Coaching and Mentoring Skills for the Workplace: A Nestle Case Study

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COACHING & MENTORING SKILLS FOR
THE WORKPLACE
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Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 4
PURPOSE OF COACHING AND MENTORING SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE.......................................5
DISCUSSION OF THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF COACHING AND MENTORING
ACTIVITIES......................................................................................................................................8
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF BENEFITS FOR DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS’ WORKPLACE
EFFECTIVENESS............................................................................................................................ 10
EXPLORATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE SKILLS, ATTITUDE, AND BEHAVIOURS NEEDED BY AN
EFFECTIVE WORKPLACE COACH OR MENTOR..............................................................................14
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 19
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................20
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report of coaching and mentoring skills includes the definition of both the terms and this
whole report includes the example of Nestle and its approach to providing training to
employees. This report is categorized into three sections which include the purpose,
dissimilarities, and similarities of coaching and mentoring skills in the Nestle. It also includes the
GROW model of coaching and its benefits at the workplace. It also includes the required skills,
knowledge, behavior and attitude of the mentor or coach.
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INTRODUCTION
Coaching in the organization is a training method in which the top executive or experienced and
skilled person in the organization provides support and advice to other employees for building
their career, improving their existing skills and knowledge. Coaching is a different approach to
HR practices like counseling or mentoring. Coaching is used for developing management and it
is a broader term than just training. This method is the individualized process that depends on
the nature of learner as well as abilities, skills, and knowledge of the coach. Although the coach
knows different methods, tools as well as techniques required in different situations. The need
for coaching is continuously rising because of its increasing importance and purpose in the
organizations (Jones et al., 2016). The organization which adopts coaching culture means they
adopt a formal structure of providing support and guidance to employees. The individual
providing coaching to uses different modes of communication for influencing and managing
other individuals. The environment of such organizations values the development and learning
of employees. But the organization should make sure that employees, as well as a coach both,
should be committed to coaching and obtaining results and continuously evaluate the progress
of the employees.
Mentoring is such a practice in an organization in which a mentor as well as mentee both get
benefits from mentorship. Mentoring is a process in which experienced employees from any
level provides guidance and support to less experienced employee and the mentor can be from
inside the organization or company can also hire him from outside. The benefit from the
employee is that he gets the opportunity to learn different skills and prepare them to take
future responsibilities. It also benefits the employer in terms of higher productivity, fewer
mistakes and innovative in the products and processes. The mentor can also have the
opportunity to develop teaching, communication and listening skills (Washington and Cox,
2016).
The requirement of coaching and mentoring can be seen from the largest manufacturer of
consumer goods i.e. Nestle. Nestle is one of the biggest and largest manufacturers of FMCG
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products. The manufacturing process of all the goods such as milk, beverages, chocolate and
many more has the different procedure and it continuously requires proper guidance and
support to employees to perform their responsibilities. The employees have different skills,
knowledge, and abilities and in order to coordinate their efforts and knowledge with objectives
of the company, it is necessary to provide training, direction, and support in all the procedures.
The main purpose of the Nestle is to improve the quality of life and also give a healthier future
by delivering the quality of food (Hobson et al., 2015). In this way, Nestle wants to serve the
society and confirm its long-term success. The report of coaching and mentoring for the
workplace includes the example of Nestle and its requirement of these two important skills to
successfully train the employees.
PURPOSE OF COACHING AND MENTORING SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE
The word workplace coaching in the organization is defined as, “the process of hiring the
people with the skills, opportunities, and knowledge which is required to develop themselves to
become effective in commitment with their work, organization as well as themselves (Integral,
2017).” Coaching at the workplace deals with the growth and development of employees, and
increases their overall achievement by removing the obstacles from their performance and
encourage them to be more creative.
The primary purpose of workplace coaching is to increase the performance of an individual in
the organization which can be through two methods i.e. either acquiring new skills or improving
the existing one. From the deep analysis, it is observed that workplace coaching allows the
employees as well as groups to perform better which directly contributes to positive result into
the organization (Hagen et al., 2017). The purposes of coaching in the Nestle are as follows:
 Increases productivity
Coaching in the Nestle means to help other individuals in the organization to perform
his responsibilities and also help him in the growth of his career. In the Nestle, when the
superior provides coaching to subordinates which means that superior will direct him in
his work rather than telling him. In the manufacturing process, the employees have to
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operate large expensive machinery which needs proper handling to minimize the
maintenance cost and more output. Increase in the production through proper guidance
help the company to operate successfully (Ladyshewsky and Taplin, 2017).
 Improves communication
An effective coach encourages communication in the group meeting and also personal
meetings. The coach in the Nestle uses 1-2-1 chats as well as group meetings at the time
of listening and questioning skills. The coach not only helps in finding their problems but
also keep them motivated towards their work. Coaching in the Nestle improves
communication practice in the company where the coach knows the strengths and
weakness of the employees and helps him accordingly.
 Coaching prepare for future roles
Coaching has become a method of developing employees to take future responsibilities.
The employee thinks like a coach to handle a particular situation which increases self-
confidence to handle an unplanned or unexpected situation. Coaching will build the
ability to adapt to dynamic or face complex situations in the future (Kennett and Lomas,
2015). After completing the process of coaching, the superiors take the risk to give
responsibilities to employees and they expect that employees will perform to their
utmost potential.
 Coaching build self-awareness
The main use of coaching is to concentrate on building self-awareness through
evaluating owns weaknesses and help to fill them with the help of strengths. The coach
also uses 360-degree evaluation technique to evaluate the performance and
improvement in the employees in which the coach ask the employees to take feedback
from all the person to whom they interact and use them to find the progress. This
evaluation will help the employees to understand their opportunities and strengths and
use them to move forward (Koortzen and Odendaal, 2016).
 Coaching is used to build capabilities
Coaching in the Nestle is used to fill the gap between present skills and skills required to
perform their job. It is not essential that after the employee they have all the skills
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required to perform their job. The company also adopts the practice of training to
provide the required skills but the training is only suitable for a less technical job.
Therefore the coach provides the skills and knowledge as per the nature of work.
The word mentoring is defined as, “as a professional relationship between the experienced
individual (mentor) and inexperienced person (the mentoree) for developing specific
knowledge and skills for personal and professional growth. The purposes of mentoring in the
Nestle are as follows:
 It minimizes the cost of learning
Along with formal training and development programs, the Nestle also appoints
mentors to provide specialized knowledge in their respective fields. The cost involved in
mentoring is also very less and it is considered as the most effective method of learning
in the Nestle. The company occasionally hires mentors so that new employees will get
all knowledge and information (Olsson et al., 2017). With all these expenses, the
company gets more returns from their investment in providing training to employees.
 Enhances personal and professional development
Coaching and mentoring is not only required to build the employees professionally but it
also helps them in developing their career and brings several opportunities for them.
With the help of mentoring, the company builds save a place for the employees to learn
essential skills. The employees under the mentorship program comfortably take the
risks and making mistakes because they know they are under mentorship training. In the
mentoring, the mentor also allows the mentoree to share their innovative ideas to a
particular problem.
 Enhances satisfaction from the job and minimizes turnover
The mentorship also builds positive organization environment which is derived from the
satisfaction from the job. And there is a direct relationship between job satisfaction and
employees turnover. If the employees are completely satisfied with his job as well as
responsibilities then they will never leave a job which also helps the Nestle to build a
positive image in the minds of stakeholders (Leedham and Parsloe, 2016).
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 Diversity promotion
The employees in the Nestle are hired from different locations, religion, caste, etc.
which may result in more disputes and conflicts. But because of mentoring, the
employees are provided with proper training and skills which helps them to avoid
conflicts and work with unity.
 Reduces anxiety and stress
When an individual face any problem in their jobs then he thinks twice before going to
the manager and also he did not go to other employees because of they all area at the
same level i.e. inexperienced and cannot find the solution for the problem. But he
knows that he can go to mentor and ask for help without hesitation which decreases
anxiety and stress among the individuals (Garvey et al., 2017).
DISCUSSION OF THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF COACHING AND
MENTORING ACTIVITIES
Similarities of coaching and mentoring activities
Coaching and mentoring are usually used interchangeably due to their similarities. Both these
activities are aimed to increase the individual performance to meet the common organizational
objectives. Nestle arranges the experts to provide coaching or mentoring skills to the
employees. The experts have complete knowledge about the particular field but they are less
committed to their work because these are additional work and they are paid to perform these
activities. The necessary skills required for coach and mentor are listening, building trust,
feedback, questioning and many more (Hoffmann and Loughead, 2016). The decision of
arranging to coach and mentoring depends on the needs of the organization as well as current
knowledge of the employees of Nestle. The organization arranges workshops, presentation,
seminars or individual counseling, etc. to meet the requirement of employees. Both coach and
mentor are taking responsibility to train the employees and they are also accountable for their
task. The main objective of both these activities is to improve the present skills or career of the
employee as a whole (Cartwright and Solloway, 2017).
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Coaching or mentoring skills is not only asking questions or giving instructions to employees but
to increase self-awareness as well as to ensure that they will take their own decision. Both
these process are never-ending until the parties involved in these process are completely
satisfied and achieve the objectives.
Differences in coaching and mentoring activities
S. No. Point of difference Coaching activities Mentoring activities
1 Meaning Coaching is the process in the
organization where the
supervisor enhances the
capabilities and competencies
of the subordinate.
It is an advisory process in
which the new employee or
fresher gets guidance and
support from an individual
having a senior position (Woo,
2017).
2 Building
interrelationships
Its main purpose is to achieve
specific goals or objectives
such as employee
management, increase in
productivity by 5%, etc.
It is based on maintaining
human relations where the
mentor shares his life
experience with the
employees so that they will
easily face those situations.
3 Duration The activities of coaching are
completed within the pre-
decided timeline.
The activities of mentoring
can even last up to a year.
4 Efficiency and
development
The motive of coaching is
enhancing personal efficiency
and development at the
workplace (Lancer et al.,
2016).
The main motive of mentoring
is continuous development
and not only to a particular
situation of self-realization.
5 Objective To evaluate employee’s
performance and then to
To assist the employee in
psychological effectiveness
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improve it and maturity.
6 Outcome It increases the number of
skills and awareness of
behaviors
It results in self-awareness
and clarity in direction, role or
career.
7 Impact on learner It gives stress on developing
skills for a particular work
It gives stress on developing
personal and professional
career (Gray et al., 2016).
8 Type of learning Formal Informal
9 Number of
participants
Individual, group or whole
organization
Usually one-to-one
10 Context It depends on the request of
coaching i.e. it might be
individual, team or
organization
It depends on the level of
personal and professional
development
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF BENEFITS FOR DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS’
WORKPLACE EFFECTIVENESS
GROW Model for coaching and mentoring
The GROW model usually used for solving the problems and setting the objectives. GROW
model is an easy and effective framework for setting the goals and performance of employees.
This model is based on learning things to be experiencing them. In this model, the coach is very
much active and in assessing the problems and finding a solution. Therefore, it can be said that
everything that comes in coaching sessions has a lot of chance to stick (Jones et al., 2016). This
model clearly shows the result by completing four stages and these are as follows:
Step 1: Goal
The goal is the initial stage of this model and the outcome of the process is related to the goal.
Initially, from the discussion with coach, organization, and employees, the objectives and
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outcome of the process is decided which is divided into small similar tasks so that it becomes
easy for the coach/mentor or employees to achieve the goals and objectives. In this step, the
coach must visualize what are the learning and outcome of the process in more specific and
relevant terms. The goals of coaching and mentoring should be attainable because setting
attainable goals will motivate the coach and employees and also boost their confidence to
complete rest process (Martin, 2016). In addition to this, the goals and objectives should also
be time-bounded i.e. the time of each activity must be decided and should be completed within
time-frame.
Step 2: Reality
Reality means the current position of employees and the situation. In the second stage, it is the
responsibility of coach/mentor to find the current situation is analyzing the available resources
as well as suitable techniques and methods for providing training to employees. Usually, in the
Nestle, the coach invites the top executive to assess the current situation and give them advice
or feedback i.e. what practices will help in providing coaching and training to employees. This
process also involves an assessment of skills and knowledge of coach and mentor to check
whether they are capable enough to provide training to employees (Sale and Moynan, 2018).
Step 3: Options
The third step i.e. options mean to find out alternative solutions that will contribute to
objectives. In other words, the coach of the Nestle will bring several innovative ideas in the
organization to solve the problems. In this step, the coach assesses all the possible actions and
options to find the solutions, even the coach takes suggestions from the executives of the
company. The suggestions for the coach is carefully observed and considered so that it must
fulfill the requirement of client i.e. Nestle. At the end of this process, the coach makes sure to
come out with a suitable option to overcome the obstacles and also there should be less
uncertainty related to immediate actions.
Step 4: Will
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The fourth and last step of this model is will which means to arrive at a particular conclusion. In
this step, the coach decides the actions and predicts the results from his actions. This step
includes the action plan which is a result of the discussion of the coach as well as mentee
including timelines and guidelines to achieve the targets. The coach also observes some of the
challenges and obstacles which should be resolved by finding suitable solutions and coach
should always support the mentee during the whole process. The actions and activities of the
mentee and mentor are flexible and adaptable so that they change according to requirement
and in addition to this, it is also required that goals and objectives of the coaching must respond
according to negative or positive events (Anthony et al., 2018).
GROW model is one of the effective method used in the Nestle for making the leadership and
management practices effective. This model is the best example for increasing the effectiveness
and efficiency of employees through internal coaching which will indirectly help the company to
increase return on investment. Further, if the leaders and managers of the Nestle used this
model then this will help in motivating employees to enhance their performance both at
individual and group level and building a positive work environment. The main advantage of
this model is that this is a less rational method and permit client, employees as well as a coach
to use their creativity for making this process more successful.
When the Nestle, hires the coach or choosing the coach from inside the organization the top
executive should make sure that coach should not only have expert knowledge in his particular
field but it should also have rapport making and listening skills. The skills of the coach are very
much important because his skills and knowledge will directly or indirectly contribute to the
growth or failure of the organization.
Evaluation of benefits for developing employee’s workplace effectiveness
Development of employees is a crucial step towards improving their current skills to perform
better in the future. It is not required to prepare professionally but also for personal growth.
Developing individuals strengthen the relationship between employees and employer. The
critical evaluation of benefits for developing an individual's workplace effectiveness is as
follows:
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