How Data-Driven Coaching Helps Employees Reach Their Potential

Data is everywhere. In the business world alone, we use it to track search engine traffic, monitor website activity, land sales, improve customer service — you name it.

One area where data doesn’t get enough attention (or application) is employee development. When properly applied, data can guide employees and coaches alike as they attempt to upskill and improve performance.

How Data Improves HR

Before we break down data in relation to coaching, let’s talk about its influence on human resources as a whole. It’s easy to look at HR as a human-to-human activity. Recruiters use “gut instinct.” Coaching requires that savvy veteran who just “knows” what to do.

I call bull. Even in the situations above, the truth is each recruiter or HR rep is doing the best they can with the data they have on hand and then filling in the gaps with an educated guess. The natural conclusion is that if you apply more data analytics (both in quality and quantity), it can improve HR activity. This application of data within HR is part of an area called performance analytics.

What I’ve found is that data can have an even bigger impact by fine-tuning the entire HR experience, from hiring to retention and, yes, even upskilling.

How Data-Driven Coaching Maximizes Employee Potential

Data can influence the employment process in a variety of ways. These analytical endeavors generally fall under four distinct categories:

• Descriptive analytics organizes and translates existing data into easy-to-understand takeaways.

• Diagnostic analytics breaks down cause and effect, striving to understand why descriptive analytics are the way they are.

• Predictive analytics use existing data to predict potential future activity.

• Prescriptive analytics uses all three of the above categories to create actionable data-driven takeaways for the future.

  
  

With these in mind, let’s look at a few of the ways data can revolutionize the coaching experience.

1. Data Defines the Position

Believe it or not, I’ve found that the key to quality coaching starts all the way back at the hiring stage. When you bring a new employee on board, you want all parties to intimately understand what they’re expected to do. This sets expectations and ensures that each candidate fits their position.

Data allows you to do this. You can use data, especially descriptive analytics, to define a position’s requirements and responsibilities.

2. Data Clarifies Employee Requirements and Needs

When an employee isn’t able to perform in a position, it’s important to identify what is causing the problem. Is it a lack of knowledge, experience, or training?

Diagnostic analytics enables you to probe into an ongoing issue. By collecting and analyzing data, you can glean key insights that define areas of improvement you can focus on.

3. Data Guides Coaches

A coach may be an experienced, knowledgeable, and even trained individual. They may have tools and techniques at their disposal to help an employee. But if they don’t know what the underlying issue is behind an employee’s struggles, you can’t expect them to coach with optimum effectiveness.

Once again, data can help here. When you describe and diagnose a situation with data, it creates a blueprint of what needs to happen for an employee to improve. This application of prescriptive analytics can guide a coach as they work with employees to unlock their potential.

4. Data Avoids Wasting Coaching Resources

There’s one subtle-yet-important point I want to add. Using data avoids frittering away your company’s coaching resources.

When your coaches know what your employees need, they can save time, energy, and resources by getting right to the point. Over time, you can use predictive analysis to see the positive impact that this efficiency provides.

Using Data to Unlock Your Employees

The world has fallen in love with data. And, as is the case with any new relationship, everything is passionate, exciting …and a bit misdirected or misunderstood at times.

Every time I talk to someone, they’re using data to gain increasingly detailed (and often superfluous) insights into the same areas, like marketing or inventory. If we want to level up our data effectiveness, we need to start applying it to other areas — starting with HR and coaching in particular.

So, consider your current coaching efforts. Do you have any? Are they working? Start compiling that data and then strategize how you can use it to improve your development activities to the benefit of employees and coaches alike.