Central Community College Introduces Touchdown-Worthy Coaching Program

It’s Game Day!  

Two minutes left in the game. Your team is down by six, and you’re doing the math in your head.  “All they need is a touchdown and a field goal to seal the win! They’ve come back from worse before!” Thankfully they’ve got the ball and are on the other team’s 40-yard line. You’re looking at their every move with every snap, handoff, throw, and first down. The odds are in their favor, and with a quick snap of the ball the wide receiver books it to the end zone, catches a perfect spiral, and TOUCHDOWN!! The kicker makes the field goal look like a piece of cake, and the crowd is on their feet going crazy. It was another win to keep their perfect record intact.   

But, while you were looking on the field at the players, the players were looking to their coaches and each other to make this win happen. There’s a lot of trust on that field –coaches trusting their players to execute the plays, players trusting their coaches to know the best play to call, and players trusting each other to play their positions to the best of their ability.  

Similarly in the workplace, leaders coach their employees to develop and grow in their role, and individual contributors are open to feedback to perform at their best and inspire others on their team. Oftentimes, coaching is directly tied to an annual performance review where employees evaluate themselves, managers evaluate their employees, and then they come together to discuss.  

Central Community College realized that this process was not effective for an employee’s growth, so they aimed to modernize performance and employee development. They did some digging and found the following regarding their original process:  

1. Reviews were happening three to five months past the annual mark.  
2. Some employees would put the same self-evaluation as years past, not critically thinking about any changes that had occurred that year.  
3. Reviews weren’t effective because managers would wait until the annual review to give any kind of feedback.  

Upon discovering these findings, Kory Cetak, Employee Training Director, set out to increase employee engagement with more frequent coaching sessions.  

Down, Set, Coach!  

By switching to what Cetak deemed the “Coach Approach,” the organization could:  

• Allow for more continuous interaction,  
• Make coaching a routine,  
• Promote ongoing development,  
• Use observations as real-time here-and-now feedback, and  
• Have flexibility in meeting settings, whether they be formal or informal.  

But even though the training team knew that this approach would benefit the employee experience, Cetak wanted to brainstorm with his CSM on how to make the transition as seamless as possible. They discussed whether or not the training around coaching for supervisors and employees should be prescriptive or elective and the best medium for delivering BizLibrary content to set everyone up for success.  

Ultimately, they landed on creating two different learning initiatives (structured learning plans for specific learners) within the BizLMS. One for employees and the other for supervisors. Once they established the medium, Cetak collaborated with BizLibrary’s concert concierge team, a service that is complimentary with the BizLibrary partnership and available to all clients, to map content relevant to each group.  

Employees would need to complete eight lessons, with at least one being in each of the following categories:  

1. Being coachable  
2. Meetings  
3. Managing up  
4. Communication  
5. Accountability  

Supervisors would need to complete nine lessons, with at least one being in each of the following categories:  

1. Meeting skills  
2. Conflict management  
3. Holding employees accountable  
4. Performance conversations  
5. Coaching skills

A Quick Timeout for a Team Huddle  

With learning initiatives set up and ready to go, Cetak knew he needed to set his program up for success by offering informational sessions for managers and employees before rolling out the assignments. They had a few different options for employees to attend to make the session accessible for all. Employees and supervisors could attend live, virtual, or on-demand in BizLibrary by leveraging BizLMS’ custom course upload feature. 

The sessions covered important details like the different coaching models supervisors could use, what the purpose of coaching was, what makes a good coach, and how to update position descriptions based on an employee’s expanding role duties.   

The Metrics Are In!  

Since implementing the coach approach to Central Community College in June, 126 out of 340 staff members have completed their training, and 80 out of 113 supervisors have completed their training. Cetak was impressed with these numbers from employees because they launched during the start of the school year and their annual workplace safety and compliance training. *Cue an endzone celebration dance! * 

Also, Cetak notes that these prescriptive programs have influenced employees to explore elective learning. For staff, 76 members completed more than the eight required training lessons, and 20 completed 20 or more lessons. For supervisors, 16 members completed more than the required 9 training lessons, and 4 completed 15 or more lessons. This is where the announcer would say, “Annnnnd the field goal is GOOD!”  

But we aren’t done sharing all the metrics of success. Since launching the coaching learning initiative two and half months ago, there have been 536 launches outside of the required coaching lessons and safety and compliance training. 88 learners sought elective learning within 180 courses around customer service, managing stress, communication, and more. Out of these learners:  

• 45 of them had 5 launches or more  
• 23 of them had 10 or more  
• 1 of them had 46 (!!!).  

These metrics of success are the pinnacle of a Hail Mary, two-point conversion, and pick six! An all around incredible job, Central Community College. You’ve made lifelong fans of continuous learning and development in your organization, and we couldn’t be prouder.