Case study: NatWest
How implementing a scalable coaching solution allowed NatWest to improve both employee engagement and team performance
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With employee retention often cited as one of the biggest challenges faced by business leaders, it’s not surprising that employee engagement is fast becoming a priority in many organisations.
So much so that an increasing number of businesses are now shifting towards an employee-first coaching culture, in order to keep employees motivated and delivering better performance outcomes.
The problem for larger organisations, particularly those with geographically dispersed teams, however, is that the logistics of rolling out company-wide coaching can be a significant challenge.
This was the case for NatWest who, despite already having a well established coaching culture, knew that they couldn’t provide coaching across the whole business by relying on human coaches alone.
It was at this point they decided to supplement this with a scalable and cost effective digital coaching solution.
Having identified their need for a more scalable coaching solution, NatWest decided to implement Saberr, initially into their Markets division, but with the intention of eventually rolling it out across the wider organisation.
The Saberr platform has specifically enabled NatWest to provide their employees with on-the-job training, while further helping to improve cross-team communication.
More specifically, Saberr has helped NatWest to:
Like in many global organisations, NatWest found that cultural differences between the various countries their teams operated in was impacting performance.
Saberr’s psychometric profiling feature has helped them tackle this problem, by enabling employees to get a far better understanding of each other’s personalities, values, strengths and working styles, in turn allowing them to develop better working relationships.
“Before using Saberr, I was unsure of the best way to start a dialogue with the team in India. Saberr opened that up and I have a far clearer dialogue with them. They understand how I work and I understand them. I find that really useful”. Senior Manager, ODC Management
What’s more, these profiles have enabled managers to get a deeper understanding of their team, giving them the insight needed to better leverage the strengths and drivers of both the individuals themselves and the team as a whole.
In addition to this, the organisation has been able to improve one-to-one communications between employees, by encouraging more meaningful conversations through the use of Saberr’s structured meeting templates.
One of NatWest’s objectives was to provide low touch, high impact coaching that wouldn’t distract from busy schedules.
As a result of the platform’s deep understanding of behavioural science, combined with machine learning, each user is prompted to view contextually relevant content, tips, routines and exercises at the moments they need it most.
By delivering tailored knowledge in the flow of work, employees no longer have to take time out from their busy schedules to attend in-person coaching sessions, with the added bonus that they are retaining the knowledge they gain through on-the-job learning.
Saberr has also helped NatWest to create an environment where people are encouraged to speak up, by facilitating conversations around agreed behaviours within teams.
“We are more accountable in our behaviours. We all feel more confident to call out when we are veering away from those agreed behaviours”. Team Lead, ODC Management
“There are lots of examples where people are behaving subtly differently. People are aware of where the niggles are and are hitting them head on. That’s really positive. But none of this gets fixed over a month or two months. After a year I’d expect it to fundamentally change”. Team Lead, Direct Management
One of NatWest’s priorities was to introduce a more cost-effective solution to coaching their employees, and by implementing Saberr they have benefited from significant cost-savings.
“Saberr offers a scalable coaching solution. 12 months of Saberr is around 70% cheaper than a single human facilitated team session”. Project Lead, NatWest
Despite only having used Saberr for six months, NatWest have already seen a significant improvement in not only how engaged and motivated their employees are, but also their functional performance.
So far, Saberr has specifically enabled a 12% increase in team performance, a 43% improvement in psychological safety and a 7% increase in team NPS.
Teams also reported being 54% more clear about their shared objectives.
“7 weeks to 2.5 months usage of Saberr led to more open dialogue, agreement of behaviour changes, alignment in purpose and building shared understanding of values. There are emerging signs of behavioural shifts. We will be rolling Saberr out to the wider business as a result of this pilot”. Project Lead, NatWest
