Transforming the professional development landscape through blended support
Coaching platforms are at the forefront of blending personal and professional development, combining coaching with training and mental health support for holistic growth.
Challenge:
Organizations are looking for partners to handle diverse development needs, including skills-building and well-being
Opportunity:
Digital tools like AI and online libraries help coaches offer tailored services that complement 1:1 coaching
Impact:
Blended development can strengthen coaching outcomes by supporting client growth in multiple areas
Wisdom Weavers
The partnership between coaching platforms and organizational clients is transforming professional development
Organizations worldwide face continued technological disruption, a growing global skills gap, and record levels of employee stress. To address employee well-being and urgent upskilling needs, organizations are increasing their investments in Human Resources (HR) to fund training programs, coaching, and employee counseling services. These trends run parallel to recent growth in the coaching industry, with a 54% increase in the number of coaching practitioners since 2019, according to the International Coaching Federation (ICF) 2023 Global Coaching Survey.
Amidst this growth, digital coaching platforms have gained a major foothold in the market, leveraging technology to offer competitively priced, flexible, personalized, and measurable coaching practices. One of their defining features is the ability to customize services for organizational clients. This customization can extend to tailoring coaching programs to support organizational goals, providing services in specific time zones and languages, or offering a blend of traditional coaching with pre-recorded coaching libraries to alter cost. A study by the Human Capital Institute (HCI) and ICF revealed that 82% of HR and Learning and Development (L&D) leaders favored coaching platforms, citing benefits such as virtual delivery, coach matching, impact measurements, and the ability to scale coaching services throughout an organization.
Technology helps scale coaching services
The way organizations adopt technology is also transforming platform services. Wisdom Weaver and coach tech expert Anke Paulick shares that coaching platforms are integrating their services with existing learning management software or business productivity tools. For instance, both BetterUp and EZRA deliver a variety of coaching services through Microsoft Viva, while other coaching tools like Coach Vici can deliver coach-like conversations through channels like Microsoft Teams and Slack. These integrations make it easier for platforms to scale and supplement coaching services throughout an organization. Anke adds that the real value is integrating coaching with existing L&D priorities for professional development. As a result of this integration, Anke predicts “an increased number of mixed offerings beyond pure coaching, such as one-on-one coaching sessions that turn into training opportunities. I see more hybrid or combined offerings with training, coaching, and other development activities, including a link between coaching and constant change programs.”
While the ICF reports that 93% of coaches already offer other services like consulting (59%) and training (58%), coaching platforms are blending directive and non-directive development modalities in response to changing client needs. This transition may be a natural evolution in coaching services as coaching is scaled beyond upper management and addresses changing client personas.
Coaching platforms are integrating training and skills development into their coaching strategy
With the predominant goal of “democratizing coaching,” each coaching platform takes a slightly different approach to tailoring services for different types of clients. Organizations that contract with platforms to train managers, for example, might have different priorities than an organization aiming to establish a coaching culture that provides universal coaching access for every employee. As the coaching marketplace evolves, differentiation also helps platforms remain competitive by focusing their efforts on specific needs.
Tailored coaching services for different client types
For platforms, client personalization shapes how coaching is delivered, evaluated, and supplemented with additional services. Wisdom Weaver Rosie Evans-Krimme, Director of the Innovation Lab and Behavioral Science at CoachHub, emphasizes the significance of customization. She explains, “We’re currently looking into the right constellations for different coaching modalities, different groups, executives, middle managers, or high-potential employees.” This approach involves close collaboration with leaders in HR and L&D to strategically apply coaching that aligns with the organization’s talent development goals. To address emerging workforce needs, CoachHub has programs to strengthen employee resilience and adaptability, skills-building, and leadership development.
Coaches and AI support learning and development
Another platform, EZRA, maps out coaching concentration areas to support organizational Diversity and Inclusion programs, change management, and well-being strategies. In addition to one-on-one coaching, EZRA recently launched an initiative to integrate coaching with other professional development like skills-building and learning. Reporting on the reception and development of programs at EZRA, Wisdom Weaver Professor Jonathan Passmore, a psychologist and leading global coaching researcher, shares that partnership with organizational clients helps EZRA’s research team measure organizational outcomes like retention, productivity, and engagement while also exploring new measures for organizational impact. Jonathan highlights, “EZRA’s pioneering development of Focus, a blend of learning, coaching, and AI learning nudge, has been well received, and we are collaborating with a range of partners on impact evaluations.”
Blended development programs like EZRA Focus use human-AI hybrid development to apply behavioral science research to client training while maximizing coaching time with a human coach. At the same time, coaches benefit from insights generated by EZRA’s AI assistant Cai to understand client progress better. This approach allows EZRA to combine professional development modalities without blurring the lines between coaching and training.
Growing workforce stress and burnout are shifting coaches to consider holistic well-being
As leaders work to address employee stress and burnout, they are also turning to coaches to address mental health. BetterUp, the largest digital coaching platform, champions well-being coaching as a driver of business performance. Behind this strategy to support well-being through coaching, BetterUp employs an extensive team of psychologists and other behavioral health professionals. Dr. Jacinta Jiménez, a psychologist and VP of Coaching Innovation at BetterUp, underscores that workforce readiness and performance can be proactively boosted through employee well-being. She explains, “At BetterUp, we started our Care offering to help people prevent or get out of languishing. Being able to see coaching as a mechanism for preventative care, they can get intervention from coaching that helps develop skills, strengthen resilience, and adopt new mindsets and behaviors that help them go from languishing to thriving.” By supporting individuals in cultivating their own resilience and readiness, the larger the impact there is on overall organizational performance. As organizations strive to integrate new technologies while strengthening human capacity, coaches can play an active role in supporting thriving at every level.
“Coaching has expanded ̶ and it can be for everyone from front-line managers to emerging leaders to senior leaders, and it can benefit anyone who wants to grow. Platforms are allowing coaches to reach more people, and they allow for very personalized experiences at scale. Coaching can address those core skill sets necessary to thrive in our new world of work.”
To prepare for the future of work, digital coaching leaders are reshaping the future of coaching
Looking to the future, Jacinta believes coaching can be a powerful tool to support holistic development, with digital coaching acting as a catalyst for change. By blending coaching, training, and well-being support, coaching platforms are creating a new approach to development that combines directive and non-directive strategies. The result is holistic development that enhances human resilience and creativity while fostering the skills of the future.
The transition to blended development approaches, while useful for new hires and employee skills development, can also help clients outside of organizational contexts. With a growing number of freelancers participating in the gig economy, blended support serves gig-workers who might otherwise be excluded from L&D strategy. Other potential beneficiaries include entrepreneurs, young professionals, and individuals who are returning to the workforce after an extended break.
Platforms are leading innovation in coaching research and practice
The integration of training, wellness, and coaching represents a consumer-driven shift in the coaching industry. Whereas coaching professional bodies often draw distinct boundaries between coaching and other development approaches, platforms can cater to new audiences of potential clients through blended support. Simultaneously, coaching platforms are sponsoring research to understand the effect of coaching on learning, training, and well-being outcomes.
As platform-based coaching and development programs expand, it’s reasonable to examine how coaching practice might also evolve in other sectors of the industry. While coaching is traditionally seen as a non-directive practice, coaching conversations rely on critical skills needed for the transition to Industry 5.0 and the future of work. Coaches are uniquely equipped to share coaching approaches to strengthen client soft-skills development. Other applications of blended support might include niche coaching practices where coaches who are formally trained in other professions can combine their expertise to serve clients in new ways.
A Call to Action for Coaches
Changing client needs and emerging technologies are transforming the delivery and application of coaching services. Coaching platforms provide a unique opportunity to combine coaching services with behavioral health support, training, and other development modalities. These platforms can also employ experts in behavioral health and training to connect coaching practice with research in other helping fields. Through this blended development approach, coaching becomes a catalyst for growth and well-being without compelling coaches to blur the lines between non-directive and directive support. Simultaneously, coaches from diverse professional backgrounds have new opportunities to complement their coaching practice with more directive services.
How can you harness the power of coaching to drive holistic human development when you collaborate with other developmental approaches?
We invite you to explore how coaching can enhance holistic human development when combined with other developmental approaches. Among coaching researchers, more work can be done to examine the effect of coaching’s impact on education, learning, training, and well-being. Collaborating with researchers in behavioral health, adult education, neuroscience, and other helping fields can unlock the full potential of coaching to transform lives positively.
Learn more about how coaches are supporting blended personal and professional development:
- Read an ICF Thought Leadership Institute Spotlight on Neha Sangwan: Coaching and intergenerational mentorship program prepares Gen-Z leaders for the future
- Check out the Institute of Coaching Consortium for Human Centered Leadership
- Explore insights from the Society of Human Resources Management on the relationship between coaching and soft skills development
- Hear perspectives from coaching researchers Charmaine Roche and Jonathan Passmore on how coaches can support inclusive corporate cultures.
- Learn about the impact of coaching in educational environments in Coaching in Education edited by Christian Van Nieuwerburgh
Plus, explore related themes from the ICF Thought Leadership Collection on the Future of Education:
