller's market with potential employees in a strong bargaining position. Recruitment firms even talk of the 'reverse interview' where candidates size up their chances of development before considering whether to accept any offer. To match this expectation with only the orthodox training and development offering of classroom training and external qualifications would be dreadfully expensive and ultimately unworkable. There will always be a time and a place for such things in an overall learning and development strategy of course, but coaching - particularly when delivered by managers - provides a more cost effective,tailor made and timely solution.

The change to the psychological contract is but one of numerous changes that have been played out in the theatre of work in recent years. The current industrial relations climate sees the pendulum swinging back towards the employee and their rights, with some employers bemoaning the bureaucracy and red-tape that this entails. Nevertheless it seems that family friendly policies like Flexible Working and Parental Leave are here to stay; driven at least in part by people's desire to want a better work-life balance.

Other social changes have also had an impact on working life. Work now has a very different role in people's lives. Where once work was simply the way we made enough money to pay the bills, we now work for a host of psychological as well as economic reasons. For example many people now fulfil their need for social interaction through work - I guess because of the amount of time we spend there! Others fulfil their esteem needs through work; enjoying the satisfaction that comes from doing a meaningful work and doing it well. It's as if collectively we've all moved up a level or two on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In Western economies in general and in the UK in particular it is unlikely that anyone is going to fall on really hard times if they're out of work - we have a welfare system that provides support, so a management style that invites people to be thankful they receive a salary is unlikely to prove very motivating. Instead we need to acknowledge that we need a more human approach; one that captures the variety of motivations for people to come to work. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a start but there is much work to do at the level of the fundamental relationship between the manager and their team.