An average career coaching (“loopbaan coaching”) package usually costs at least three to five thousand euros per client. Executive coaching sometimes even costs a multiple of this.

As an employer, you would want to know: was it worth it?

Below, I will discuss measurability of successes, as I experience this in my coaching practice. What options or possible tools to measure progress are there?

How do you measure the progress of career coaching

The analysis of the results (measurability) is a difficult subject in the world of personal development. First and foremost, because it’s not easy to analyze human growth and putting it down to numbers. The value of coaching is experienced on so many levels: happiness, optimism, higher sense community, health and so forth.

And of course the organisation also benefits, but how do we measure or rate that?

Feedback about the coaching

First, let’s look if and how process was experienced by the person who was coached. The coaching itself.

Here, as described by Korn Ferry we can learn from tools of feedback used for corporate workshops/trainings.

As you know, every participant of ANY corporate training is usually given the opportunity to rate the teacher/trainer.

Four degrees of feedback on career coaching and/or executive coaching

According to Donald Kirkpatrick four grades of evaluation can be identified:

1. The most basic evaluation: participants simply “liked” the coaching, workshop or training: feedback from the student - they just had a good time (or they did not)!

2. Then a layer deeper. Did you learn what the training or coaching promised? As a participant, did you get what you wanted out of it? That goes beyond just being inspired.

3. The third (and 2nd highest): what is learned is actually used at work. It’s about applicability here; this is of course essential to achieve results!

4. Finally, what we aim for: the coachee integrates what has been learned into the work. Difficult to measure according to Kirkpatrick.

Then there are two additional goals that I have identified myself, based on my experience as an educator:

• What impact does the learning have on your life (i.e. a more holistic approach instead of just focusing on work)?

• Have you learned to develop yourself, independently of a trainer/coach (learning to learn: as described by the expert Dee Fink in his taxonomy (see below)). You don’t want your coachee to become dependent on someone else - but be an autonomous person.

A good coach will also address those last two questions.

If you’re interested in different levels of learning: check out this model for significant learning models based on Dee Fink’s taxonomy of learning.

Measurability mindset or Behavioral Change

Career coaching (in Dutch: loopbaancoaching) is usually about learning, or unlearning something, by the coachee. And even more precisely, it involves a change in behaviour. 

And behavorial change can indeed be quantified, unlike mindset change, which is very coachable, yet more difficult to convert into quantitative numbers. Because, how do you measure motivation and how that has changed within the mind of the coachee (e.g. ‘I am motivated and enjoy working here’)?

I have therefore mainly focused here on behavioral change.

Intake for coaching

When I do an intake in the context of a leadership or personal development coaching, I ask for input from the four directions (north, east, south, west).

The Four Directions of the Flywheel

First, for coaching goals, input may be requested from:

1. Coachee;

2. Manager;

3. Third party: an HR expert or customer survey.

4. Colleagues (e.g. via 360 review).

So we don't just ask for input from the manager/coachee's manager but also from the coachee himself, third parties and colleagues.

In this way we get a more nuanced idea about the growth points of a coachee (we neutralize the possibility that managers simply don't "click" with their team member and therefore feel that a coachee needs to change).

Case

Suppose a coachee, a digital manager of a large organization, comes to me and wants to work on her/his “people skills” - so-called soft skills.

‘People skills', this can mean many things. As a career coach (or career coach), I will investigate this further by asking specific questions:

• “How does it show that you are falling behind on this point”? For example, the coachee may have noticed that people are walking away from his team, that he/she is criticized by his environment for being “brutal” or that he/she is “frightening” people by his attitude.

Then the next question:

- what would be different if the coaching succeeds?

This provides concrete points that can be focused on in the career path. 

(I have more conversations with colleagues, 'connect better with customers', ‘fewer conflicts in my team‘, I am seen as someone who can motivate his team!)

People skills

How to measure over time? E.g. by measuring the number of birthday messages a coachee sent to his team-members in a 6 months period (b) how many casual conversations with colleagues the coachee at work (c) how many personal customer conversations (d) how many conflicts there have been within the team (e) how many conversations had in a month about children, family, interests (i.e. outside the business) and (f) how many team members have departed?

These are just examples; however, it appears that this shows that such goals can be derived to measurable results.

Get Input manager

The manager of course may have an opinion about points for improvement. This can be anything from more leading to being more pro-active' - in short, the manager wants the coachee to communicate with him, clients or colleagues better.

Get input Third parties

Third parties refers to input from an HR assessment, customers, etc. Possibly by means of surveys and baseline measurements.

Get input Colleagues

Colleagues are asked by means of a 360-degree review about how their colleague behaves and whether any points for improvement are proposed. 

Evaluation of the coaching halfway

An assessment can be repeated after three or six months. How does the coachee score now?

An analysis tool and/or a 360 degree review is used to investigate: did the coachee make progress, i.e. what do the colleagues think after three or six months? Has the coachee shown more people skills?

Scorecard at the end and ROI

At the end of the coaching, more insight can again be obtained by means of a scorecard into how the coachee has grown and how the organization has benefited from it. It is again like a wind vane: input is obtained from four directions (self, coach, assessment, peers) where the coachee is now.

From a commercial or company point of view, this can be taken even further by looking at a real ROI (return of investment).

Good career coaching or executive coaching not only provides knowledge and insight, but also ensures improvements in the organization.

Company results

If the customer portfolio or turnover or profits has grown, due to the people skills obtained by the coachee.

Ideally, to be put down in numbers. It is difficult (because how do you know whether the improvements are not due to the improving economy, investments, new people, etc.). But it should be possible.

Employee retention

Lastly, there is employee retention (Employee retention is defined as an organization's ability to prevent ‘employee turnover’ ) as result of improved people skills.

This means less recruitment costs and efficiency gains because less work has to be transferred (and therefore e.g. fewer freelancers to hire); these are, for example, the ROI returns for the organization.

Conclusion: personal growth and coaching has numerable positive effects for both the coachee as well as the organisation. These results - at least some of them - can very well in my opinion be rated and measured.

Robert de Wilde is a career coach and business coach, working with corporate talent and entrepreneurs in Amsterdam.

Inspiration:

Korn Ferry - Meeting the Effectiveness of Executive Coaching

Dee Fink, Taxonomy of Significant Learning Experience