HR & Management News South Africa

Stepping Stones guides retrenched staff to expand career horizons

The retrenchment of staff need not be the end of their contribution to the economy. Even though so much experience and insight risks being lost when senior staff are pushed into early retirement or retrenchment, a pioneering new product from corporate talent management firm CR Squared will turn the tables.
Stepping Stones guides retrenched staff to expand career horizons

Through its ground-breaking e-coaching system, called Stepping Stones, experienced workers can be guided towards expanding their career horizons and maintaining their roles as productive members of the economic society.

"In the traditional corporate space, coaching only exists on the executive level, because it's so slow and so expensive. The volume of people, like the ordinary guys who work their socks off for their companies need the benefits of coaching to support them in a really tough environment," explains co-founder of CR Squared, Dr. Conor Hughes.

Need for human coaches is minimised

By using an extensive and intuitive system that operates freely through any Internet browser, Stepping Stones takes a user through the various stages of discovering and establishing their strengths, priorities and motivations.
Designed to accommodate the pace and demands of each individual, it minimises the need for human coaches. This saves on costs, whilst enabling the company to provide a broad spectrum of its departees the opportunity and illumination offered by coaches.

Stepping Stones makes use of interactive presentations, useful tools such as regular journal keeping, and proposing insightful questions. It was built to be an effective, engaging and insightful experience. Able to be deployed online or on a corporate intranet, it is the best way for a company to empower its outbound employees in the current hard economic realities.

Client sets the agenda

"We have a very clear idea of what will work when you don't have a coach sitting next to you," Dr. Hughes says. "As with traditional coaching, the client will always set the agenda, but e-coaching cannot follow that. So we incorporated the ideals of niche coaching, aiming to take the user through processes which would allow them to explore what they needed to explore."

Stepping Stones was visualised through a series of actual stones on a board, with each step representing modules that delve into the motivations, psychology and tangible elements of an employee's skills and drive. It then helps that person establish a route forward. Whatever the result, Stepping Stones offers an employer the means to enable outbound staff, encouraging both their well-being and the larger benefits to the economy.

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