Coaching has always been an important part of the contact center business of USAA, a diversified financial services company that provides financial planning, insurance, investments, and banking products to members of the U.S. military, veterans, and their families. In 2012, the company decided to shift coaching from a “grass-roots” effort to a leadership-led initiative featuring a top-down and bottom-up approach that would drive consistent coaching expectations and experiences for both coach and coachee. The initiative also sought to drive greater line of sight and accountability to both the quality and quantity of coaching across the 6,500 employees and leaders in one of USAA’s contact center operations called Financial Foundations.
The initiative team had a sponsor who was passionate and committed, and articulated a vision that inspired others to understand the importance of driving a culture of coaching and their role in it. The team also consisted of leadership from the contact center to provide the voice of the customer, business staff functions, and change management, as well as learning and development and HR.
Some components of the initiative were non-negotiable:
- Defining the coaching process
- Flow of the coaching conversation
- A coaching tool to provide consistency and transparency and have a way to gain feedback from coaches
Program Details
During a ninth-month period, the team:
- Refined the coaching process
- Defined the coaching conversation
- Reset expectations of roles and responsibilities for each level of leadership
- Executed an online coaching documentation tool
- Designed a survey to gain coachee feedback
- Delivered learning sessions designed to each level of leadership (three different classes)
- Communicated to every employee (including front-line representatives) the importance of coaching
- Set the expectation that everyone should expect a consistent coaching experience from their leadership
Communication was sent before coaching to reiterate the importance of achieving a coaching culture. Senior leadership kicked off the course, and a leader more senior than the audience co-facilitated to provide context and demonstrate leadership commitment. Post-learning calibration sessions reinforce “what right sounds like” during the conversation. A tool to track the quantity and quality of coaching was rolled out after learning was completed to emphasize the importance of coaching instead of tool utilization.
Results
The tool rolled out mid-April 2013; results thus far indicate clear adoption and engagement. Since tool launch, more than 95 percent of leadership has line of sight to the coaching conversations happening throughout their organization to include strengths, opportunities, and action plans. The director level of the organization is averaging three conversations a month with their managers, and managers are averaging 1.75 conversations with their employees (below the expectation of three per month). Leadership continues to monitor and coach to the variance and expects it was due to mid-year review timing. Initial feedback confirms more focused conversations with coachees. Additionally, front-line employees have sent e-mails to senior leadership expressing their appreciation for two-way feedback. USAA deems the initiative thus far to be a success due to increased employee engagement and leaders changing their coaching behaviors and executing to established standards of coaching at all levels.
