Upskilling and career advancement are among people’s top workplace priorities this year but only three in 10 employees say that someone at work encourages their growth. What’s more, only 26% say their organization challenged them to learn a new skill and 15% say their organization encouraged them to move to a new role.

Career coaching can provide your team members with the support they need to realize their professional growth goals and reach their full potential.

What is career coaching?

Career coaching is a personalized approach to learning and development that provides your workers with the guidance and insights they need to navigate their career journey.

Coaches can support their team members with everything from setting professional goals and career paths to skill and leadership development. Career coaching can also be beneficial during key employee transitions such as taking on new management responsibilities or returning to work after an extended leave.

Many coaches follow a framework, such as the popular GROW model:

1. Goal: There are different levels of goals depending on how far in the future the employee is looking. Coaches aim to identify the inspirational goal to drive success and keep energy and motivation high.
2. Reality: Coaches discuss the employee’s current situation and the barriers impeding goal achievement. Coaches ask questions to help the employee find their strengths. For example, the coach may ask, “What qualities or resources do you have to help you?”
3. Options: Coaches help the employee explore the options for moving forward. The more imaginative the questions, the more likely the employee may have a breakthrough insight. For example, the coach may ask, “How would you tackle this if time wasn’t a factor?”
4. Will: The coach and employee agree on specific actions and timeframe and set accountability and reporting.

Through such frameworks, coaches can guide employees on both short-term performance improvement and long-term performance development.

Benefits of career coaching

Integrating career coaching into a professional development program offers many benefits to your organization — and to your team members.

Attract more job candidates

Nearly nine out of 10 job seekers want to see career advancement opportunities, a skills development program, and ways to progress toward a different job or career track. Career coaching facilitates these types of professional growth and helps your team members reach their career goals.

Share information about your career coaching program in employer branding materials so you can attract growth-oriented candidates.

Boost employee engagement

Career coaching gives your team members ownership over their professional journey and demonstrates your organization’s commitment to their success. This increases job satisfaction and motivates your team members to go above and beyond in their work.

In turn, highly engaged teams experience 81% less absenteeism, 18% higher productivity, and 23% higher profitability.

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