Skip to content

Why having an in-house coach is our biggest employee benefit

3 mins read

At Digital 22, we have a benefits package to be proud of. 

Above-average pension contribution. Paid for car parking. Access to free after-work activities like pool, table football, games consoles and weekly five-a-side matches. Free booze and free breakfast (depending on the time of day). All-expenses-paid visits to Boston. Early finish Fridays. A state of the art coffee machine. The list goes on. 

Still, none of these make the cut as our favourite employee benefit. Hands-down, our In-house Coach and Wellbeing Director is our greatest agency asset. Read on to find out why. 

 

Communicating in a safe, non-judgmental space

Whether we have problems at work or personal issues affecting our performance, it often feels uncomfortable to express our emotions to others, especially if we feel they may have a strong opinion or a vested interest. 

Sometimes, we need someone else to talk to. 

For most workplaces, there's no one impartial on the books, leaving us to mull over our thoughts until we can blurt them out to family, friends and loved ones come 5pm. 

By then, we may have blown a small work problem out of proportion and become more upset or angry than the situation called for. All while having a complete and utter admin nightmare thanks to a dip in motivation, with a stacked inbox and an overflowing to-do list to prove it. 

This is one of many reasons we have an in-house coach. 

Sara Byrne is our Coaching and Wellbeing Director at Digital 22. Sara provides fortnightly coaching sessions for any individual that wants to take part in coaching. She also hosts regular workshops, writes short guides for our internal team, films explainer videos and produces the Digital 22 podcast, The Power of You (as shown below).

 

First and foremost, the option to speak to a third-party keeps our employees happy and stops problems from ballooning into bigger issues. Yet, it also stops productivity slumps and work from piling up, in turn, keeping everyone else in the office sane. 

Speaking to an impartial individual―and doing it sooner rather than later—helps us verbalise, organise and come to terms with our feelings, either justifying our position or giving us a new perspective.

A coach will never tell us how to feel, congratulating us when we’re right or condemning us when we’re wrong. Instead, a coach provides a safe space for us to make that judgement, free from other opinions or unnecessary pressure. 

D22 Blog Quotes (1)-1

 

Exploring opportunities for career development

To take advantage of coaching sessions, there doesn't need to be anything “wrong” at work. 

We can—and should—engage in coaching when we’re feeling good. 

This is when real progress can happen, with no bad air or blockers standing in our way. As a fast-growing agency, we encourage people to engage in coaching sessions to explore their opportunities for development across our newly formed Canadian office and our well-established UK headquarters.

Coaches facilitate growth as much as they do repair. 

In fact, the process of healing past trauma is more commonly referred to as therapy. Coaching, on the other hand, is firmly focused on the future. 

Although the final destination is up to you—you might be gunning for department head, after a more modest promotion or hoping to simply see an improvement in your existing role—coaches will give you the tools to take you there. 

From practical methods like creating vision boards and affirmations to more subtle behavioural changes, coaches will work with you to expand your skillset. 

Yet, you can’t step into a coaching session and expect an immediate pay rise (or else, let’s face it, we’d all be doing it). As someone receiving coaching, you must also hold up your end of the deal and put in the work outside of the sessions. 

That said, coaching plays a huge role in readying you for change and refocusing your mind. 

D22 Blog Quotes@2x

 

Tapping into tools and resources 

Sometimes we have the right attitude and approach towards a goal but none of the tools to take us there. 

As a company, there’s nothing more frustrating than an innovative idea and enthusiastic attitude that goes to waste just because of an obstacle to execution. It makes our team members unhappy, unfulfilled and it also stops us, as a business, from moving forward. 

A huge part of our company culture is about learning and sharing, growing your skills as a marketer while helping others to do the same. 

Also read: 8 free tools to make you a better inbound marketer

We can only really drive this core company value if we give people obvious opportunities to do so. 

Yes, line managers and senior staff can help to develop team members through training, KPI reviews, 1-2-1’s and their own informal coaching sessions. Yet, an in-house coach adds another layer of support, in the form of somebody that’s always available to help. 

When a line manager is busy, in a meeting or away from the office, an in-house coach can step in. Plus, they can review your performance with a fresh pair of eyes, perhaps offering new insight you can take back to your team. 

D22 Blog Quotes (2)-1

 

Driving growth through group workshops 

For the most part, coaching is a personal service that gives you privacy, direction and clarity—away from all other distractions. 

However, a company coach will often find opportunities to train a team together, helping them to build better relationships and ways of working. Some common workshop topics focus on building clearer communication, confidence in the workspace or clarity. 

One of our favourite workshops, still often referenced by our coworkers, was a session on vision boards where the team got to work cutting, sticking and glueing ideas to form a visual representation of their ideal future. 

Maybe we enjoyed the throwback to simpler, primary school times or maybe, vision boards and coaching really do work in helping us to feel empowered and excited about what’s next. 

Social post of wellbeing workshop during WFH

As a completely office-based team, we hold workshops in our breakout space (a fancy way to say canteen). 

During the pandemic, we’ve also held workshops virtually—over a platform like Zoom—and felt it important to do so during a time where team members are more prone to feeling isolated. 

 

Our in-house coach is just one of our many employee benefits

Despite being known for hosting regular feasts that would give Harry Potter’s Great Hall a run for its money, always having a fridge stacked with locally-brewed beers and being the number one workplace for extracurricular activities like karaoke and table football (a title we’ve admittedly just made up), our in-house coach is the thing we believe to be our biggest benefit. 

Do you agree? 

Explore our current vacancies to see a list of our latest jobs. If you see something you like, scroll further down the page to see what else we offer on top of your salary.