The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the coaching model embraced in Frito Lay Company. Frito Lay was founded way back in 1961 through a merging process between the Frito Company by C.E. Doolin and H.W. Lay & Company by Herman W. Lay, which resulted in Frito Lay (Rogers, 2012). It is best known in the United States for making savory dishes like Fritos, smart food popcorn, Grandma’s cookies, Cracker Jack candy-coated popcorn, Funyuns onion flavored rings and various chips prepared with the composition of Olestra, a fat substitute. Frito-Lay America is owned by the popular company PepsiCo, and its operations in the U.S as well as Canada account for more than 20 percent of the sales of soda manufacturers. The company’s success lies in its commitments to make available quality products under some of the world’s best brand names and alongside that is performance with purpose.
Managing Coaching Approach
In any given organization, irrespective of the kind of work done, it must have a managerial team or department, starting from front line managers, to the middle level and the top level management. A manager may not directly generate whatever it is an organization makes but may facilitate and organize team productivity, paving way for others to succeed with minimum obstacles. Among the many responsibilities given to a manager is coaching which involves laying out the general strategies of the company to the employees who will run the business while the coach steps out of the way (Rogers, 2012). Coaching can be defined as a way of creating and maintaining a partnership between the manager and employees in to sustain a shared understanding regarding the issues that need to be achieved in the company and the manner in which both the company and the employees will benefit from the method used. Frito Lay Company uses the managing coaching approach in its human resource department. This model identifies situations when managing is required and when coaching is necessary. It is the responsibility of the manager to coach and manage when needed. The model has a seven step process which must be followed by the coaching manager for it to be effective.
The first step is tracking down the team’s productivity using the staff portal in the company. This will help in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of individual employee and where to put more emphasis while passing information. One will be able to know who is performing best and who needs more help (Crane & Patrick, 2012). The second step is ensuring that all members of the team have a good productive working environment. This is done by avoiding micromanaging while having open discussions or sharing resources. There should be equal distribution of company resources to all members and fair remunerations. The employees should be given chances to show how they can improve their productivity which gives them a sense of belonging in the company.
The third step is providing consequential feedback that has suggestions on how to improve (Brannon & Mickolus, 2013). While coaching, it is beneficial to provide growth ideas to the employees. This includes provision of on-job training opportunities and the company paying employees who opt to further their studies. The fourth step is setting reasonable goals for the team. This should be arrived at after accessing the individual performance of each member. The goals should be realistic and benefits both the employee and the company. The next step creating a positive bond with each employee, this can be achieved by respecting their decisions and contributions towards the growth of the company. The coach should act as a mentor who is aiding them to achieve their goals in manner positive to both parties (Rogers, 2012).
This is followed by supporting the group when they need any help. This is done by helping them maintain a reasonable work-life balance without feeling being used by the company in negative way. There should a sign of loyalty between the employer and the employee. The final step in the model is praising the employees liberally. Since employees want to feel respected part of the company, it is nice to appreciate them regularly, even when there is need to correct an individual, it is better to start by discussing the positive aspects of their performance before embarking on the negative side.
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The identified coaching model has improved performance management activities in Frito Lay Company. It has provided a sense of direction to both the human resource department and the employee. It has expressed the departments’ goals and values which facilitates the planning stage of the performance management. It also ensures that the employees remain focused and understand their priorities enabling them to see the link between their performance and the departments overall achievements. This model has led to improved performance of the company since the coach is tasked with the responsibility of creating learning environment where employees are supported in their efforts to improve their productivity. With continuous individual improvement, it adds up general improvement to the company at large (Wilson, 2011).
Coaching has led to the opening of new possibilities in the company. Miller (2013) argues that through coaching, employees are encouraged to solve problems and be good decision makers, these eventually leads to innovativeness and creation of new ideas that open new possibilities. The model has served as a resource for removing obstacles in the company since through the coaching, employees are encouraged to think of ways they can improve their performance. This strategy worked well with most of them hence reducing the employee turnover in the company.
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Best practices are intended to craft a standard method for achieving an objective or realizing a particular result. Couching best practices are the methods and techniques established and modeled by an organization or institution that have been proofed to be effective and practical when applied to a given coaching activities and contexts. While coaching, the managers should ensure that they are guiding by the best practices to achieve the expected results. One of the recommended best practices to Frito Lay Company is that of the coach-centered relationship. In this practice, there is a close relationship between the coach and the employee which ensures positive interaction and influence on the person to improve one’s performance (Wilson, 2011). This practice needs the coach to remain focused on the employees’ needs and goals which requires measurable objectives and action steps to be built in the coaching process. Helping an employee achieve the desired goals will lead to overall improvements in the company as well.
The next best practice is effective approaches to coaching. Couches have different ways of approaching the employees, but the best effective method in Frito Lay is approaching couching with a focus on personal growth and leadership (Miller, 2013). With these, the employees will be able to realize their areas of weaknesses and come up with ways of solving the problem. These will lead to increase in their performance since they will be able to correct positively what was causing the low performances.
The other best practice is the contextual issues at hand. It is very clear that a couch can’t couch an empty space or a classroom without students, there must be a specific reason for the coaching. Considering Frito Lay, the couch must survey the rising issues and demands about the company, the organizational cultures, the general performances of each member in the team and direct insights from the employees (Brannon & Mickolus, 2013). With these inquiries, it will be very easy to handle the couching process. These will create a link between the employees’ goals and demands with that of those of the company, optimizing the performances of both parties since the employees will know what is required of them by the company.
Team work in an organization ensures sharing of ideas and knowledge hence making work easier and improved performances. There are many best practices that would maximize team based performances in Frito Lay. The first one is the models, tools and the techniques used in the company, and not necessarily for coaching purposes only but for the general uses in the company (Miller, 2013). For example, the use of the portal for knowledge management, which so far is the single point of access to multiple information sources and offers personalized access in the company. This portal serves as the central location for the sales department for all the corporate information as well as sales-related clients and reduces the time taken for finding and sharing research; it also contains the profiles of all the members in the corporation. The main goals for the portal are to share knowledge, to utilize customer specific information and to promote team collaboration. This practice enables the sales department to work as a team and at the same get to know how to handle their customers better hence making the company always marketable and competitive.
Getting the support of other employees as part of a coaching initiative promotes team based performances in the company. For example, involving the corporate executives, who know that the best practices and corporate information would offer employees ideas to improve their skills and performances in the couching programs. This not only promotes interactions between the management and non-management team, but also facilitates sharing of ideas and knowledge (Rogers, 2012). This shows a quantifiable perspective to the employee and gets the opportunity to gauge if the company is developing, especially in the eyes of the corporate executives.
Relationship building is a practice that must be present for a company to achieve its desired goals. Coaching must promote good relationships between the management and the non-management team and all the departments must be able to communicate with a common language. The language is the goal and visions of the company. This practice can be promoted by organizing frequent meetings between the relevant parties, or company social gatherings or parties where employees are able to interact with each other and learn about the developments in different departments (Crane & Patrick, 2012). It promotes the company’s performance in a manner that the interdepartmental interactions will open a room for internal competition since each department would want to perform best than the other leading to improved productivity in the company.
Practices that are results oriented would have challenges in a company but the benefits are more than the negative effects. Apart from encouraging individual performances, couching should emphasize on overall positive results (Miller, 2013). For example, few lazy individuals in the sales department might show a negative image to the corporate team about the department. Couching practices that are results oriented ensures that all members in the team work towards a common goal, which promotes team work and at the same time achieving the desired goals.
The final practice is creativity and innovativeness. This comes into practice after evaluating the company’s and the employees’ needs, and finding solutions for the problem by being creative. Using the innovation of the Customer Community Portal at Frito Lay Company as an example, it was invented after the company experienced many challenges that affected its operations (Rogers, 2012). It has helped promote a sense of solidarity and relationship building, for example staff can share best practices concerning their areas of expertise. People in the sales department can access the latest news regarding their customers and make any necessary changes or implementations. It has also helped the managers know the skills of their subordinates since everyone is required to catalogue their skills strengths and weaknesses. The portal has helped boost employee retention since most of the employees especially the sales team, felt pressurized when trying to access information about their clients or even communicating with the rest of the team.
In conclusion, this paper evaluated the coaching model embraced in Frito Lay Company. Coaching is considered an important tool in a company’s performance management practice. In any given organization, irrespective of the kind of work done, there must be a managerial team or department, starting from front line managers, to the middle level and the top level management. It should be guided by the coaching best practices in order to attain maximum results.
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