Employee development | Four ways you can make coaching more affordable for you and more accessible for your employees

The benefits of workplace coaching have been well established for the last couple of decades. But it’s usually seen as something reserved for executives or high potential groups. If money was no object, most organisations would make coaching more widely available to reap its performance benefits, but the cost has traditionally been prohibitive.

Now, new technology platforms and new pricing models are making it more affordable for organisations and more accessible for employees – here are four ways you can democratise coaching:

1. Automated coach matching and video profiles: Choosing an executive coach used to involve ‘chemistry meetings’ to confirm the basis of a coaching relationship. The administration of these meetings – and the time required from the coaches – all had a cost, which was usually passed onto the customer. A coaching platform can provide pre-recorded video profiles of coaches and a detailed automated matching process, thereby making this element of the process far more efficient.

2. Virtual coaching sessions of varying duration: Before the pandemic, conventional coaching often took place face-to-face with sessions lasting 60-90 minutes. Now we’ve all got much more agile and comfortable with virtual meetings. When you make coaching available on-demand, not everyone needs lengthy sessions. For example, if you want some coaching to prepare for a big presentation, it may only require 30-45 minutes to go over key messaging. And when a coach isn’t having to factor in travel time, that keeps the cost down and makes shorter sessions more feasible.