7 challenges to wide adoption of democratized coaching

Coaching in the workplace is valuable and has a very positive impact on business performance and employee engagement. This is also supported by employers that don't have coaching available currently.

The value of coaching transverses the talent lifecycle but is viewed as most effective when considered as a driver for career development. However, it also significantly supports inclusion, engagement, mobility, acquisition and retention.

The first challenge we encounter is around perceptions of what organizations offer. What is clear from our research is that employees are unaware of what is available to them. Employers claim to have coaching programs at levels higher than employees are experiencing. 

• Almost two-thirds of employers (64%) claim to have coaching in place at all levels of the organization. Singapore, US and UK are at the highest levels of coaching availability, with France and Australia at the lowest levels. 
• Less than 30% of the employees interviewed are part of a coaching program themselves, and just 20% believe coaching is available to all in their organization. 

The second challenge with coaching in modern business is that employees view it as being typically limited to the future leaders, new managers, and those in high-growth teams or roles. Unfortunately, this lack of inclusivity leaves others feeling left out. 

When asked to rank the availability of coaching in their organization, 38% of employees believe it is for those identified as future leaders, 33% for those in high-growth teams or roles, and 30% for new managers. For employers that eliminated an established coaching program, there was understandable negativity. Over a third of respondents would view this action as putting profit over people, with some 41% saying it would make them feel they alone were responsible for their career development.

One of the most startling findings of our global research has been some clear difference in the experience of and perceptions of coaching across the generations.

Expectations are high. Across all the employees we surveyed there are clearly widespread hopes that coaching becomes a benefit provided via their employers. But here there are clear differences between the generations. 

• There is clearly significant enthusiasm for employer-sponsored coaching among Generation Z (48% of respondents), Young Millennials (41%), and Older Millennials (50%). 
• This enthusiasm drops off among Generation X (38%) and Boomers (35%). 

Why the sharp drop in expectation among older sections of the workforce? This becomes easier to understand when workforce towards coaching is easier when looking at the hopes and expectations for career mobility. 

Expectations of a potential move – and progress – within the current organization diminish through the generations. 

• While 75% of Generation Z see such a move as at least probable, this figure falls sharply to 56% among Older Millennials and 50% for Generation X and as low as 40% for Baby Boomers. 

Businesses may assume that it is inevitable that experienced staff will have fewer opportunities or wish to pursue less career mobility as they get older. This is a dangerous assumption. Older segments of the workforce are more loyal, but our research shows they are not wholly prepared to settle for career inertia and are open to a coaching intervention.

• More than half of Older Millennials (54%) and Generation X (51%) are considering a move to another organization in the next 12 months.
• This is a significantly higher proportion than those usually depicted as more “restless” in their search for career development – Generation Z (32%) and Younger Millennials (46%).

There is hope, however, for the re-engagement and rescue of these sections of the workforce among enlightened employers through coaching interventions. 

Our employee research shows that among those without a coach, Older Millennials have the strongest positive take on what a coach could bring to their career. 

• Five in six (83%) of Older Millennials say it will be very or extremely valuable for them. 
• This compares favorably with threequarters (75%) for the sample as a whole, with approval ratings remarkably consistent among Generation X, Younger Millennials and Generation Z. 

In other words, the “democratization” of coaching across the generations will help all – and may help those at greatest risk of departure to stay. 

Organizations need to find an inclusive approach to coaching to retain and engage experienced employees and give them the hope of further career mobility, not the prospect of stagnation and decay. And employees need to realize the responsibility that coaching places on them for their own career development. 

There are other inclusionary challenges to the wider development of coaching as well. 

Our research reveals another concern inhibiting the wider development of coaching for all. There are stark differences between the perceived benefits of coaching between genders – and doubts over whether leaders are “looking out for” the development of men and women in an equitable manner. 

There are differences across genders over the benefits of coaching. Confidence is consistently seen as a top benefit for both men and women with coaches BUT there are some large perception gaps in other ways: 

• Men with coaches feel more prepared for their next role (47% vs 33% women), whereas 
• Women with coaches see being a good people leader as a core benefit (47% vs 43% men). 

Men are marginally (7%) more likely to either move to another organization entirely or to a new role within their current organization. Women are marginally more likely to pursue internal mobility routes but are more likely than men to stay put in their current organization and their current role. 

For those without coaches, there are more marked differences in perceptions across gender around what coaching could bring. Women see the top 3 benefits as feeling more: 

• Confident in their work (59% women vs 49% men), 
• Engaged (51% women vs 42% men), and 
• More prepared for the next position/role/ opportunity internally (47% women vs 35% men). 

Men with coaches view feeling prepared for the next role as a top benefit, whereas women with coaches are more likely to see being a good people leader as a top benefit. Therefore you can say men are viewing coaching as a way to help them move forward in their role to a much greater extent than women – coaching is not yet the career catalyst for women that it is for men. 

Under current coaching models, the research shows that more men than women feel supported by leadership in their organization when it comes to their career progression and performance. 

Men feel that their leadership: 

• Care about their career development (33% men vs 24% women). 
• Care about their daily performance in the job (29% v 22%). 
• Care about their personal well-being (27% vs 19%). 
• Helps them with interpersonal relationships at work (25% vs 19%). 
• Ensures they are focusing on skills which will help them in their careers (33% vs 21%). 

While the level of engagement with a coach is at similar levels across genders in terms of levels of satisfaction and perceived value, the intention to persist with coaching in the long term does differ. Men are more committed to coaching (64% definitely want to continue) than women (44% want the same). 

The way in which employers communicate the benefits of coaching must be tailored to encourage uptake and persistence with coaching among genders. 

Finally, all employees, regardless of gender, clearly want their current organization to provide them with the next step in their careers, rather than having to look outside and start again at another organization. 

• 88% of men who want to change roles want to do so at their current organization. 
• 85% of women feel the same way. 

These three inclusionary challenges around the perception of access, the career mobility of Older Millennials and the attitudes of women to coaching are all problems that can be solved by placing coaching at the center of any talent strategy.

Organizations have the chance to empower talent of all levels, ages, and gender, to make their life and work enjoyable and engaging. Coaching will play an increasingly crucial role in making this happen. 

There are other challenges to a greater spread of coaching. HR leaders say about 75% of employees are taking the opportunity to participate in a coaching program when offered. Therefore 25% do not.

Of the employees not taking part in a coaching program, a quarter also say that they have been coached in the past but have not continued, while almost as many (24%) seem unclear as to what is currently on offer. The lack of clarity is resolvable with better communications but is clearly a missed opportunity in communicating the benefits and value of coaching. 

The take-up challenge is costly for business. 

There must also be radical reform of the flexibility of coaching packages in 2022 and beyond if it is to be overcome. Old coaching models fail many employers, with most forced to subscribe to packages that are very costly if not fully utilized. Fears around take up are understandable and are part of the reason for our next challenge. 

Funding is a challenge to the expansion of coaching, among employees as well as employers.

Our research among employers certainly shows that funding to coaching is the barrier to a broader reach. They say that almost all of them would offer coaching to every employee if costs were not an issue. 

The problem is that costs are an issue... 

Among the employees we surveyed self-funding, in the absence of employer funding, was also an issue. 

Across different levels of talent: 

• Only 20% said that they’re working with a coach that is funded by their employer. 
• Another 9% are self-funding a coach, with Gen Z and Young Millennials more likely (19%) to pay their own way. 

If there were ways to make the funding of coaching more achievable and affordable, whoever is providing the funding, coaching would spread and its benefits would be wider. A concerning statistic is just how many people are self-funding coaching because of a negative experience when requesting coaching from an employer. 

• Over three-quarters (78%) of those who paid for coaching themselves had either been refused outright (45%) or had felt either ignored or dismissed by their employer. 

Finally, those self-funding a coach feel as though they have been left on their own in terms of career progress. 

A more positive attitude to such requests to fund coaching will be crucial in the future. Especially when you factor in the costs stated earlier in the report for re-hiring and replacing employees, and the significant time consideration and loss of productivity. 

The value of coaching is widely acknowledged by employers and employees surveyed in our research. But how does this return on investment show itself? There are certainly differences in the perception between those employers and employees who do and don't have coaching programs. 

The benefits seen are broadly similar among those who do have a coaching program, regardless of if you're an employer or employee.

Among those businesses that already have a coaching program, the benefits of coaching are perceived to be widespread. 

• 1st – Increasing engagement 
• 2nd – Building confidence for employees 
• 3rd – Promotes talent mobility 

And employees see the most important benefits as those that expand competency and develop them: 

• 1st – Building Confidence 
• 2nd – Growing their potential to be a good manager or leader 
• 3rd – Improved communications within their team

Among those without a coaching program in place, there are challenges, though all of them are solvable. 

Top 3 reasons for not having a coaching program are that: 

• 38% can’t define what they need in terms of learning and development – which suggests that the market needs further education on the needs for and value of coaching for it to be more widely understood and implemented. 
• 36% think that it is their employees that can’t see the benefit of coaching. We see this as a misplaced view, given all the evidence contained in this report, and it alludes to internal communication challenges within a business and not engaging the workforce in the benefits of a coaching program. 
• 36% say they have no bandwidth to lead or manage a coaching program. 

While this last point is understandable it raises the issue of internal versus external resourcing of coaching. 

Our employer research shows that of organizations with coaching programs already in place two-thirds (66%) claim to be using externally certified coaches to some degree. However there are variations depending on the size of the business, with organizations of 2,000-4,999 people typically more reliant on internal resources, such as in-house coaches and worryingly, 28% of talent surveyed said they had coaching from their direct line manager relationships.

Certified coaches are widely considered to do the best job, with external coaches that are certified achieving the highest overall score for their performance (100%). Enterprise level organizations consider internal coaching by direct line managers to be the least effective method, and smaller businesses (sub 1,000 employees) express great concern over internal leaders wishing to coach, validating the need for external certified coaching further. 

Among those who were not engaged in a coaching program, a common reason given by employees was an ongoing stigma around coaching: 

• Coaches are people within the company with whom they don’t feel comfortable sharing their thoughts openly (21%). 
• Feels like it means the employee is not doing well in their job, expressed by 28% of employees surveyed. 

Even through no fault of their own, it may be that it is difficult for line managers to disentangle themselves from these perceptions. It may be time for a fresh perspective on the value of external resourcing.