The effect of workplace coaching on employee performance: the case of Tri An factory, Nestlé Vietnam

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how the use of workplace coaching as a human management and development tool can facilitate improvements to employee performance and in turn providing a platform to increase the competitive advantage of the organization. The study was carried out at Tri An Factory (TAF), Nestlé Vietnam company and it comprises of a literature review, which includes the concept and essential principles of coaching, some key drivers of effective coaching, the employee performance and the correlation between workplace coaching and employee performance. A quantitative research approach was used for this study with the participation of 190 employees from all working positions within TAF. The findings of the study revealed that workplace coaching is an effective human management and development tool at TAF and it has positive impacts on employee performance. The key factors, which contributed to workplace coaching effectiveness, were building trustful coach-coachee relationship, enhancing the awareness and motivation of employees, and giving them the needed support. The employee performance was determined by employee work productivity, product quality and customer satisfaction. All were improved as the results of workplace coaching. Whilst the study proved the effectiveness of workplace coaching and its positive impacts on employee performance, the findings also showed that there are opportunities for further improvements to workplace coaching at TAF. The areas of improvements identified are using appropriate approach for each individual/ group based on their preference, promoting employee understanding about purposes and benefits of coaching, spending more time to coach employees, building criteria and using those to measure the effectiveness of coaching sessions.