The value of expert analysis and measurement in the coaching process 

In the last blog post, we discussed the importance of coaching and ensuring everyone is on the same page before starting the process. Once you start, it’s important to realise that triggering video is only the first step in the review process. Once a video is triggered, review by an expert analyst is a necessary step to verify and quantify the risk. 

With today’s buzzwords, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision, fleets are rushing to rely on data-driven technology to make life-saving decisions. Unfortunately, AI-driven analysis is not yet as effective or reliable as human review. Human review continues to provide verifiable results and actionable analysis. Expert review is essential to ensure the process is unbiased and all driver behaviours are measured similarly and consistently; it also ensures scoring and prioritisation of your riskiest drivers aligns to your company’s specific safety policies. 

Ultimately, expert review as part of a managed service programme eliminates the need to review and coach on every event, saving you time and enabling coaches to focus on the risky behaviours, drivers and sites. A managed service provides the information necessary for the prescribed coaching workflow, which ensures continual improvement and bottom-line results. 

A managed service programme supports your coaching efforts by providing the ability to coach thousands of drivers. How? By doing the ’heavy lifting’ of reviewing and prioritising events, so you can focus your efforts on coaching those drivers who need it most. In addition, the programme helps build rapport between coaches and drivers, helps you to recognise good driving skills, (in addition to those who need improvement), and provides performance measurement to gauge the success of your efforts. 

Three steps to coaching success 

As mentioned in the previous section, it’s imperative to follow a prescribed process to ensure that all drivers are coached – and measured – in a timely and unbiased manner. The three steps to coaching effectiveness are: 

1. Prepare – Preparing for each coaching session ensures that you know what you will discuss with each of your drivers, how you will present the information and what you expect from your driver. It also ensures a level of professionalism so that drivers realise the importance of the coaching sessions and will approach them in a similar manner. 
2. Coach –  The best way to start a coaching session is to show the driver his/her video and ask them what they see. Let them explain what occurred and then discuss the situation. This helps ensure the driver is aware of what occurred and why you are coaching on that occurrence. 
3. Summarise – It’s important to make notes of your coaching session. It’s easy to forget what was discussed and the agreed next steps to ensure safer driving. With appropriate notes, you can remind your driver should the behaviour continue and need further coaching. 

Measuring your coaching effectiveness    

Once you’ve begun coaching, it’s important to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. The key to driving your programme results are analytics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The three KPIs essential to manage your programme and ensure your focus is on the right person, at the right time, are safety score, percent of events coached and coaching impact on score. 

These KPIs enable your organisation to align top to bottom on performance metrics, understand ‘better or worse’ and focus on what needs improvement. This makes it straightforward and easy to operationalise – enabling your managers to actually save time because they are talking to the right drivers about the right skills that need improvement. 

The impact of this approach is that fleets often experience collision frequency reductions of 50% or greater in the first year of deployment. Plus they continue to see results in subsequent years because they have a standardised, consistent approach. 

To gain more insights into coaching, download the eBook, “Coach Your Drivers to Safety and Success” today! 

Next week, we’ll continue our discussion on analytics and look at tips to take your driver safety programme to the next level