Just like you train or coach employees to upskill, you can coach them out to leave their roles when they showcase dissatisfactory results.
It is a process to converse with an employee about performance lapses or the requirement of the company to replace the employee.
Coaching Out – Definition
Coaching out is a method to convince an employee for quitting the job voluntarily. In contrast to termination, this process takes place by informing the employee in advance.
Coaching out is a conversation between an employer and an employee to discuss the future of a job. It involves creating a plan to ratify the mistakes and set future expectations if time permits.
Otherwise, the employer can inform the employee to take another job role or find any other job elsewhere. This is the most common outcome of being coached out.
In short, being coached out means terminating an employee’s job contract without confrontation or taking the legal course of action by either side.
Why Do Employers Coach Out Employees?
The most significant reason for coaching out is underperforming employees. It happens usually when newly hired employees do not meet the expectations of their employers.
Employers may consider coaching out employees when they break company rules and policies. These violations may result in financial losses to employers or any other type of harmful activities.
Similarly, an employer may consider coaching out employees when facing financial problems. During economic downturns, employers often lay off the most underperforming employees.
In evolving job markets, job roles constantly change. Many employees do not upgrade their skills to meet new expectations.
In such cases, employers consider coaching up or coaching out employees.
How to Coach Out an Employee?
Coaching out an employee is not an option when employees break company rules or violate laws. For instance, it shouldn’t be used if an employee is involved in theft, malpractice, violence, etc.
Coaching an employee can be used as an alternative to terminating or firing an employee. Instead of firing an employee on spot, you can use the coaching practice to offer a graceful exit.
Your main task is to make employees realize that they are not producing the desired results. The performance evaluation shouldn’t be an emotional decision.
The conversation should revolve around making an employee understand why the decision has been taken. An employer can offer a change in the job role or upgrade the skills to perform in the same role if time permits.
This approach provides a graceful exit to an employee without facing the stigma of being terminated from a job. It helps employees to seek another job within the notice period.
Steps to Coach Out an Employee
You can take the following steps to coach out an employee should such situations arise in your company.
Document the Issues with an Employee
It’s a wise practice to observe and document employee behavior anyway. It’s helpful for employers not just in voluntary exits but terminations and other incidents as well.
Preparing the documented records of an employee’s performance can help you make the decision correctly too. You can analyze the performance of an employee against set KPIs.
You can then compare these KPIs against targets achieved by an employee. Thus, when you begin the coaching out process, you’ll have a starting point.
Documentary evidence will also help you negate any legal actions if such a situation arises.
Talk to the HR Department First
Before you make a conversation with an employee, it’s a good practice to inform your human resources department about your decision first.
In practice, you must consult the HR department to further analyze the performance of the employee being coached.
Then, you’ll be able to take a clear course of action. The discussion will help you decide between coaching up or coaching out clearly.
It will provide ample time for your HR department to prepare for a replacement hire as well. Also, you can confirm any contract breaches to avoid any legal action from the employee.
Point Out the Pain Points Clearly
The next step is to set up a detailed meeting with the employee. You must express the meeting agenda clearly first.
Then, state the job description, performance indicators, expectations, and results achieved by an employee thus far.
You can then point out any particular performance lapses or pain points to the employee. Let the employee provide any satisfactory answers too.
At this stage, it’s not important to convince an employee of the underperforming elements as it may escalate the situation.
Define a Performance Improvement Plan
Although this step is seldom required, you can define a performance improvement plan for the employee here.
This step will allow you and the employee to ratify mistakes made earlier. It may include options for the employee to take training, courses, and coaching classes to upgrade skills.
However, it is a rare step as most employers consider these options before making a call on an employee.
Terminate an Employee if Needed
If you provided the employee with a performance improvement period, you should wait until the completion of that period.
Then, conduct a thorough review of the set performance indicators of the employee. It will help you decide whether the employee showed any improvement.
If you need to terminate the employee’s contract, you can give a few options here:
- Ask the employee to resign within a specific period.
- Offer an alternative position in a similar role with the same or a new compensation package to the employee.
- If the employee does not take any of these options, inform your decision about terminating the contract.
Arrange the Exit Interview
In the final step, you can ask the human resources department to arrange an exit interview with the fired employee.
The purpose of the exit interview is to complete the documentation process and arrange the compensation for the employee with benefits and leave allowances.
You can ask both parties to prepare necessary formal letters like the resignation/termination letter, experience certificate, job relieving letter, and so on.
What Are the Exit Options for Employers?
There are three scenarios usually when considering the exit options for an employee. An employer can choose either of these depending on the situation.
Promotion
A promotion is a reward or appreciation for an employee for achieving success. It can be announced at the end of a specific period or randomly when an employee achieves performance targets.
Voluntary Exit
This is the result of coaching out an employee. This course of action takes place when both the employer and the employee agree on the outcome of the employee being removed from the current job.
Involuntary Exit
It happens when you consider an employee underperforming consistently. You can terminate the contract of an employee when performance targets are not achieved and there is insufficient evidence to retain the employee.
Is Being Coached Out the Same as Termination?
Terminating an employee is a form of involuntary exit. An employee hardly agrees to leave the job and the employer is forced to take action.
Coaching an employee to leave or change the job role is a form of voluntary exit. Both parties agree on the dissatisfied results and then decide to move on.
Also, terminations commonly happen as disciplinary actions against employees rather than performance failures.
Coached Out vs Caoched Up
Coaching up an employee refers to upgrading the skill set of an employee. It provides an opportunity for an employee to prove the metal with new challenges in the job role.
It is a common practice to train employees through short courses, coaching classes, upgrading technology, and seminars.
The purpose of coaching up is to make an employee ready for the new job when there are new challenges or the company moves to new technology.
Coached Out vs Layoffs
Layoffs are different from coaching out an employee to a voluntary exit too. Layoffs are common when a company is facing financial challenges.
Also, layoffs are often conducted in batches rather than pointing out a single employee for underperformance.
The result of both strategies is the same to end the job contract of an employee. However, both options take considerably different approaches.