Coaching in the Metaverse: Can Tech-Enabled Coaching Help Organizations Combat the Great Re-Evaluation?

In early 2021, workers started leaving their jobs in droves in what experts later called The Great Resignation. Leaders of organizations are tasked with identifying and addressing the source of discontent to maintain their much-needed talent. Coaching may well be the relief in which the pain of The Great Resignation comes, providing a vessel for insight and paths forward to employees and employers alike. But can virtual coaching – and, eventually, coaching in the metaverse – make a difference in retaining top talent?

There are myriad reasons why a person may be driven to seek other pastures professionally–and employers are finding these extend far beyond traditional “carrots” like rises and promotions. What’s more, workers are feeling less vulnerable in the marketplace.

“Younger people are less afraid of job loss. They are less afraid of not owning certain things–materialistic things, of having status. I think that is the trend,” Petra Blume, career transition and executive coach with LHH, said in an interview. “Companies need to really listen to their people.”

And what many people want, says Dana Maggi, career coach and owner of job counseling provider Career Pain Relief, is support and engagement.

Engagement in your work starts with really knowing yourself,” she says. “People recognize that they have more of an ability to influence their own level of satisfaction and contribution and they’re looking for support in how to do that effectively. How to navigate, how to transition, how to ensure their own mobility.

To that end, individualized career coaching is increasingly attractive to many employees and job seekers who are looking for a means to better understand what they want in terms of not just work, but their overall future, life, and well-being, which in many cases is more than their managers alone can provide. Employees—both young and mature, entry and executive level—want coaching.

Coaching across generations and career levels

The world of coaching isn’t the same as it was a few years ago.

Coaching has evolved,” says Maggi. “Years ago, it was always the executive levels that were provided this kind of individual support, but now it’s cascading down the organization. There’s a realization that people at every level can benefit. And people are calling for it, and they’re needing support in having to engage more effectively in their work, how to elevate engagement and retain their people.”

Younger people, she says, are particularly open to working with a coach.

“Many people of past generations felt they had to just figure it out,” she says. “Younger people are more comfortable looking for this support. There’s less expectation that they have all the answers. They’ve been coached their whole lives. They’re accustomed to asking for help, and demanding help and support.”

But, Maggi adds, it is definitely not only younger people who are calling out for this. “During the recession in 2008, there was such a push for people to do more, more, more with less, less, less, and there was a lot of fear about losing your job,” she says.

“People had to endure. And organizations never really let off when the economy improved. They got used to people doing a lot. And now, people are saying, you haven’t invested in my development. They’re saying, it’s my turn,” Maggi says.

A means of reorienting and taking control

Effective coaching often leads to finding resolution without an employee having to go elsewhere, according to Blume, who says many are simply reassessing their paths.

“People are taking more ownership over their own careers,” she explains. “They started questioning what they truly want from their work, and what they were missing. And they question the future, given all the changes in the world.”

Some companies, Blume says, are responding by starting programs on career mobility and coaching programs to actually help people put their careers into their own hands. “There’s room for more offerings, authentic ones,” she says. “We need to walk the talk. It’s time for a mindset change.” And, she adds, these programs need to be available more broadly. “Why not make coaching for everybody? Usually those we don’t offer it to are the ones that can benefit from it the most.”

Is the future of coaching the metaverse?

With more demand for coaching, technology, including the rich virtual world promised by the metaverse, can change how it is delivered. Both Maggi and Blume feel technology can only help in providing quality coaching to individuals at all levels of employment.

“Career coaching is actually better virtually,” Maggi says. “It’s so easy to share information; it’s just so much richer. You can go so much faster. It is a really effective way to provide coaching.”

And while some may feel virtual training puts a strain on forming the interpersonal bond that is so important to success coaching, Maggi feels there are real benefits. “It adds to anonymity. You are much more focused on the conversation rather than what’s going on around you,” Maggi says.

Blume agrees, saying her 100-percent-online programs “work beautifully,” adding that while “nothing will ever be able to take the place of a true human interaction,” in terms of coaching, technology is a very effective means of not only gaining insight, but finding the tools to help you apply it. “I believe that coaching without any technology is not meeting the latest requirements,” she says.

The Great Reevaluation can be a turning point, an opportunity to shed light on what employees really need to feel engaged and fulfilled at work, and to feel supported in their professional development goals. Coaching is one promising tool organizations can provide to help slow The Great Resignation and hold onto their valuable talent.