We’ve all seen corporate mentorship programs that start with the best of intentions but stall out with busy calendars and other priorities. Informal mentoring is nice, but strategic workplace coaching is what actually moves the needle on retention and skill development. To drive real business impact, coaches and mentees need a solid framework.
3 Ways to Match Coaches and Employees
To get a measurable return on your coaching program, you need to match pairs based on the intent of the engagement. Depending on your current organizational goals, your matching strategy should generally fall into one of three buckets:
1) Competency/Skills Matching
This is the most direct way to close skills gaps. Instead of matching people by department, you match an employee’s specific skill deficit with an expert.
The Example: Imagine Amy, a high-performing Senior Software Engineer who was recently promoted to Team Lead. Her technical skills are outstanding, but her 360-reviews show she is struggling with stakeholder management and cross-functional communication. Instead of pairing her with a more senior engineer, HR pairs her with Marcus, a Director of Product Management known for his exceptional ability to align difficult stakeholders.
Tip: Go beyond self-reported skills. Use recent performance data, 1on1 notes, or self-assessments to pinpoint the one critical skill gap the employee needs to close right now.
2) Break Down Silos
If your company is working in silos and not communicating effectively, you can use coaching to build empathy and drive internal mobility.
The example: David is a high-performing Account Executive in Sales who wants to transition into Product Marketing at some point. HR pairs him with a Product Marketing Manager. David learns how GTM and product positioning works, and the coach gets real-time insights from sales.
Tip: This style of coaching is a great retention tool for employees looking for lateral career progression. It allows them to explore alternative career paths internally instead of leaving the company to try something new.
3) Reverse Coaching
Coaching doesn't always have to flow from executive to junior employee. "Reverse mentoring" pairs senior executives with younger or frontline employees to give a new perspective.
The example: Your VP of Operations has been at the company for 11 years but feels disconnected from the customer voice. HR pairs them with a Customer Support Specialist who has been with the company for a year. The VP gains deep visibility into voice of the customer along with any daily operational bottlenecks, and the specialist gets access to an executive. A win-win!
Use Bridge to Create Coaching Programs
Bridge is a unified LMS, skills and performance platform that can connect people with workplace coaches. Here's how:
Skills communities: Since Bridge is a centralized hub for performance management, skills tracking, and career pathing, it already knows your employees' skill gaps and career aspirations. Bridge makes it seamless to identify who holds specific proficiencies, and employees can get matched with internal coaches best equipped to help them grow.
Linked to the LMS: If a coach identifies a technical gap during a session, they can recommend learning tracks, courses, and resources directly from the integrated LMS. Bonus: Bridge can recommend learning based on someone's job title.
Shared agendas make it more productive: Pre-built 1on1 agendas move the coaching meetings into action versus high-level chats.
To see more, take a two-minute self-guided demo of our performance management software.
