How Coaching Helps Frontline Employees in Times of Uncertainty

Lisa is an order picker for a large e-commerce company in Phoenix, Arizona. Given all the economic uncertainty, she worries about her job security. She struggles with rising living costs and providing for her two kids while also helping out her brother, who has some health issues.

Her worry, stress, and busy life sometimes get her down. But Lisa knows she can always call her career coach for some support and reassurance when things are tough. In fact, everyone Lisa works with can book a call with a coach whenever they want from an app on their phones.

This is not a vision for the future; this is possible now. Flexible models of coaching provision now make it possible to extend coaching across your entire workforce.

Career Coaching for All

Coaching is no longer limited to a perk for high-potential, white-collar employees; it can be an essential part of your development and well-being offer for everyone.

Coaching has long been proven to deliver return on investment (ROI) wherever it’s deployed. However, it’s rarely offered to frontline employees like Lisa. The current uncertainty facing employees like her now makes it increasingly important to provide support, engagement, and motivation.

Gallup’s latest Life Evaluation Index shows that more employees (X percent) now classify themselves as “struggling” than during the pandemic (45 percent), and the percentage of those who are thriving is at an all-time low. Investors are now taking an interest in how organizations manage mental health and well-being for their workforce, too. One benchmark of more than 100 global organizations reports that 83 percent of them fall into the bottom two tiers for how they manage mental health at work.

Yet the payoff can be significant—research from Deloitte found that investment in supporting employees’ mental health delivers a 370 percent ROI. When you consider that the World Health Organization estimates that, globally, poor mental health costs $1 trillion per year in lost productivity, there is a substantial business benefit to addressing this issue.

L&D leaders can partner with colleagues in benefits to make coaching for all a valuable component of their company’s well-being and healthcare programs while also contributing to engagement and retention.

A New Model for Coaching

While offering coaching to employees—including those like Lisa—can bring numerous advantages, it’s essential to deliver it in the right way. Rather than purchasing a limited number of licenses and determining who gets to use coaching and when, it’s better to put that power in employees’ hands.

With employee-driven coaching programs, employees themselves not only decide if and when they want coaching, they can also choose from a selection of coaches and select the topics they want to discuss. This ensures that the sessions are a good use of their time, focused on the challenges most important to them, and completely confidential.

And since such programs can operate on a pay-per-session basis, you can ensure a targeted, efficient approach that delivers clear ROI.

Tailored Coaching, When Employees Need It Most

The reasons to connect with a coach are numerous. In Lisa’s case, it could be stressors outside work that are distracting her focus at work. Or it could be to support her in career advancement, skills development, and productivity. Whatever the case, a mobile app can take care of all the arrangements, so deskless employees can manage their coaching with ease.

To learn more about how you could benefit from an employee-driven coaching program—one that ensures even your frontline employees can benefit from access to coaching—request a demo. Or, if you’re at ATD 2025 in Washington, DC, drop by booth 2643 to see it in action.