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Workers around the U.S. are settling into an uncomfortable detente with bosses: They aren’t leaving their jobs like they were during the Great Resignation, but they’re not exactly thrilled to be there either.
The Great Detachment is upon us, but there are a few key tools that workplaces can use to win their workers back. And one of the most powerful is choosing and developing better managers to act as coaches to their direct reports.
Around 85% of HR workers say it will be crucial for business leaders to work on their coaching skills over the next few years, according to a recent analysis from DDI, a management consulting company, based on data from a 2023 survey of 1,826 HR professionals and 13,695 business leaders around the world. But around 40% of leaders say they don’t get enough coaching from their manager, and 31% of frontline leaders want more coaching than they’re currently getting.
“Coaching can mean a lot of things in terms of manager relationship. It can be coaching for performance, or can be coaching for improvement, [or] more critical feedback,” Stephanie Neal, director of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research, tells Fortune. “When we dug into this with leaders and asked them what they want,” she says, “it is really kind of a career guidance.”
But even though there seems to be a hunger for more coaching within the workplace, leaders are not that enthusiastic about getting it from their current manager—that method ranked near the bottom with 23% of leaders saying that’s where they wanted their coaching to come from, according to the analysis. By comparison, 56% of leaders said the same about instructor-led training, 54% said so about professional coaching and 31% said they would want coaching from their peers.
Companies with a strong coaching culture are 2.9 times more successful when it comes to engaging and retaining top talent, according to the report, and “high-potential employees,” defined as people at any level who are able and willing to grow quickly in a short period of time, are twice as likely to leave if they don’t feel like their manager is a good coach.
The data from DDI is in line with a recent Gallup report that found managers have a disproportionate impact over employees, and that training them how to become coaches rather than taskmasters was critical in improving employee engagement.
But how should executives and CHROs decide who to empower as a coach, and how can they make it happen? Get senior level support so that powerful people in the company can set an example to everyone else. Then make sure that all leaders get coaching skills, and encourage employees to make a plan to apply those coaching skills on the job, according to DDI. That could mean group sessions to share coaching experiences, or leaning into peer coaching. Then create accountability, and measure the effectiveness of your efforts on things like employee engagement and retention, or specific business outcomes like customer satisfaction.
“People that are both able to manage change and coach are becoming really critical assets for their organizations,” says Neal. “Even though we’re seeing people stay [in their jobs] now, we know that the talent pool is going to keep thinning out. And it’s going to be even more critical, of course, to retain people.”
Azure Gilman
azure.gilman@fortune.com
Today’s edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
As inflation settles to a more normal rate, Federal Reserve officials are pondering how to maintain a strong labor market—with many worrying things could take a turn for the worse. New York Times
Without widespread AI training and policies, employees are taking matters into their own hands by using new tech tools that aren’t workplace approved and even banned by their employers. Quartz
Family investment offices are arming themselves in the “war for talent” by offering greater equity stakes and benefits for employees. NBC News
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Slipping. U.S. job openings and hiring dropped slightly in June as the labor market has become slower now than before the pandemic. —Irina Ivanova, Paul Wiseman, AP
Equity advancement. The income gap between Black and white Gen X and millennials born into poor families has narrowed over the years due to greater employment mobility for Black workers. —Mike Schneider, AP
Authentic arguments. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says that a great way to “earn trust is being honest,” even if it means challenging peers or confronting your boss with difficult truths. —Orianna Rosa Royle