HR Case Study - Electoral Reform Services

Situation

Electoral Reform Services (ERS) is the world’s largest independent organisation of its kind and is recognised by the United Nations. The ERS operates across Europe, Asia and the United States, and supplies ballot and election services to around 1000 organisations each year. The London branch of ERS has a workforce of around 100 people. Jane Trafford is the Human Resources Officer at ERS.

People Vision has established a continually expanding portfolio of specialist consultants who design and deliver training across a range of Human Resources skills. Grace Owen is an experienced coach with a Diploma from the UK College of Life Coaching, an Associate Certified Credential with the International Coach Federation, and an MSc in Learning and Development. She specialises in coaching for leader managers across a wide range of fields especially career transition and leadership effectiveness.

HR Case Study - Electoral Reform Service

Challenge

ERS and Jane Trafford had identified three employees who would benefit from one-on-one coaching. ERS engaged Grace with a key objective of balancing the individual needs of each coachee, their line manager and the ERS stakeholders to achieve lasting value and progress.

Action

Grace held a one hour initial “chemistry meeting” with each coachee to gain an understanding of the individual issues facing them, and to identify their goals for coaching and for personal achievement. The one-to-one format enables the coachee to openly discuss how they perceive all aspects of their working situation. The session served to establish a good foundation for coaching, as ‘mutual respect and natural rapport are important in the relationship between coach and coachee.’ (Grace Owen)

Grace met with Jane Trafford and gathered feedback to clarify the views and needs of the Human Resources department, the line manager and other ERS stakeholders, so as to balance their agendas. In addition to meeting the needs of each coachee Grace’s training was to provide value for money, demonstrable change in her coachees’ working style and concrete plans for the future.

Using her experience in coaching, learning and development to evaluate the information provided by the coachee and their wider network within the ERS, Grace was able to highlight additional areas to focus on. She presented her recommendations to the ERS who accepted their inclusion in the coaching plans.

Grace gave each coachee a half-day preparatory assignment based on their goals established in the chemistry meeting. This preparatory space encourages the coachee to engage with the coaching process, gathering data on areas they want to address. Investing personal time and thought motivates the coachee to get the most out of the coaching.

Preparation included conducting a 360, which involves the individual getting feedback from immediate stakeholders in their performance such as their line manager, a peer, a supplier or people in other departments. The 360 provides the coachee with a rounded view of how they are perceived and is a foundation for the reflexive process. The preparation also involved recommended reading to introduce models and theories to be utilised in coaching, which would help them to clarify their achievements.

For each person the coaching sessions centred around the goals of the individual. The session began with a progress review to assess whether their goals were still in line with the areas previously identified, and explore the results of the preparatory assignment. The coaching which followed covered models, theories, and methods of identifying how best to make progress and achieve success across the individual’s target areas, such as teamwork, time management, communication, strategy development and career development.

Finally the session provided time for evaluation, review and practical action plans with clear and specific objectives. Evaluation provided a clear picture of the individual’s satisfaction levels for different areas.

Progress reviews to be conducted via telephone were scheduled at intervals of four weeks and six months.

Results

Each individual’s personal development was accelerated through the one-to-one coaching format. For one coachee the chemistry meeting highlighted the need for another form of intervention to prepare them for coaching. For a coachee not yet at management level, Grace highlighted specific skills to focus on such as assertiveness, communication and conflict management, in order to build the individual’s knowledge and experience bank in preparation for more demanding future roles. One long-term employee had recently been promoted to managerial status, and to effectively manage this change Grace coached them in strategic planning to maximize his potential in his new role. ‘Coaching suits the individual, it’s personalised, it’s an approach which is tailored to them.’ (Grace Owen)

Evaluation and progress reviews provided clear measures of success, demonstrating how fully goals had been achieved and where more could be done. The coaching was ‘very goal orientated and future-focussed’, enabling both the individual and ERS to achieve satisfaction with the progress made and to qualify the specific benefits and results according to the original goals, time-scales and action plans.

The progress reviews kept the learning process adaptable to changing future circumstances. Encouraging the coachee to evaluate to what extent they had achieved or exceeded their goals provided consistent motivation while understanding and overcoming any blocks to their advancement.

We are delighted to say that the feedback on People Vision’s Coach Assessment Forms ensured that the coachee and ERS were having all their needs met. The feedback was consistently positive, including the comments ‘Excellent coach; really enjoyed our session’, and ‘The session was very useful and informative; I now have the structure and know-how to hopefully achieve my goals. Extremely beneficial.’

Client Testimonial

‘The Company recognises that training is fundamental to its continuing success. We greatly value the experience and knowledge of our employees and working with People Vision is one mechanism through which employees are able to develop their skills.

I worked very closely with Grace to identify our coaching requirements and to ensure that needs of our employees would be met. The feedback from the sessions has been very encouraging and we have already seen our employees more positive and pro-active in their roles.

We hope to use Grace and People Vision in the future.’

Jane Trafford: Human Resources Officer, Electoral Reform Services