As a young Human Resources Specialist and Personal Coach, my views and approach in doing HR has always been challenged and questioned by the older generation. I believe in meritocracy, in feedback, in collaboration and above all, in coaching; which they do not quite understand what these are all about. Practising as a Human Resources Consultant in many organisations, the main issue that had to be dealt with was; employee motivation. Indeed over the years, this issue has been tackled in so many different ways; such as rewards, welfare and training; but today, these seem quite cliché and they are still not bringing the much-awaited changes. Instead young, capable professionals leave organisations at just 3 years of service as they find difficulties to cope with older generations. The new generation expects and needs what the firms cannot give; that is, collaboration with the hierarchy, valuable feedback, meritocracy, coaching and counseling.





In today's world of work employees are demanding more collaboration and better communication with their hierarchy. Rules and regulations are not what will make an employee engage, feel motivated to invest and make them go the extra mile for the company. Although the salary, bonuses and and welfare programs are there, employees' demands have shifted considerably. They need one-to-one meetings with their supervisors or managers in order to be heard. Nowadays constant fluent communication is needed more than ever, since life itself has become a rat-race; challenging and stressing. This has a direct impact on performance at work. Gradually employees need strong personal growth and development and need to feel that they exist as an individual in the organisation.


As Sandra explains, New Beginnings, provides what the industry needs, but many companies do not
fully understand the long term benefit of effective employee development. Many organisations in Mauritius are still focused on short term training programs rather than sustainable development programs. Some firms have good intentions and talk about coaching but do not always have knowledge on how to bring it into their learning objectives. Very often they confuse Coaching with one-on-one Training. The HR departments are still not budgeting for coaching as a sustainable development tool. They are budgeting for general training and team building which is unfortunately mainly about ticking boxes, such as presentations skills, ticked, leadership skills, ticked, time management, ticked; but there is actually no follow up after those training programs and is only a flash in pan!
In Mauritius, the focus is on primary technical skills and lesser on developmental skills therefore, a total waste of time and money. For example, training someone on Time Management, is very complex and requires a Manager to accompany his/sher subordinate on a specific time span. It is not simply sitting in a training session and learning about skills to manage time effectively. This is about attitude change. With Coaching and more specifically, Meta-Coaching, NB facilitates employees to understand their own values, beliefs and perceptions about ‘time’. Giving them an opportunity to change their thinking strategies to more resourceful ones. This talks directly to the cause and not to the symptoms.Managing your time is about your attitude; and attitude cannot be changed by skills based training. A more effective approach is needed in the sustainable development of the person's attitude.
Moreover, there is a huge gap between generations due to misunderstandings, and inability to provide what the other needs and this is becoming worse. The new generation have different needs and expectations from their employers therefore companies should focus on creating more meaning in their job, if they want to get higher performance. There are many organisations in Mauritius who are still operating with colonial structures and attitudes which prevents them from creating true and passionate engagement from their employees. There is eventually high turnaround, a frustrated young generation and the big issue of older ones holding main posts for decades, who have lost the enthusiasm and passion for working and are simply waiting for their pension time. This not only hinders the young professionals with potential, to work on their career and move up, but this de-motivates them and leaves them feeling discouraged. This is dangerous for the future of the country. And to make things worse, the two generations are not talking to each other and organisations will continue to struggle in spending money on new recruits each and every time.


Sensitizing Organisations and Executives on the importance of Coaching and Development is an ongoing task but passionate and dedicated teams like New Beginnings are here to keep educating companies about the benefits of investing in sustainable people development. Today, NB has certified 25 Meta-Coaches ready to help companies to inspire and motivate their workforce. There are some companies who are now understanding the real meaning of coaching and are shifting from ineffective training programs to sustainable coaching and development programs. Coaching makes you understand ownership to its fuller. Ownership of your own happiness in your life and at work. 

What is powerful with coaching in the workplace is, feedback. Everybody loves giving feedback
behind the back of the person and waste time in writing anonymous letters, gossiping and this creates tension. Real quality feedback is given, face to face with conversational intelligence. Knowing how to speak about different issues with your employee. Quality feedback builds trust, is helpful and is a gift that you give to each other. If feedback is given with a telling, yelling and selling approach, people become defensive and things deteriorate.



Management avoids coaching with employees because issues are dealt with face to face. Management's time is already so much taken up with a dozen of meetings a day that they find coaching meetings futile and unnecessary. But what is ignored is that, this coaching is of utmost importance for the healthy growth and development of the organisation. Not only does it help in reaching departmental goals and objectives, it contributes to achieving the Corporate Vision and Mission.

Unfortunately, coaching is still crawling in Mauritius as its potential is being underestimated. Investing in a 30 minutes one-to-one meeting with a reportee on a weekly basis, helps in strengthening relationships, creating collaboration, achieving objectives better and understanding each other's needs. 





Mrs. Viljoen is the founder and creator of the New Beginnings (NB) Brand and Products that specializes in people Development, Customized Training and Professional Coaching. Operating in South Africa with large corporate companies since 2003, NB was established in Mauritius in 2011. Instead of training with strings attached, NB coaches with ‘wings’ attached, that is adopting a ‘fresh look’ at training, coaching and developing people to help them meet the ever changing needs of companies in the 21st Century, by fousing on People, Passion and Emotions. The main products are, Executive Coaching, Meta-Coaching, Team Coaching, Team Building, Business Consulting, Leaderip Development Program. She is a passionate and ambitious woman who believes in hardwork and love for her job.



“I recently heard something from one of my amazing clients who truly understands the value of developing people. (Alan Goder, GM of Swan) Knowing how much we share this passion, he told me this lovely joke the other day: