An essential discussion when establishing an internal coaching program revolves around ethics. The company Code of Ethics, HR ethics, and policies and procedures address current functions. Coaching ethics include very significant differences. Review all of these together and determine both policies and applicable ethical codes for a coaching program in advance.
Specifically:
- HR ethics focus on the company as the client and coaching ethics focus on the coachee as the client (the company is the sponsor).
- HR ethics address confidentiality from the perspective of all information being owned by the company and coaching ethics address confidentiality from the perspective of the information being controlled by the coach and coachee.
- HR ethics focus on serving the company as a whole while coaching ethics focus on serving the individual coachee.
While it may seem these are mutually exclusive in reality by virtue of the coaching program serving the coachee, the company benefits.
Examples of how this applies:
An employee has been identified as a high potential and is being groomed for a leadership role. The employee plans to stay with the company for another six months and leave. Whether this is discussed and what happens differs based on whether it is during an HR Meeting or during coaching.
The concern HR will have about the scenario is that if the company invests in opportunities for the high potential then others may miss out on that opportunity or the investment may be for naught.
In this specific example the company benefits because they will either:
Retain a high potential employee because they consider their options and decide they want to stay.
OR
Maintain a positive relationship with the high potential – who in turn may refer others to the company, return themselves in the future, or simply speak positively about the company and the opportunities.
OR
Maximize the value of the work the employee performs.
