OCM Coaching and Supervision CPD event, 11 July, Oxford
Offering coaching through an internal coaching cadre has presented a number of challenges to TJX, including providing a sufficiently high level of challenge to leaders, maintaining commitment, as well as reassuring employees that the coaching will be confidential, said Jake Thomson, HR business partner for TJX Europe.
“There is a high level of challenge required for internal coaches to work with senior members of staff – we’re really having to work at that,” said Thomson.
“We talk about everyone being a pupil and a teacher and how everyone at every level should be humble and curious enough to learn…Even if the coach is coaching someone who is hierarchically two levels senior or more, the reality is that they can bring something in terms of challenge and support.”
The US$25 billion international off-price fashion retailer, the parent company of TKMaxx and HomeSense, started working with the OCM 18 months ago to create an internal coaching resource “to create a pool of inner resources to bridge the talent gap and accelerate the talent pipeline”.
Coaching is seen as one of the ways the company will reach its US$40 billion target in a market that is saturated in the US and Canada, he said. “But coaching needs to become more embedded if we’re going to realise our US$40 billion vision.”
He said that “trust and credibility are at the heart of it.
“When working with senior people, what do we bring to the party and how do we show up in a way that senior people feel open to engage with?… We’re aiming for the point where our senior managers are ambassadors and replicate the (coaching) behaviours. As we have more coaches, we hope that will happen.”
TJX continues to grow its internal coaching cadre, accrediting its coaches, who all come from the HR function, to European Mentoring and Coaching Council standards through the OCM.
It also works with a small number of high-calibre external coaches, getting internal and external coaches together regularly.
Other challenges include selling coaching in other countries, such as Germany, where TJX has been operating for 12 years.
In Germany there is more reticence around engaging with coaching, noted Thomson.
Coaching at Work, Volume 8, Issue 5