2. Performance management at TD
A talented and skilled workforce is beneficial to any organization. TD implements several tools
and programs to support employee development.
They include
- Learning maps
- The learning management system
- Accelerated learning pipeline programs for various in-demand roles
- Tuition reimbursement programs
- Group and individual mentoring
Learning maps allow you to divide course content into smaller topics. They are also visually
appealing which help enable learners to absorb more information in comparison to lists and
books.
A tuition reimbursement program is a valuable asset a company can provide to an
employee. It allows the employee to further their learning, and gain additional skills and
knowledge to improve their performance in the workplace. By paying for an employee’s
education, a company is making an investment toward its workers. Doing so is a prime example
of a company trying to better their workforce, improve culture, and develop talent.
Mentoring is also another method of helping others grow and develop. (Dubrin, x)
Individual mentoring focuses on an employee’s individual development, while being completely
confidential and the most personal form of mentoring. Group mentoring allows a company to
mentor multiple employees in a time efficient manner, and achieve specific learning goals.
Since group mentoring focuses on a number of employees at once, it isn’t as personal as 1 on 1
mentoring. Group mentoring enables employees to learn from each other’s experiences and
apply it to their work lives. TD offers a variety of mentoring groups that include: new immigrant
3. employees, women in leadership, employees who identify as LGBT and members of visible
minority groups.
TD offers career development support in ways that such as:
- A simple, four step career management process
- Videos and webinars about career planning and personal development
- An interactive online assessment to help employees find the right tools to meet their
needs
- Advice from internal and external experts on careers and development
- Executive interviews and testimonials on their real-life career experiences
- Career Advisor: an interactive online development tool that helps employees (Career
development support, TD.com)
TD has implemented on an online performance tool system called “People, Planning, and
performance (P3)”. TD believes this online tool should provide for an overall better experience
for their employees. Going online gives TD the opportunity to eliminate paper based
performance assessments and personal development plans. It allows for better organization,
and reduces clutter. P3 enables employees and managers to work together to review and
update every aspect of performance and development online.
Through a number of platforms, TD provides plenty of opportunities for an individual to grow
and develop within their organization.
Interview(s)
TD Canada Trust: Interview 1
Financial Sales Representative: Imran Hasan
Interviewer: Nadine Yassen
Topics covered: Performance Planning, Performance execution, Performance assessment
4. Performance Planning
Key accountabilities: broad areas of a job for which the employee is responsible for producing
results
- Helping clients open their day to da bank accounts
- Build savings plans
- Investment options
- Mortgages
- Day to day issues complaints
Performance standards: evaluate how well employees have achieved each objective.
Acceptable/unacceptable performance
- I am usually able to help all customers I serve
- Ask them questions
- What kind of risk can they handle?
- 90% of the time they are happy and satisfied with our service
unacceptable:
- don’t get rid of customers
- understand what can be done vs what can’t be done
How a job is done?
You put customers need before anything else
Areas for improvement ?
In myself:
- look for more opportunities to bring more business
Find more ways to help them.
- Company should less sales driven
- Customers first, not sales revenue
- TD lacks good customer service
Performance execution
Commitment to goal achievement?
- Strongly committed to reaching goals
5. - Makes branch looks good
- Going above and beyond as well as bring the business
- Customer before sales goals
On going requests for feedback and coaching?
Feedback from customers:
- help customers fast
- Right to the point
- Always nice to them
- Received the right advice
Feedback internally:
- work hard
- Put in as much time as you can
- Keep going above and beyond
- Keep cx happy all the time
Managers responsibilities: observation and documentation, updates feedback, resources
- Not just how you perform
- Give you control of the situation
- Review paper work always
- Audit/credit procedures done properly
Performance assessment
Manager assessment
- Weekly basis: how the numbers are
- Accounts opened
- Compared to goals
- Go through performance chart
- Not too much pressure
- Casual conversations
- Part of a team
Self-assessment
- Being able to help the customer
- I want to help customers
- Want them to be happy
- Help client as much as I can
6. - Not always number driven
Other sources (peers)
- Always help my coworkers
- Always get a good response from them to help their clients
TD Canada Trust: Interview 2
Financial Advisor: Farzana Rafa
Interviewer: Nadine Yassen
Topics covered: Performance Planning, Performance execution, Performance assessment
Performance Planning
Key accountabilities: broad areas of a job for which the employee is responsible for producing
results
- Take a look at the big picture
- Help customers reach their goal
- Save for a house, trying to take a vacation
- Goal steps
- Do you have kids, are you saving for their education
- Manage money how can we manage it to make it grow
- How can we make you save even if you have a small income?
- A little goes a long way
Specific objectives: Statements of outcomes; important/measurable
- Our jobs are important
- We work to earn money
- We deal with the earnings of our customers
- Their lives are in our hands
Measure by; how much retention do we have?
With so many advisors why will the customer come back to me?
Performance standards: evaluate how well employees have achieved each objective.
Acceptable/unacceptable performance
7. - It depends on how much I focus on what my goal
- Set smaller goals to achieve the bigger ones
- Time management is key
Unacceptable:
- Not being a team player
How a job is done?
- Cx comes first. Then being satisfied. And coming back again
- Trying to complete everything correct the first time
Areas for improvement?
Myself:
- customer driven; I help people as they need it as I am readily available
- Instead of working hard all of the time I need to work smarter
- the company should give me administrative assistant
- too much work and compliance to balance numbers
- can’t bring in more business if other work can’t be completed
- goals aren’t realistic way too much work
Performance execution
Commitment to goal achievement
- Very committed, I overlook my self sometimes
- I feel pressured when I cant meet my numbers
On going requests for feedback and coaching
- No positive feedback
- No real coaching I do it on my own
- Only feed back when I do well
- Management is not helpful
- I go to my peers
Feedback from customers: my customers love my work and I always receive positive feedback
8. Managers responsibilities: observation and documentation, updates feeback, resources
- observe my verbal interactions
- they trust me knowledge in front of clients
- the only documentation available is to track my numbers with respect to my goals
Performance assessment
Manager assessment
- Mangers don’t care about your team skills only number and sales driven
Self-assessment
- My numbers and my time management
- I assess my self by how well I can help my peers as well as the clients
- I don’t compare my self to anyone I work hard and I try to learn
Other sources (peers)
- How reliable am I?
- Can I help my peers
- Can I help them get the job done
Interview Analysis Summary
TD Canada Trust has set specific goals and standards for its employees to
provide the best customer service. Based on the interviews of two employees there
are various pros and cons within the organization. Both employees interviewed
stressed the importance of taking care of client; making them happy and satisfying
their every need. As well as taking care of its clients’ TD needs to take care of their
employees and spend a little more time revising their employee’s roles in the
company. Employees should never feel pressured if they make mistakes or cannot
always accomplish their sales goals, because it wont help in the process of
motivation to do better. Instead there needs to be better encouragement and more
focused coaching sessions in order to identify the needs of the employee in order to
9. implement change.
TD does a great job at pushing their employees to go above and beyond in
order to hit their sales targets and become successful and experienced. What is
lacking is balance. Employees need support and resources that are consistent
especially in such a sales driven environment. It is not all about numbers but rather
the people that generate the numbers. Employees should value and respect their
jobs and their employers should respect and appreciate their commitment.
Feedback should be given religiously and should not just be for mistakes but also for
the work done well. Over all both employees love their jobs but just need a bit more
recognition for the work that they do.
Coaching inBusiness Today
Coaching is an important tool for businesses that can be defined as a form of training
and developing an individual’s knowledge, skills and competencies by continuously assessing,
monitoring, and supporting them, but ultimately, it is seen as an interactive process that helps
another person improve, learn new things, and take performance to the next level. Businesses
utilize coaching for the sole purpose of meeting their major business goals, but in order to do
this, they need to be able to get the most out of their employees so that they can ensure their
maximum output. In order for businesses to meet their goals, they need to coach their
employees by identifying individual’s strengths and weaknesses so that they know what
adjustments need to be made, and what strengths need to be capitalized on so that they can
expand and develop on their strong sets. Ensuring that employees are constantly learning,
improving, and growing is important for organizations because not only are they getting the
most out of their workers and meeting their targets, but they are helping their workers
maximize their full potential and reach performance levels they may never thought they can
reach. Moreover, people often believe that it is the coach that designs the goals but it’s actually
the individual who creates the goal plan and the coach just helps motivate the individual
achieve those goals.
10. According to a Flex Study, organizations that don’t operate at their best find that over a
longer period of time they struggle to keep up with the competition, therefore they look to
instill a coaching culture within their organization because it helps them achieve peak
performance and overcome these challenges:
Keeping customers happy
Delivering high quality products and services
Managing constant change
Retaining top talent
Building personal capabilities to match performance demands
Empowering breakthrough results
Reinforcing business practices
Organizations find that with a coaching culture, they are able to improve their entire
organizational structure by strengthening their workforce from top to bottom. From a working
perspective, coaching is about improving your human capacity so that expectations can be met.
When a company creates a coaching culture, they benefit greatly because not only is employee
potential and performance increased but there is an opportunity for honest feedback and open
communication, which can eventually establish trust within the organization. Coaching can lead
to an increase in employee engagement because the more engaged employees are, the happier
the customers are, which eventually leads to revenue; this increases chances of meeting the
financial goals the organization set for itself. Also with coaching, employees feel more
recognized and valued because it shows that the organization cares about them because they
take the time to work with their employees in the areas they need improvement, as well as
giving them credit in the areas that they excel; this increases employee and talent retention.
Barbara A.F Greene, the founder and CEO of Greene and Associates, emphasizes that the idea
of a coaching culture within an organization will have nothing but positive effects. These
include engagement, productivity and revenue, showing that organizations that take the time
to develop an effective coaching system will see greater benefits in years to come.
11. Coaching puts the focus on helping employees learn and grow in ways that allow the
growth to continue afterwards. It is most effective when both parties equally engage with each
other as oppose to one being more dominant than the other because when there is mutual
understanding between the coach and protégée, they are more inclined to understand each
other better rather than have the protégée only listen and follow the lead of the coach without
providing their input. Effective coaching involves just as much listening as it does talking.
Another reason why companies use coaching is so that they can become more effective,
be able to think outside the box, and identify their strengths so that they can set goals.
Companies that develop coaching plans find that they are able to harness more skills that reach
beyond the scope of what they already know, ensuring that they are coaching based on
strengths rather than weaknesses. It also demonstrates their commitment to employees’
professional success in both the short and long term. When an individual has an improved skill
set they are more prone to have a greater impact when working in team environments.
Different organizations can interpret coaching differently based on their needs and
apply it to where they see fit. Based on some research, a few examples of how an organization
can develop and carry out a coaching plan is outlined below:
Example 1 via University of North Texas Leadership Development
1. Look at the Overall Picture
- Begin the process by looking at the company mission, values, and goals and
determine which ones you can affect.
2. Determine Department Action Plan
- Identify or review your department action plan. The action plan should be
the focus when trying to achieve your goals.
3. Determine individual goals that support your action plan
- This step focuses on the individual team member’s contribution to the
success of the department and organization through the development of
12. individual goals. Before a goal is developed, it is important to identify
accomplishments that the team member needs to achieve.
4. Set individual measures
- Measures are how you and your team determine if goals have been
achieved. It gives your team a way to stay on track by aiming for target dates.
Tracking progress will allow you to determine what is working well for your
team, and what is not, so you can easily identify integrated coaching
moments.
5. Identify resources needed and action plan
- Once you have established specific measures that apply to your goals, you
can start to write the actions needed to achieve your goal and identify any
resources you require in the process.
6. Clarify personal goals to focus coaching on the right skills
- It is important to understand an individual’s long-term goals (personal and
professional) because it ensures that your coaching efforts are focused on
relevant things.
7. Recognize how you are living HSC Core values
- Ensure that your goals and values align with one another and that each
individual is focused on core beliefs that drive behaviour and commitment.
Example 2 via John Corson, organizational behavior consultant from CorsonWolff Consulting.
7 steps of building a coaching development plan:
13. 1. Set the Tone
- Ensure coaching isn’t about provoking the weakness in another person but
about unlocking potential you see in another person.
2. Establish the goals
- Identify goals that you would like to see the individual achieve and solicit
from the other person what goals they want to work towards.
3. Set Responsibilities
- Decide on how you can help each other develop and be able to “practice
what you preach” or “walk the walk” so that your effectiveness and
credibility as a coach remains high.
4. Define the Process
- The two of you must decide on when, where, and how often you will meet to
ensure progress.
5. Acknowledge what you will get
- Make sure that you acknowledge benefits you expect to get
6. Establish Benchmarks
- The plan must include clear measures of progress and a set schedule of when
these measures will be met. Benchmarks provide both parties with markers
to determine how well things are going.
7. Review the relationship
14. - Take the time to assess if the coaching relationship should continue. If it
should not continue, be sure to debrief both your coaching work and
experience.
When organizations are able to incorporate coaching they are able to see improvements
in their overall performance
SuggestedCoaching Plan
Introduction
In this coaching plan the focus is to plan a coaching plan that will work in any
organization where training and development is needed. This plan will demonstrate an
assessment method that can be used on any protégé regardless of the issue, organization, and
coachable gap. It will formulate and outline and end-to-end process a coach could use to follow
a road map.
Activity 1- Types of Training
On the job training- This training method focuses on the knowledge, skills, and Ability to do job
in question.
Off the job training- training materials that can be done outside of the workplace to learn more
in depths
One-on-one training- This happens when the coach is training the protégé with the knowledge
and skills needed to do the job in question.
Providing support- This is not the coach training the protégé but rather guiding the protégé.
Instruction
For the types of training methods mentioned above, the instruction is to identify how
the protégé can use the template below to illustrate where development is needed. The
protégé would need to fill out the table to illustrate where they need the most training and
development and thus focusing on that area and helping them achieve their goals in a timely
manner.
Training Methods Focus areas for development
15. On the job
Off the job
One-on-one training
Providingsupport
This is just the first in identifying where the training is needed and how to accomplish the
requirement needs of the protégé. It is a way of them setting ideal goals on where they need
training and development in the training.
Activity 2- The Connection between the Training and Coaching
Goal- the goal of this activity is to identify the training methods that can be used by the coach
in the workplace to help the protégé.
Instruction
Following up on the first activity where the protégé explained the need for coaching was
needed, this activity focuses on introducing to the protégé some of the ways they could
accomplish their goals. The list below is an example of ways that contains different ways the
protégé could gain the KSA needed to successful.
Training Activities Objective
Trial and Error Lettingthe protégé gainexperienceattheirown
pace.
Work Shadowing Allowingthe protégétoshadow otheremployees
to learnknowledgeandskillsneedstodothe job.
Ex- caring a checklistwhenshadowingan
employee.
Demonstration Thisis the closesttocoachingwhere the protégé
isjob andupon the coachingcan thencarry out
the task withoutanysupervision.
Beyond Expectation Thisis where the protégé takesthe initiative to
learnmore KSA about the job and takeson
furtherprojects.
16. Activity 3- The Relation of Learning Style to Coaching Style
Instruction
Each person learns differently and the coaching style has to match the protégé’s
learning style and not the coach’s style of coaching. Therefore, in an organization where
coaching is needed, the coach must learn to adapt to the learning style of the protégé. In
Performance Management textbook, chapter 9 (exercise 9-2) illustrates coaching style in four
aspects. Below are the four coaching style that a coach should demonstrate.
Coaching styles:
Driver- These types of coaches are more drivers and are driven by change
Analysers- These coaches are driven by logic. They are more driven by rules and regulations.
Expressers/ Persuaders- These coaches are visionaries and look at all possibilities.
Amiable- coaches with this style are driven from the heart and not the head. They like everyone
to be happy and get along.
Protégé learning style:
Peter Honey and Alan Mumford who were colleagues at University of Leicester came up with
The learning style of Honey and Mumford. The idea of this style is to indicate that each
individual learns differently. The point they were trying to demonstrate is that each individual
learns better from different activities and approaches. For example some protégés learn from
their past mistakes while others learn by explanation and applying what they learned from the
instructions. The four learning styles that Honey and Mumford identified are;
Activist- These types of learners (protégés) are a “having a go.” They like to solve problems and
carry out practical tasks.
Reflectors- These type of learners like to stand back and think about the tasks. They tend to be
observe first then doing the tasks after they have seen someone doing it first.
Theorists- These types of protégés like to draw up their own theory about the task take
someone else’s theory about the task and then decide on how to do it.
17. Pragmatists- These protégés like to enjoy the training and like to identify different ways to
carrying out the training.
Goal- Therefore, the goal of activity 3 is basically to match learning style of the protégé when
there is coaching needed. This would work in any organization no matter the size. The coach
needs to adapt their coaching style to learning style of the protégé so that the goals of the
protégé are met because in the end it’s all about the protégé and their success in the
organization.
Activity 4- The Monitoring/Feedback stage
This is the final stage where the coach gives feedback to the protégé about all the activity done
so far. In this stage the coach gives some constructive feedback on what well and what can be
improved. The protégé also can ask questions and see what he/she needs more knowledge or
explanation to things they didn’t understand or need more practice. Below is a table hat the
protégé can fill up to illustrate what they got from the entire experience.
Goal
The goal of feedback is to conclude the entire coaching process and to reflect on all the
things that went well and didn’t. This is a great way to monitor the success of the protégé and
whether the coaching was beneficial. Needless to say, feedback are a great way to learn more
about yourself thus giving some sense of accomplishment because with any task, an incentive
system is always a great thing to include with that’s why the table below is a great way to
reflect.
Task beingobserved How you felt
Task beingobservedby the coach: How did you feel?
My stress level whendoingthe task: what would you change:
18. What wentwell? Other:
Conclusion
Performance management is an ongoing process that involves a never ending of setting
goals and objective. Moreover, a protégé has to align their goals to the strategic goals of the
organization so that both protégé and organization are prospering within the organization. This
is where coaching is need so that the above mentioned strategic goals are accomplished in a
timely manner and any unwanted discrepancy are removed. Coaching is a great way of training
and developing an individual’s knowledge, skills and competency and continuously assessing,
monitoring and supporting them with growth. A coach has to identify where coaching is needed
and the protégé has to set SMART goals in accomplishing their individual goals so that it is
aligned with the organization’s goals. Therefore, we can conclude by saying that, coaching is a
continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of an individual
by aligning their performance with the strategic goals of the organization.
19. Sources
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/17065092/7-Steps-to-Building-a-Coaching-Plan#scribd
(n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from
http://www.flexstudy.com/catalog/schpdf.cfm?coursenum=90052
Knowledge Center. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from
http://www.cpiworld.com/knowledge-center/white-papers/the-power-of-a-coaching-culture-
on-organizational-performance
The Key To Effective Coaching. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/28/coaching-talent-development-leadership-managing-
ccl.html
Learning Styles. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from
http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a2_learnstyles/pages/learningstyles.html
The benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from
http://www.mrtgroup.co.uk/pages/coaching/coaching-benefits
"Performance and Development." TD Employee. Web.
https://www.td.com/corporate-responsibility/crr-2010/employees/create-
opportunities/performance-and-development-index.jsp
"Mentoring and Networking." MTD Diversity Mentoring. Web.
https://www.td.com/corporate-responsibility/crr-2010/diversity/employee-diversity-and-
inclusion/mentoring-and-networking-index.jsp
DuBrin, Andrew J. Coaching and Mentoring Skills. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice
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