Surveys in the coaching process: Expert tips & recommendations
To support you as effectively as possible in delivering your survey projects, we regularly seek advice from experts who conduct surveys in specific contexts and share insights from their practical experience. The following sections contain recommendations on employee surveys in coaching processes.
This article was written by Erik Quast, founder and owner of imCHANGE. imCHANGE is a specialist consultancy for digital transformation and change. Its systemic organisational development consultants and agile coaches support individuals, teams and entire organisations through change.
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How employee surveys can improve the efficiency of your coaching process
However, coaching needs one thing above all: time. When dealing with more complex issues, leadership coaching can extend over several months. During this time, coach and client meet regularly. The framework for the one-to-one sessions is established at the start of the coaching process. A written agreement between coach and client also determines whether further follow-up discussions should take place once the coaching has ended.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach, but there are ways to make the process more efficient and to monitor the effectiveness of coaching more objectively. Minimising the time required outside regular work tasks can help make coaching a more effective option for employee development. How can this be achieved? One way to improve efficiency is to use questionnaires at different stages of the coaching process. This approach helps establish the basis for coaching and allows employees to reflect individually on their experience throughout the process without needing to meet the coach.
Using employee surveys in the coaching process
1. Before coaching
At the coach–client level, an online questionnaire could be used in advance to capture and clearly present a person’s personality profile. Coaching based on this is particularly efficient because it can address the individual’s personality directly and therefore strengthen their specific abilities.
2. During coaching
3. After coaching
For evaluation purposes and to achieve the best possible results, it is very important to conduct surveys anonymously at organisational level in order to assess and continuously improve the coaching initiative itself.
Objectives of employee surveys before, during and after the coaching process
- Identify existing knowledge and skills
- Capture a personality profile
- Identify the need for coaching
- Support the development process
- Assess the effectiveness of coaching
- Reflect on the coaching process
- Identify areas for action for follow-up appointments
What are the benefits of employee surveys in the coaching process?
Later in the process, an interactive employee coaching form or questionnaire can help establish more objectively what is and is not working. The coach can then adapt their coaching style and their questions or suggestions for professional development to the employee’s needs. This in turn makes the process more efficient, as the employee can reflect on the process to date and provide valuable feedback for the coach and the organisation.
You may wish to use our questionnaire template Feedback on the coaching process, which can be used after coaching to assess the process from the employee’s perspective.
EXPERT TIPS from
Erik Quast, founder and owner of imCHANGE
As an organisational development consultant, Erik Quast supports individuals,
teams and companies through digital change
You can easily copy all questionnaire templates for employee surveys into your LamaPoll account, tailor them to your company and adapt them as you wish.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is a survey tool for creating employee surveys and measuring employee satisfaction. You can use it to create, conduct and analyse all types of employee survey. Create your employee survey in just a few steps, apply your organisation’s corporate design and invite employees conveniently by email or via your intranet. You can quickly gain insights that help improve employee satisfaction. You can register for our survey tool free of charge and immediately conduct surveys for up to 50 employees with no obligation. If you need more responses to your online employee survey questionnaire, simply choose one of our monthly plans. You can also use our employee survey questionnaire templates and examples.
