I recently sent a business proposal over to my best friend and accountant. This gave me the opportunity to write a Statement of Work and explain how businesses might use a coach. The recurring themes throughout the statement are “improving productivity” and “retaining employees”.

Most business owners can see the benefit of improving productivity. Smart business owners also see the benefit in retaining employees. There are times when the best outcome for everyone in the company is to let an employee go. Sometimes, a little intervention can save a business a lot of money and maintain continuity for your staff and customers. If you are curious what the real costs are to hire and train a new employee, try out this Cost of Turnover Calculator.  Replacing an employee who makes just $20,000/year can cost you $500 to over $1000! Not every company has a Human Resources or Training departments. This is where hiring a small business coach, as needed, can be helpful.

Here are some scenarios to illustrate how coaching can save your company money:

Team Building

Suppose Betty and Joe are really grating on each other’s nerves and disrupting the whole office.  Team Building sessions can help clear the air, get to the bottom of the issues, and staff can learn strategies to use in future situations when tensions arise. Return everyone to productivity and bring harmony back to the office. Perhaps your company is experiencing growing pains and need some assistance integrating new staff into the mix. Team Building sessions can help your team grow together more quickly and smoothly.

Transitional Coaching

Perhaps the company just got sold and things are changing quickly. Maybe a long time employee just got promoted and now is the boss of his/her peers; everyone is feeling self conscious or resentful or simply out of sorts about the situation. Transitional coaching can help to get everyone back to work and being productive or at least cursing more quietly under their breath. 

Development Coaching

 Your company has good people and you want to promote some folks to supervisors but they do not have manager experience. Or your company is starting a new service/offering a new product and you want staff to market it properly. Or you just want your staff to be better at what they do. Or you want to move staff around so that people are doing what they are best suited to do so they are happier/more productive. Development coaching can help new managers learn some organization and management skills, so they can be more productive and effective. Development coaching can assist staff in boosting sales. Development coaching can assist you in assessing the strengths of your workforce and determine who performs which tasks better. Staff also benefit from feeling that the company is invested in them personally. Not everyone is motivated by money. Studies and exit interviews have shown most people leave their jobs because they are dissatisfied with their supervisors. Here is a great article on improving retention.

Brown Bag Lunches

So maybe your office could just use a boost, a little outside perspective. Your staff could benefit from a light hearted discussion on time management. Or maybe they need a little extra motivation through a new campaign. We can discuss the ever blurring line of Work/Life Balance. There are many topics I can bring to the table that will be interesting, presented in a casual manner, and will bring value to your office. So, consider hiring me to speak at your next quarterly meeting or other employee gathering.