Now, companies look to take coaching programmes to all employees

With new challenges emerging in the post-pandemic hybrid work environment, companies are taking coaching beyond corporate leaders to cover all employees. Corporate coaching is traditionally focused on leaders or future leaders.

But companies are now considering coaching employees with a focus not just on career, but also on helping them rebuild the lost connect and bond as they transition to hybrid or 100% office work environment after working remotely during the pandemic.

According to Aon, a professional services firm, until last year almost no company was looking at coaching beyond the leadership level. But in 2023, it is a different scene altogether with one in three coaching assignments also including junior and middle-management levels other than leadership, Aon director Anustup Chattopadhyay told ET. Companies are mostly opting for group coaching sessions instead of one-on-one sessions to drive more coverage.

"Collaboration at the individual level has suffered and people have become myopic in their view of what success means for them. Coaching across the board aims to create culture and purpose that drives stickiness, not just compensation," said Chattopadhyay. Companies like Bharat Serums and Vaccines, Tata Steel and Vedanta Group are either initiating or widening the coaching programmes for employees, their executives told ET.

Recently, Bharat Serums hired Paddy Upton, a sports psychologist and mental conditioning coach, to provide coaching to its 30 top executives. Upton has also coached the Indian cricket team when it lifted the world cup in 2011. He was also the mental conditioning coach of the Indian cricket team in the T20 World Cup 2022.

"While the programme was conducted for 30 senior executives, we continue to cascade it across the organisation in different meaningful ways, using a similar framework," said its chief HR officer, Nilesh Kulkarni. The company is now considering hiring external coaches for providing coaching to employees at all levels.

Tata Steel recently launched a programme, Internal Talent Marketplace, through which employees can choose the coaches/mentors as per their preference. "Having a career coach/mentor helps employees with necessary guidance at various junctures of their corporate career," said a company spokesperson. Vedanta Group is rolling out coaching programmes for employees this quarter, chief HR officer Madhu Srivastava told ET.

Currently, it runs coaching for high-potential employees, who have been in the company for a couple of years and are transitioning to mid-managerial roles. The main objective behind coaching is to make employees realise and achieve their full potential, said experts.

For others, coaching for now is largely exclusive to senior executives. In FY23, Bharti Airtel posted more than 1,500 coaching hours. "At Airtel, we firmly believe that 'leaders build leaders'. We take big and bold bets on our talent and invest extensively in training talent to be future-ready," said Amrita Padda, chief people officer, Airtel. The telecom company uses a mix of external and internal coaching for its leadership development strategy.

"We have been supporting employees with leadership coaching to help them steer career aligned to their goals," said Adarsh Mishra, CHRO, Panasonic Life Solutions India.