Team in the Spotlight: Learning coaches

There are a total of eight learning coaches on the team, who are located all around the world. From Mexico, go to Europe, Japan, and Australia. Today we would like to go over who learning coaches are and what their primary responsibilities are. Sophie Vervelghe, a learning coach from the Belgian office, will go through all of the information with you.

Q1:  What are the primary responsibilities of learning coaches inside Sofico?

"As learning coaches, we implement the onboarding process for new colleagues. We make sure that every starter gets the required training to grow in their role. We also coordinate with the coaches responsible for the operational support of the new hire, we create and monitor the training plan, and we are a point of contact for all training and coaching related issues or questions. 

The team of learning coaches works closely together to run the onboarding process for our new colleagues, for the people involved (e.g., coaches, trainers), and for Sofico as smoothly and efficiently as possible."

Q2:  Could you tell more about the process that every beginner goes through?

"Every new hire goes through an onboarding procedure that lasts roughly 6 months. Onboarding process includes job coaching by a job coach, a training plan (all the training they need to receive throughout the 6 months), and curriculum coaching in collaboration with a learning coach, so we can follow up on their training progress and any further training or coaching needs they may have. We also have feedback sessions included in the process."

Q3: How do you collaborate with other coaches? For example, with job coaches?

"We regularly align with the job coaches to support them in their role. Job coaches have mainly practice-related responsibilities. They train people from an operational perspective. We define the training plan (theoretical) in collaboration with the trainers, we register people for training and we monitor the training schedule of the starters in our LM system (learning management), where we maintain all training courses. We have a training plan for each individual. Each learning coach follows up on the starters in their own country. After three and six months, the job coach sits together with their coaches to share feedback on the past period and to define next steps. As learning coaches, we monitor this part of the process and provide support where needed during the preparation, the actual session and the post-processing. " 

Q4: Do you organize trainings in all countries where Sofico has an office?

"We try hard to organize trainings as effectively and efficiently as possible. We, for example, conduct trainings in Belgium or any other European office, which individuals from other Sofico offices may attend (either locally or remotely). Our trainings are mainly in practice in the European offices because of the time-zone difference with the Australian, Mexican and Japanese offices. For the trainings with only a trainer in Europe, we provide early morning or late afternoon sessions. "