Tag Archives: Coaching

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Is Coaching a Candidate a Good Idea?

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coaching a candidate

In today’s fast-paced world, most companies simply don’t have that much time to dedicate to recruiting and hiring. Although employees are the backbone of any organization, companies often end up with a haphazard process of finding and hiring top talent. In most cases, this occurs through no fault of their own—finding good employees is hard and even with the help of recruiters, companies can still end up with bad hires.

This, then, becomes an opportunity for recruiters. Recruiters are hiring specialists who use their expertise to find the most qualified candidates for a job. The hiring decision ultimately lies with the hiring manager, of course, but hiring managers tend to rely heavily on recruiters’ recommendations. Whether the recruiter works within the company, for an agency, or is independent, the recruiter’s job is to seek, vet, and recommend candidates. Companies depend on recruiters to find the perfect candidate, putting a lot of pressure on recruiters. This can potentially lead to problems if recruiters think that coaching their candidates will make them more attractive.

What does it mean to coach a candidate?

Recruiters can seek candidates in any number of ways—from within the company itself, through industry contacts, on social media platforms, or even by poaching them from competitors. Once a recruiter finds someone who seems like the perfect match for a position, the recruiter begins a process to bring the candidate on board. This can include making the initial contact, conducting a preliminary interview, and coaching the candidate.

The process of walking a candidate through what to expect and what to say at the job interview is known as “coaching.” While there can be many benefits to guiding an applicant through the interview process, this can also lead to false appearances and a potential bad hire.

When is coaching a candidate a good idea?

Coaching a candidate can be appropriate in certain circumstances, such as when a recruiter helps a candidate identify what to highlight during the interview. Say a recruiter finds a programmer who seems perfect for a certain position within a tech company. Through coaching, the recruiter can help the candidate identify personal and professional strengths—the skills and experience that will make the applicant stand out from the rest. The recruiter can also help the candidate determine how best to describe those strengths so the hiring manager will have no trouble grasping the candidate’s expertise.

A candidate who tends to get nervous or hasn’t had many interviews in the past can also benefit from coaching. In these instances, the recruiter can do mock interviews with the candidate in preparation for the real thing. That way the candidate will feel more comfortable and better prepared to meet with the person doing the hiring.

When is coaching a candidate a bad idea?

Since some candidates can clearly benefit from coaching, when is coaching a candidate a bad idea? The answer: coaching is wrong when it enters the realm of deception, exaggeration, or interference.

In some cases—such as when recruiters’ earnings depend on how many people they place—the pressure that recruiters feel to find candidates can lead them to push the wrong candidate for a job. For example, a recruiter may know a candidate doesn’t have the right skills for a job, but will coach the candidate to say things a certain way to make it seem like the skills are there. Because the candidate was practically handed a script, the job is offered and accepted, and in time it becomes clear that this new hire was the wrong choice.

Helping a candidate identify and highlight strengths is one thing, but coaching can lead candidates to exaggerate their expertise to the point of deception. The company ends up with an employee who is ill-prepared for the tasks at hand, and has to spend more time and money finding someone new.

Coaching candidates on how to show their best side is useful, but making them into someone they think the company wants—someone the candidate is not—is a real problem for the company, the recruiter, and the candidate.

For the recruiter, continuously placing unsuitable candidates can lead a company to stop using the recruiters’ services.

For the candidate, being placed in a job that’s the wrong fit means potentially having to quit and start a job search all over again.

Even worse for the company, a candidate might decide to stay even though the candidate neither has the right skills nor fits in with the company culture, thus becoming the cause of slower productivity and potentially bad attitudes or lower morale.

What are other pros and cons of candidate coaching? Do you think it’s a worthwhile practice, or should recruiters stop coaching candidates?

Eric Friedman

eSkill Author Eric

Eric Friedman is the founder and CEO of eSkill Corporation, a leading provider of online skills testing for pre-employment assessment and benchmarking. Eric has degrees in Psychology and Business, and a fascination with matching people with roles they’re best at, and that they enjoy.

A company built on exceptional talent from Internet technology, test development, and iterative product development, eSkill leads as an independent assessment company helping HR departments with relevant and accurate job-based tests.

To learn more about Eric and eSkill, visit the company website at www.eskill.com, or contact him on LinkedIn.


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Public Seminar: Coaching and Mentoring

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Coaching and Mentoring

On August 25, 2015 Profiles Asia Pacific and People Dynamics will offer a public seminar on Coaching and Mentoring designed for managers or individuals working in leadership positions. The workshop will go over how to coach, retain and motivate staff. Being a coach means being able to draw from several disciplines. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Mentorship is a related skill that is often a part of coaching. It’s about being a guide, offering wisdom and advice when it is needed.

Knowing how and when to coach (and when to use other tools, like mentoring) is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization.

Register Now

Participants will understand how coaching can be used to develop your team, develop the coaching and mentoring skills that help improve individual performance, demonstrate the behaviors and practices of an effective coach, recognize employees’ strengths and give them the feedback they need to succeed and identify employee problems and ways you can help to correct them

Course Outline

  • Defining coaching and mentoring
  • Coaching assessment review
  • Interpersonal communication skills
  • Critical coaching skills
  • Setting goals with SPIRIT
  • Learning styles and principles
  • The benefits/consequences matrix
  • Skills involved in coaching
  • The coaching model
  • Giving effective feedback
  • Coaching problems and solutions

The workshop fee of P4,500 includes instruction by an expert facilitator, small group workshops that provide “active learning,” a specialized student workbook, personalized certificate of participation, a free eBook on coaching and mentoring, snacks and lunch.

Register Now

About the Facilitator

Dr. Maria Vida G. Caparas holds a Master’s Degree and Ph.D., Summa Cum Laude, in Psychology. She is an Accredited Trainer of the Philippine Government with invaluable experiences in Organizational Development as a Human Resource, Training and OD practitioner. She authored three books on Psychology/HR Management and was a Trainer Delegate of DFA-Foreign Service Institute in Italy and Singapore in 1999-2000. Dr. Caparas is a recipient of various national awards and also a professor in prestigious universities.


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Public Seminar: Leadership Skills for Supervisors

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Join us on March 18 to learn about Communication, Coaching and Conflict Management in our Leadership Skills for Supervisors workshop series. Supervisors affect the productivity of their employees and must be able to effectively lead teams.

Participants will learn ways to prioritize, plan, and manage time, identify their primary leadership styles, develop flexibility, learn to use other leadership styles, and different ways to turn conflict into a force for creative, well-rounded solutions. Participants will also learn different ways to meet the needs of employees through communication and coaching.

Course Outline

  • Pre-assignment review
  • What’s your type? How about mine?
  • Understanding leadership
  • Managing your time and your energy
  • The commitment curve
  • Employee development models
  • Dealing with conflict and difficult issues
  • What successful leaders do

About the Facilitator

Dr. Maria Vida G. Caparas holds a Master’s Degree and Ph.D., Summa Cum Laude, in Psychology. She is an Accredited Trainer of the Philippine Government with invaluable experiences in Organizational Development as a Human Resource, Training and OD practitioner. She authored three books on Psychology/HR Management and was a Trainer Delegate of DFA-Foreign Service Institute in Italy and Singapore in 1999-2000. Dr. Caparas is a recipient of various national awards and also a professor in prestigious universities.

Click here to sign up.


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Coaching: A Leadership Skill

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Coach, Role Model, Counselor, Supporter, Guide…do these words ring a bell? Being a coach involves being a role model, sometimes a counselor or supporter, and always a guide. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Knowing how and when to coach is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization. This one-day workshop will help you become a better coach in all senses of the word. The seminar will be held on October 23 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at unit 502 OMM Citra Bldg., San Miguel Ave.,
Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

In Coaching: A Leadership Skill, participants will learn how to use coaching to develop their team, develop coaching skills that help improve individual performance, demonstrate the behaviors and practices of an effective coach, recognize employees’ strengths and weaknesses, and learn to give valuable feedback.

Course Outline

  1. Defining Coaching: The first part of the morning will be spent exploring what coaching means (in general and to participants), reviewing coaching skills, and evaluating the pre-assignment.
  2. Interpersonal Communication Skills: Communicating well is a key aspect of successful coaching. During this session, participants will explore different communication skills and create an action plan.
  3. Self-Disclosure: Joe Luft and Harry Ingraham developed the Johari windows concept, a way of looking at our self-awareness and our ability to ask feedback of others. This session will look at the window and examine how we can use it when coaching.
  4. Critical Coaching Skills: Participants will examine important coaching skills in small groups, including helping, mentoring, teaching, and challenging skills.
  5. More on Communication: This lecturette will examine two powerful, simple coaching tools: asking questions and listening.
  6. Learning Styles and Principles: We learn in three different ways: by seeing, by hearing, and by doing. In a large group discussion, participants will identify ways to incorporate these methods into coaching.
  7. Benefits/Consequences: During this session, we will examine a tool that coaches can use to help gain buy-in for change from employees.
  8. Skills Involved in Coaching: Participants will work in small groups to complete a mix-and-match exercise that will familiarize them with key coaching skills.
  9. The Coaching Model: This session will explore a four-step coaching model that can be applied to any situation.
  10. Feedback: An essential component of coaching. You will discuss types of feedback and offer some tips in lecture format during this session.
  11. Coaching Problems: To wrap up the workshop, participants will examine case studies and offer solutions.
  12. Workshop Wrap-Up: At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.

The course fee is PHP3,500 + VAT, and includes instruction by an expert facilitator, snacks and lunch, a specialized student workbook, and a personalized certificate of participation.

Register online and view other classes!


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