By Erin Leach

When I meet my fellow Career Practitioners and describe my job as an e-Facilitator, the most frequent response is, “So you really never meet with your clients face-to-face? How does that work?” Two years ago, when I started my online client work, I had similar questions. In past Career Practitioning roles I enjoyed greeting my clients in person with a smile and a handshake. When a client was in my office, their body language and expression told me almost as much as their words. As a new e-Facilitator I wondered how I could build a strong relationship with clients if they didn’t see me. Would I be able to pick up on subtle clues to my client’s thoughts and feelings through our online interactions? Now that I have assisted close to 200 online clients with their career concerns, this way of connecting with people has become natural and just as satisfying as my past face-to-face work.

I am an e-Facilitator for an online program called Career e-Volutions. This Service Canada funded program is offered through Training Innovations in Burnaby, BC. In essence, Career e-Volutions is an online course designed to facilitate groups of up to 12 participants through the career decision-making process. Similar to face-to-face career planning workshops, clients participate in self-assessment, exploration of options, decision-making and action planning. The online course is the “classroom” where learning, activities, and communications occur. My role as an e-Facilitator is to engage in written and phone communication with participants, to assist them in making meaning of their individual career questions, and to encourage group interaction between participants. In this article, I will describe my typical workflow as e-Facilitator in this program and offer my view on how this medium can effectively be used for career practitioning.

Setting the Stage: Creating an Inviting Online Learning Space

My workday begins by logging into my Web-based online “classroom.” The Career e-Volutions program is housed in an online learning platform called e-Volve. It includes a number of different features for individual and group communications. I make my online presence felt through visible daily communications using these features. When clients log in, they will see a message space where I post quotes, reminders, events, and personalized messages. If there is something specific to do that day, I’ll make sure it is also posted on the group calendar. On my screen, I have a snapshot of each participant’s progress through the program, for example, when they were online, individual activities and communications recently submitted, and contributions to the group discussion forum. Throughout the course of a day, I will spend most of my time reading and writing responses to individual and group communications and in speaking to participants through scheduled telephone meetings. With these methods, I am able to stay connected with individuals on a daily basis. Far from being a passive process where clients rely on technology for career answers, the program design creates an active and reflective career exploration process.

Individual Connections through Writing

One of the main ways I communicate with participants is through individual written “messages” which we call reflection questions. At key points in the daily course content, participants answer one or two questions designed to elicit self-reflection and personalization of the career exploration process. For example, in the section on work values, participants are encouraged to note what they have discovered about their own work values and describe how their past work did or did not align with these values. Their completed message is submitted to me and I reply by the next working day. In my response, I acknowledge insights, clarify understanding, and encourage additional consideration through questions and comments. Having the ability to read and re-read a client message allows me to respond with more thought and skill than some spontaneous in-person interactions allow.

Counselling Skills

I use a variety of counselling skills in my responses: reflecting content and feeling, paraphrasing, clarifying and questioning just to name a few. I build a connection with participants through consistent responses that show I “hear” and understand. I often pick up feelings or unstated thoughts through choice of words and writing style. For the participant, capturing their thoughts and feelings in writing can help them make sense of the transition experience and facilitate insights or greater clarity. It also offers them the opportunity to return to the message for later reflection. The benefit of processing an experience through writing may be familiar to anyone who has written a journal or communicated his or her thoughts and views to another by e-mail. The insights that occur through writing reflections and reading e-Facilitator responses lead participants towards making an effective career decision.

Coaching by Telephone
Participants’ written communications are complemented by weekly telephone coaching calls. During this 30-minute telephone appointment, we talk about insights and progress in the program. Connecting by voice allows us to talk through areas of confusion and is a way for me to stay connected to verbal cues. Structuring these weekly check-ins also assists clients to maintain motivation. At least part of every workday includes making contact with past and present clients by phone.

Group Process
Since clients in Career e-Volutions participate with a cohort of up to 11 others, I also facilitate group communication. As is well known by any group facilitator, peer-to-peer learning and support is key during times of transition. During the week, I monitor and encourage discussion in a group discussion forum, and organize scheduled times for the group to connect using our program chat room tool or by telephone in a weekly teleconference.

Face-to-Face Teamwork

To balance online work, I find it valuable to take time for face-to-face interactions with my colleagues. Based out of our Burnaby office, our small project team collaborates to ensure participants are supported both in their technical experience and their career concerns. Through regular facilitation meetings, my fellow facilitators and I conference approaches to client work and share best practices.

Overall, being part of a new way of providing career decision-making assistance keeps my role as an e-Facilitator engaging. I feel especially privileged due to the trust clients show in sharing their challenges in writing and by phone. Despite the fact that we may never meet in person, participants gain clarity and successfully plan the next steps in their career. e-Facilitation is a new way to be a Career Practitioner, but merging technology with a strong human element feels right to me and is a flexible and innovative approach to help people choose their career path.

Erin Leach is Career Services Manager and e-Facilitator with Training Innovations Inc. in Burnaby, B.C. She has been with the Career e-Volutions program for two years, and recently became one of the first to achieve the designation BC Certified Career Development Practitioner.