This assignment has been completed for the BSP Programme, the work is about on the job coaching. It describes a first official coaching conversation with a non-performing staff according to my learning and ability to integrate insights. My role and the benefits of coaching conversation has also been included accordingly to my point of view.
Table of Contents Introduction – My role in the organization 4 The role of the team 5 My leadership philosophy 7 The role of HR in the business 8 Value of development coaching 9 The person and the non-performance 9 After conducting the conversation 11 My learning having the conversation 15 Doing differently as a leader in the future 17 Conclusion 18 References 19 Introduction My role in the organization I am Ornella Mootooveeren, Operations Supervisor at the MCB SSR Branch. I have been working for MCB for 11 years in several positions. Below a recap of my career path: • Teller for several branches from 2007 to 2009 • Back office clerk from 2010 to 2011 • Customer service representative department from 2011 to 2012 • Customer service support within MCB Select from 2012 to 2015 • My current position is Operations since nearly 3 years – as from 2015 I have been working at Port Louis Branch as operations supervisor for nearly 3 years and have in the last two weeks only rotate to SSR Branch. At Port Louis Branch, my role was to supervise the daily operations and service of the Branch.
Together with my 3 colleagues, in the same position, a coordination and the Manager, we managed a team consisting of 73 members. The Branch staffs consist of tellers, customer service representatives, back-office clerks, messengers, greeters and Relationship executives. Hierarchy diagram of the business unit At SSR branch, my new team consist of six tellers, four customer service representatives, a messenger, a back-office clerk and a greeter. My direct reporting line is the branch manager. My KPIs includes four quadrants, financial perspective, service perspective, operational perspective and learning & growth perspective.
The core role of the operations supervisor is to manage the cash operations of the Bu, ensure procedures are abide to, override cash transactions for huge amount, daily monitoring of transactions according to compliance requirements and BOM guidelines. We should also ensure that on a monthly basis the BU is performing according to the financial objectives, that operations are done efficiently and that all employees are in line with procedures and acquires the knowledge required to perform their task. I also ensure that customers are satisfied with the service, entertain complaints and meet customers for complex requests. The operations supervisor should also ensure that security measures are followed, that infrastructural issues are escalated and repairs are made accordingly. On a regular monthly basis, the role of the operations supervisor is to monitor the progression of objectives and review with employees not performing by providing training and coaching.
In order to meet the branch sales and service objectives, campaigns are also organized by supervisors in order to catch up the gaps in financial figures and service needs. The role of the team Tellers (consist of six members) • Process cash transactions requests of customers and ensure correctness of entries • Ensure that request is in line with of compliance requirements • Propose alternative channels to customers • Refer customers for products and services • Ensure ticking off is completed at EOD Back office clerk • Reply to queries from other departments • Manage the ATM • Scanning of cheques • Filing and reports maintenance Customer service representatives • Entertain requests for opening of account • Process non-cash transactions • Cross sell products and services accordingly to the BU financial objectives • Ticking off Greeters • Welcome and greet customers • Assist customers and promotes remote channels • Provide support to other team members • Prepare sharing of knowledge sessions Messenger • Cleaning of the branch • Manage the level of stationery • Greet and channel customers • My leadership philosophy Being only 27 years old when I started to manage such a big team at Port Louis main branch, my leadership philosophy has evolved and improved with experience acquired over time. I can now say that I am a leader who believe hardly that teamwork is the key for success. Nothing can be greater than a group of people putting efforts together to achieve a common goal. Finding the right balance between personal commitments and works is important for people to be productive and I encourage my team to find the right work life balance.
Problems have multiple solutions when discussed and brainstormed with people facing same, when you come with a problem, come also with multiples solutions for advice. Honestly and Integrity are inner rule life which cannot be override and help people have trust in me. Recognizing efforts of people make them feel so good and you will always get more. I also make my best to stay positive in the worsts situations and encourage people to find the ‘positive’ in the ‘negative’ situations. The role of HR in the business Role and importance of human resources The HR department is the specialist in the areas that encompass Human Resources or people management.
They will verify and ensure that all other departments in the organisation will be complaint with the Health & Safety requirements, proper training of staffs, appraisal and evaluations are carried out in accordance with the company’s HR policy. The activities of HR help and assists other departments to achieve the goals and standards through training. HR department will advise managers on how to tackle specific managing people issues professionally. The process of recruitment At MCB Ltd, the role of HR is to recruit and on-board people. The new employees will have an induction week with the HR representative to Introduce the business structure, the values and the culture of the Institution.
During this first week in class training is also given by HR staffs and thereafter on the job training by business staffs. Training needs Internal recruitment is also done the HR, development plans are organized and there is also a list of training given to employees to enhance job related competencies and keep improving and developing skills required to better perform. Employee welfare The HR staffs are often solicited to assist relational issues with employees having difficulties to perform and health issues impacting the business. They perform also visits in various departments to ensure that people are working in a good environment and to gather feedback from staffs. Safe working environment The HR department also ensures that people works in a safe environment and health is not put at risk when performing the tasks assigned. Retirement plans For staff retiring or willing to have information on their early retirement, HR person are available and advices are given to them.
Staffs benefits Information about the benefits such as study assistance schemes, wedding leaves or gifts and new born children are provided by HR staffs. Performance management of probation period Performance Management and evaluations of employees are also follow up and managed by HR staffs. Legislation HR also ensures that the company is in line with labor law act and that the business is fully compliant with same. Providing information At MCB Ltd, many important information and documents are available on the Intranet and an application is available for each employee to manage personal details and changes. Value of development coaching Coaching is a very useful way for leaders to improve the working skills of people. It can help business to enhance performance of employees by increasing productivity and heighten level of service in an organisation.
Many issues such as behaviours and conflict can be better management through coaching. Both the coach and coachee gain from this experience. Through these sessions, motivation, self-esteem and performance can be increased. The most valuable aspect of coaching is that same can be performed in all type of businesses. It may also bring ideas to change and improve processes.
It also creates important intangible benefits which can improve working environment and employee’s relations both with team members and customers. Through coaching sessions employees also feel valued and important to the business. This increases the employee’s satisfaction and help them to increase performance as well. It also makes employees be more committed and engaged to the institution. organizations benefit from a coaching culture through: • Increased employee engagement • Increased job satisfaction and morale • Increased collaboration • Improved teamwork • Increased bench strength (Article by ccl.org – leading-effectively how to have a coaching conversation)/ The person and the non-performance Aurelie is the person I have chosen for the coaching experience for this program.
Being myself new to the branch, I have identified during the first weeks some points that urgently needs to be improved. In my previous branch, Port Louis main branch, I have met many employees who needed coaching due to the fact that they were new to the job. I have tried before to coach employees but after doing this module, I realised that more structure is required for coaching sessions. The employees that I have tried to help before was mainly focused on improving knowledge and financial objectives of the branch.
The fact that the main branch has a high level of employee’s rotation requires constant follow and advice to new comers. This coaching session with Aurelie is different since she has been working with MCB Ltd for more than 7 years as teller and she has for one month been at SSR Branch to perform partly the job of teller but be more focused on back office tasks. She has started her career as a teller in the Port Louis main branch and has worked there for four years. During these four years she has done the operations of teller counting machines, business cashier, bulk cashier and some task at back office level.
During the last three years, Aurelie was in the relieving team where she has to replace in the branches in the Port Louis region on a daily or weekly basis. The fact that now she is fixed in a branch is new for her and tasks assigned to her are different. The new tasks to her are the following: • Management of ATMs • Management of scanning of cheque • Relying to queries • Completing reports and filing • Responding to complaint regarding ATMs • Replacing tellers during their lunch time • Provide support to operations supervisor • Second key holder of the cash vault The issues noted during the first week according to tasks assigned: • Lack of knowledge reading the ATM management • Delay in scanning of cheques which should be done hourly • Delay in relying queries • Wrong entries in reports • Delay in relying to complaints accordingly to ATM Step 1: Goal The goal of this session is to improve the organisation and planning of Aurelie in the short term and to prepare her for her new step in her career. The back office in a branch has an important role as she is the support to the operations supervisor and is the teller who has more experience in the job.
It is important that Aurelie masters all her tasks and develops the required knowledge to achieve same. By having the required knowledge, she will be more efficient and will gain time to complete all her tasks within a reasonable period of time. This will help us to avoid internal and customer’s complaint. We shall by list her tasks according to her and ensure that she has a better view of what is expected from her in her day.
By doing so, she will be more conscious of her gaps and propose solutions accordingly. We shall observe during the coming days the changes and will measure the number of internal complaints and responses to queries on a daily basis. Step 2: Reality During some unofficial conversations with Aurelie, I have learned more about her state of mind according to her new tasks. Being relieving staffs, she has not done such tasks for a long period of time.
She has partly lost knowledge of what she learned before. Furthermore, she is demotivated since she has been doing the same job for 7 years and has twice not been retained for a possible promotion. In the retail section, most employees are promoted as customer service representatives after 3 years. Her objective is to move to the next step during the year.
She has baby aged 8 month and is actually studying at the university as part timer. Actually, she is revising late at night for examinations and has an assignment to be submitted in the coming week. Aurelie realised that there has been some issue during the first weeks and she explained that some delays are related to the fact that not all her access rights were correctly done upon her movement. She awaited help from other tellers to be able to respond to the complaints.
She is also conscious that there have been numerous internal reminders for queries specially linked to scanning of cheques being delayed. According to her the issues are related to the fact that she is lost within the new organisation and has to review her planning. She has tried to seek advice from the previous employee doing these tasks. Aurelie is happy that despite having some difficulties, she learns new tasks that may help her to achieve her career goal and be promoted by having more knowledge and experience.
The issues are situational since she is convinced that once she will have the knowledge acquired this will reduce time taken to perform same tasks. After conducting the conversation I have Invited Aurelie for a meeting to talk about her daily tasks and delays in responding to queries and complaints on Monday 9th July. The following questions were asked: 1. My first question to Aurelie was ‘how are you today’ as ice breaker? She started to tell me that she feels very tired due to the fact that she is actually having exams for her BSC in financial services and revising quite late at night. She also has to manage more responsibilities at work and spend less time at home with her baby.
She also told me that she has enjoyed the fact that she has one day off on Friday and seized this opportunity to have a good rest and a long weekend with her family. She previously has a miscarriage during her 7th month of pregnancy and her newly born child is her priority. 2. How do you feel about your job? She told me that she was lost during the first week since she had not been in branches permanently for a long period of time and has no idea at first how things are done. While she was relieving employee, she has been doing short period of time in a branch and has only performed the basic tasks of a teller. When she arrived at SSR branch, she has continued to do the teller’s tasks and its only during the week spent with me as new operations supervisor that she is performing the job that has been newly assigned to her. She is lost since not enough time was given to her to learn with the previous back office at the branch and is afraid to ask for help.
She explained to me that previously she had a bad experience when she asked for help regarding the management of business till, she has been on a development program where she could have lost her job despite having 4 years of experience. It has been a hard period for her as this coincide with her miscarriage. I explained to Aurelie that our coaching sessions is a way for us to improve our skills and planning together since we are both new to the branch. She does well for some tasks but that we need to improve rapidly on some important points to avoid future issues.
I also reassure her that no development program will be given to her since she has already the skills require to perform her new tasks but we only need to make some points clear and better organise our tasks together for the efficiency of the branch. I also explained to her that going through the evaluation of what needs to be improved will impact positively our work life balance and we will all gain from improvements. This will also allow her to finish earlier and spend more time with her family. 3. What are your career aspirations? Aurelie next step is to be a customer service representative, she enjoys working with customers and like the face to face interactions. She has previously applied twice for the job and has not been retained.
She has missed the last recruitment and she was at the hospital when her interview was scheduled and has no opportunity to catch up during the delay provided by HR for her interview. She was at first demotivated but is now taking this new challenge to learn more and be in touch with the job-related tasks. She will learn and be ready for the next advertisement for the job but still let the doors open to other possible opportunity in other departments related to customer service. 4. What do you think you are actually doing right accordingly to your new tasks? She started by the ATM management that she been able to master during the first week and is now at ease with the manipulation of the machine and the related codes for maintenance. The scanning of cheques is completed according to the guidelines and procedures. She replaces her colleagues during lunch time at teller counter and no discrepancy recorded for her end of day cash balance.
She has learned how to use the tools and applications to correct errors related to ATM and complaints from customers. She is fully conversant with the process for queries. I acknowledge all the points stated by Aurelie and congratulates her for the points stated that she has been able to learn rapidly during this short period of time. 5. What do you think needs to be improved? The management of queries is difficult for her, she is not at ease with the filing of the branch and has difficulties to find where to look for the documents requested. For her the filing is too huge and searching for information takes a lot of time. Her accesses are still on region team and received lot of emails which is difficult to manage and sort queries addressed to SSR Branch.
Previously she has no idea how to do the queries and the application for complaint but she tries to learn with the other team members but now feels more at ease with same. 6. What do you think you should do to overcome your actual difficulties? She thinks that she should spend some time in the filing area to understand how files and applications are stored and reorganise same. She requested me to talk to the concerned parties to remove her on the group mails no more related to her. She should spend some time on the application to query information for ATMS complaint to get used to It. She will also seek help from other colleagues in the branch to better understand the process of the branch and prepare a complete list of her tasks. 7. What else could you do? After some reflection, she stated that she could contact the previous back office clerk for a short visit to better understand some tasks and how he previously proceeded at SSR Branch.
8. Which other option will you be able to use to improve? She has no idea of what to answer at this stage. 9. Do you prepare a planning for the day and for the week? No planning is actually done but this could help her. At this stage I started giving some advices to Aurelie since I felt that she needs help to better organise her daily task. The first step for you is to prepare a ‘to do list’ for the day and a weekly ‘to do list’, same should be sorted by urgency and importance. The second advice is to create folder for her email and apply the for D’s in order to prioritise. 10. What could you do for the delays for the reports management? She explained that she will learned from the staffs and request a new template as the one that she is actually using seems to be distorted.
11. What will happen if you clear your actual obstacle? She replied that she will feel better at work and will be able to meet the deadlines and complete her tasks in a timely manner. She will also find more time to increase knowledge. Based on the generated ideas, I told Aurelie that we have gone through many ideas through this session and we now have to find the best fit solutions and to develop an action plan. 12. What exactly will you do to reach your goal? Below what she decided: ? Contact the previous back office clerk and invite him for a sharing regarding the filing for queries ? Ask for a correct template from the colleagues to catch up the gap for the reports ? Navigate through the Application for complaint related to ATM and ask for advice from related team ? Prepare to do list and inform me when having difficulties 13. When will you apply the four stated actions? She plans to complete same within 2 weeks We ended the sessions by setting a next meeting in one week to evaluate the proposed action plan.
I asked Aurelie to send me a recap of the four actions to be taken by email for proper follow up. My learning having the conversation Coaching conversation is effective when you are able to listen to the person and really try to be in the reality of the employee. It is important not to try to answer or evaluate the conversation. The coach should be a good listener and only listen without trying to give the conversation s path or direction. It is an exploration of the issues and helping someone to talk about her difficulties and realising what solutions and actions she would be able to apply to enhance performance.
The coach should have an open mind and prompt the person to think by asking the right questions. According to me coaching may be difficult to do since you may have advices and opinions of what should be done to solve the non-performance and start talking to provide actions and directives to that person. It’s a way for people to learn and prompt new ideas, thinking and solutions. Having the first structured and prepared coaching session makes me realise how it is important to cater for non-performance as an urgency. I have learned how to ask questions so as to dig further according by asking the right questions.
The conversation also makes me think about how details can sometimes impact the performance of employees and small action can make the difference. Changes should also be done through proper handing over by persons performing well before. Coaching conversation is effective when you are able to listen to the person and really try to understand the reality of the employee. It is important not to try to answer or evaluate the conversation.
The coach should be a good listener and only truly listen. The most difficult part to do during the coaching conversation is to not give advice and propose our own solutions or directives. It’s really to keep in in that the person should learn and provide her own solutions. It’s based on the person’s learning and growth. It’s important in such conversation to listen, think and speak like a coach.
Doing differently as a leader in the future Following the sessions on coaching and this first structured conversation, this has definitely change my thinking on how to manage a team and non-performance of staffs. It’s important for me to now use a coach-like language in my conversations with my team members. I will listen more to staffs without trying to provide advice and help people to find their own solutions and actions. I have often met leaders who use the word how and what often and now that I have learned why, I shall apply same also. On a monthly basis, I shall schedule meeting with my new team to have such valuable conversation and this will the BU to improve further by enhancing performance. During the meetings we are often interrupted and I shall also ensure non-disruption of conversations to keep focus.
I shall also ask open ended questions to help find actions and stay focus on action plan to be implemented for growth and learning. Follow up as per scheduled time will be done to ensure that action plan is implemented. By doing this session, coaching conversation has also enhanced my own skills and will also contribute to my personal learning and growth. Conclusion Thoughts about how the organization can benefit from performance conversations based on development, building trust and engagement Performance conversation helps to build trust among teams and active listening with encourage people to increase performance which positively impact the organisation. Engagement of employee trough pleasant working environment will create personal learning and growth at all levels. Through active listening personal barriers can be overcome and leaders will be more supportive.
Understanding people goal and personal timeframe will help to increase motivation and personal motivate will increase productivity for the business. Understand each staff motivation criteria will help avoid demotivating team members. Actions selected in coaching should be monitored and followed for effective conversations. Goals and action should be cleared to all members trough clear and proper communication. Leaders should ensure clarity of communications, this can be achieved through proper recording and notebook culture.
Coaching with passion will definitely inspire people to give the best in their job by leading examples and actions. When adopting the coaching language leaders should stay focus and constant for short and long-term benefits. To conclude, for me using the coaching language is a way to improve our personal skills, help find the best in each team members, increase engagement by valuing people and enhance performance of the business.
