Category: Blog

World Metal Health Day took place earlier this month, themed around workplace mental health. Mindbeat’s partnerships director, Val Kessell, looks at the role of group coaching in fostering a supportive and empathetic work environment. 

In recent years, mental health has emerged as a central focus in workplace wellness. Poor mental health can affect productivity, engagement, and overall job satisfaction. So, fostering a culture that prioritises mental health is not just beneficial for employees, but for an organisation as a whole. 

Group coaching, in particular, is an effective tool to help both leaders and employees cultivate a supportive and empathetic work environment. According to the International Coaching Federation, group programmes can transform team dynamics, drive a positive workplace culture, and provide an ROI (return on investment) of up to seven times the cost. 

Understanding workplace mental health

Workplace mental health encompasses the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of employees. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave. When employees experience good mental health, they are more likely to handle work stress effectively, maintain positive relationships with colleagues, and contribute productively. Conversely, poor mental health can lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and absenteeism.

The modern workplace is fast-paced, competitive, and often stressful. This makes it crucial to create environments where mental health is openly discussed and actively supported. Yet, many employees, particularly target-orientated employees, may feel uncomfortable speaking about their mental health concerns due to a fear of being judged.

Group coaching provides a structured environment where employees and leaders can come together to build supportive relationships, improve communication skills, and address mental health concerns collaboratively. 

Unlike one-on-one coaching, group coaching involves small groups of individuals working through common challenges together. It encourages open dialogue, trust, and shared problem-solving, which are all vital components of a positive workplace culture.

Effective and empathetic communication

One of the primary benefits of group coaching is its focus on communication, both from leaders and between colleagues. Communication in the workplace is often task-oriented, leaving little room for emotional and empathetic interactions. Group online coaching sessions, however, emphasise the importance of both effective and empathetic communication, which is crucial for addressing mental health.

Leaders and employees alike are taught to listen actively, express understanding, and communicate in ways that promote emotional safety. For instance, instead of reacting to stress or conflict with frustration or impatience, leaders can learn to approach situations with empathy, asking open-ended questions and offering support where needed.

Empathetic communication encourages employees to voice their concerns without fear of judgment, helping to create an environment where mental health challenges can be addressed before they escalate. It also fosters mutual respect and understanding, both of which are key to building trust within teams.

Spotting signs of mental health issues

A crucial aspect of mental health awareness is learning how to recognise when a colleague may be struggling. Digital coaching can provide leaders and employees with the tools to spot early signs of mental health issues in themselves and others.

Some common signs include:

• Withdrawal from colleagues or a noticeable decrease in social interaction.
• Changes in work performance, such as a drop in productivity, missed deadlines, or increased absenteeism.
• Emotional changes, such as irritability, mood swings, or uncharacteristic behaviour.
• Physical symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, or frequent illness, may indicate stress or burnout.

Group coaching often focuses on raising awareness of these signs and discussing strategies for supporting a colleague in a non-invasive, respectful manner. 

Leaders are trained to approach the individual privately, offering help rather than making assumptions. Creating an open culture where employees know they are supported is crucial in managing workplace mental health effectively.

The benefits of group coaching for leaders

Leaders play a critical role in setting the tone for workplace culture. Through coaching, they can develop the emotional intelligence necessary to manage their teams more effectively. 

Group coaching helps leaders:

• Improve emotional regulation: Leaders learn how to manage their own emotions in stressful situations, preventing reactive behaviour that can negatively impact team morale.
• Develop active listening skills: By learning how to truly listen to employees’ concerns, leaders can address issues before they become larger problems.
• Foster inclusivity and trust: Leaders who are empathetic and supportive create an environment where employees feel valued and respected. This inclusivity strengthens team cohesion and fosters open communication.

Group coaching also encourages leaders to model vulnerability and self-care, which normalises the idea that everyone, including those in leadership roles, can experience mental health challenges. This can reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and encourage employees to seek help when needed.

Creating a positive and safe workplace culture

Group coaching fosters a workplace culture where mental health is valued and protected. This culture encourages open communication, reduces the stigma surrounding mental health, and provides employees with the tools they need to thrive. 

When both leaders and employees are equipped with the skills to communicate empathetically and address mental health proactively, it creates a workplace that feels safe, supportive, and conducive to both personal and professional growth.

Earlier this year, we announced AI-powered coaching to support Mindbeat’s global network. Here’s what we’ve learned so far from our trials. 

Recent studies on the application of Artificial Intelligence in psychology found that young adult cancer patients had reduced anxiety after using a positive CBT-based AI coach for four weeks, while college students could reduce their self-identified symptoms of depression. 

These findings suggest that although AI lacks true human empathy, positive outcomes are possible even in practices that have long relied on human intelligence and a strong human connection. 

We believe that this is also the case for leadership and professional development coaching, so Mindbeat has been conducting 12-week trials with our newly developed AI coaching tool. 

In theory, with clearly defined goals and explicit measures of success, an AI-powered coach can support human-to-human coaching by providing ‘always-on’ guidance and helping users to reflect and experiment with development pathways and learnings. 

To discover how it works in practice, one of our trials partnered with Operations & Supply in VELUX  – the Danish specialist in roof windows and skylights. 

VELUX had a specific goal-orientated challenge – how to empower its leaders to test and analyse what they learn via the organisation’s development framework across daily scenarios without fear of judgment. 

This is an ideal use case for an AI-powered coach. Each individual will have had a personalised strategy from a human coach, and they can use the AI to reaffirm pathways, prepare for everyday situations in which they can test the strategy, and reflect on results ‘in the moment’. 

Jon Holst-Christensen, VELUX’s Senior Director of HR Partnering Operations & Supply, took part in the trial. One of his tailored professional development goals, defined by the framework, was to develop his communication techniques in meetings for more effective results. 

“I was surprised by how much help the AI could offer,” he says. “I asked it for techniques I could use before a meeting, experimented with those techniques during the meeting, and was then pushed to reflect on my success directly afterwards. Real-time experimentation and reflection is a powerful development tool.

“The AI bridges the gap between knowing and doing so that applied learning can form a much greater part of the human-to-human coaching experience. The AI provides a safe space within which to test and analyse.”

As part of the VELUX trial, Mindbeat provided weekly learning nudges to guide users on how to write more effective prompts and get the most out of their ‘always on’ digital coach. 

“Experimenting with prompts is key to getting the most out of an AI coach,” Holst-Christensen continues. “For example, if you just ask it to ask you questions, you get inundated before it moves swiftly onto solutions. However, if you prompt it to ask singular questions, it goes deeper and takes its time to get to the solution path, which is more beneficial.”

One improvement that Holst-Christensen would like to see in future iterations of Mindbeat’s AI coach is for it to ask the user about the coaching process itself. For example, it could ask: ‘Is there anything you’d like done differently?’ or ‘Are we progressing in the right way?’. Responses could then teach the AI to adapt and evolve its coaching style. 

“I’d also love to be able to talk to it rather than provide written prompts. It would remove even more barriers to self-expression and make it feel more immediate, more human-to-human,” he says. “Its ability to summarise and recall your sessions was impressive, though. Human coaches may forget certain aspects, but the AI can quickly recap the most complex conversations over multiple sessions. In conjunction with human coaching, an AI-powered coach is a major added benefit, and I can’t wait to see how it develops.”

For more on the benefits of AI coaching, read our ‘Seven benefits of AI Coaching in achieving professional growth’ article, or to discuss participating in one of Mindbeat’s future AI coaching trials, drop us a line at [email protected] 

Mindbeat’s Partnerships Director, Simon Morris, says it’s time to move the conversation away from how coaching works to what programme building blocks make a real difference. 

Are you tired of reading articles extolling the virtues and benefits of coaching? Everyone knows that coaching works, it has been scientifically proven time and again. 

When the world was forced online due to the pandemic, not only was there an accelerated need to support leadership development with proven coaching in a digital environment, but there was also a growing demand to help all levels of employees adapt to changing workplace cultures and navigate what was, for many an incredibly challenging time. 

As a result, desktop and mobile-first coaching has democratised the provision of high-end programmes. At the same time, Artificial Intelligence has introduced neutrality and increased engagement due to the ‘always-on’ availability of AI support, which helps employees take greater control of their learning and development.

At Mindbeat, we believe it’s time to stop talking about how to deliver coaching at scale and the much-repeated psychology behind coaching’s proven success. Now is the time to explore the next evolution of digital coaching programmes and focus on the available building blocks required to drive individual and more client-centred success. 

Ultimately, for digital coaching to effect real and sustained change, the right blend of ingredients is needed, delivered within a structured programme. It’s no longer acceptable to expect unlimited coaching hours to produce the same impact as a tailored programme that uses one-to-one, group sessions, line manager engagement, AI support and associated content. 

For digital coaching programmes to continue to evolve, they need to be more blended, targeted and impactful. That’s why we work with clients to determine factors, such as how many sessions individual users need and what those sessions and support look like in a mobile-first world. 

A more sophisticated approach to developing a digital coaching programme includes:

Diagnostic and 360 Assessment 

Through assessment and diagnostics, employees can identify key strengths and the development areas they need to work on. 

Specialist Mentoring and Coaching

Digital coaches provide advice and one-to-one guidance to help employees work through development tasks and overcome challenges. 

Group Coaching 

Group coaching sessions allow users to talk about their challenges, test ideas and learn from other team members. 

Line Manager Engagement

Line managers play an important role by providing feedback, advice, encouragement and direction. Through their inclusion and engagement in group sessions, employees can build more trusted relationships with their line manager, and develop a deeper workplace connection. 

AI-powered Support and Advice

An always-on AI coach can ask questions, help users work towards set goals and suggest alternative approaches and solutions. 

Learning Tracks, Activities and Nudges

Tailored content can underpin and support employee learning and development throughout their digital coaching journey. 

Varying the above building blocks to get the perfect blend achieves more effective results. We see it all the time with our clients – our blended programmes deliver an average of 66% goal improvement, compared with an average of 34% with 1:1 coaching-only programmes.

A more sophisticated and blended approach to building tailored coaching programmes has a more dynamic and sustained impact on professional development and performance, empowering your organisation to produce stronger leaders, thriving teams and better businesses. 

Get in touch today to discuss building your sophisticated coaching programme.

At our recent Powering High Performance through Skills and AI webinar, Mindbeat’s CEO, Elisa Krantz interviewed Tanju Kapilashrami, Chief Strategy and Talent Officer at Standard Chartered Bank to learn more about her experience and understand some of the learnings from Standard Chartered’s journey from jobs to skills. 

Why are traditional job-centric models becoming obsolete and why do you think skill-centric approaches are the future?

For the last 140 years, work has been organised around jobs. It has been driven by a one-to-one relationship between workers and their roles. With the acceleration of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, how talent connects to their work and how organisations are set up doesn’t seem relevant anymore. 

A couple of years ago, we started talking about skills being the new currency of work and HR professionals being the custodians of skills, not jobs. What would happen if you deconstruct work and flow talent around skills rather than roles? What would be the impact on productivity or an individual’s career? 

There’s the obvious link here to productivity and performance within companies but it also impacts the increasing gap between education and employability.

Education institutions aren’t producing the skills required for the future of work. So what role should businesses play in bridging the skills gap? And, more importantly, what skills will we need for the future of work?

It will be a combination of technical and human-centric skills that will help us make the most of this fourth industrial revolution. 

How has a legacy organisation like Standard Chartered transitioned to become more skills-based?

We are a 160-year-old bank headquartered in the UK, with 100,000 employees across emerging markets. Our pivot to become more skills-based couldn’t start with a blank sheet of paper in a start-up environment. We’re a legacy organisation with a complex construct of roles and reporting lines. So we started with the idea of jobs. 

We analysed jobs that would disappear in three and five years, along with emerging roles created by shifts in technology and business models. Then we looked at those emerging roles and the likely skills needed to do them. 

We discovered it would be $45,000 cheaper to reskill someone into a future role instead of recruiting new talent. For the first time, it set an economic case for reskilling.

It led to our analysis of skills adjacencies where we proved that we already had 80% of the skills required for future jobs in the company, which meant we only had to invest in reskilling for the remaining 20%. 

During this process, we launched a talent marketplace where people with multiple skills could work on different gigs internally. The gigs are advertised and anyone with the required skills can volunteer their time to be part of a new, exciting piece of work. People who want to be part of exciting, purposeful work that will keep them relevant for the future of work are genuinely interested in participating. 

We now have a talent marketplace in 50 markets. There are 28,000 people, actively matching their skills to purposeful and impactful work and upskilling in areas they’d like to grow their careers in. It has led to Skills Academies and Standard Chartered hiring based on skills. But it has also changed the language of the company away from job descriptions and reliance on experience to future-facing skills and how to source those skills. 

When I meet CEOs I ask them: ‘How much coding skills do you have within your legacy business?’ They’ll answer by only telling me how many engineers they have. Most legacy businesses can’t tell you how much technology skills, coding skills, and data skills they have because the inventory has always been mapped based on jobs rather than available skills. 

The moment you start recognising the skills that individuals bring to the table, you’re able to unlock a huge amount of productivity. 

How do you measure the success of this skills-focused transition?

The success of the program is clear. We report in monetary terms every quarter on how much productivity we’ve unlocked in the company. We tell the stories of innovation, delivered by crowdsourcing skills for company-wide projects. Plus, we track internal deployment rates for future jobs versus hiring costs and high-performer attrition rates. 

I understand you’ve also now removed performance ratings at Standard Chartered

I’ve believed for many years that traditional performance ratings only manage the year-end bonus process and give senior management an excuse for why someone hasn’t hit their targets. Performance ratings don’t build high-performance cultures because they remove honest two-way conversations and relegate everyone to a score.

We want to build a culture of continuous feedback and learning. A skills-based organisation can’t grow without a deep learning culture, a strong sense of curiosity, and a two-way feedback process.   

It’s our third year without performance ratings. We know that where leaders are engaged in regular feedback conversations, where objectives are clear, and where people have access to real-time coaching, satisfaction with performance management has increased significantly. 

Many of the jobs of the future will require AI-based skills. What are your views on AI and its impact?

I see technology and AI-backed solutions as a massive opportunity to democratise, access and deliver at scale. What we’ve achieved with our talent marketplace wouldn’t have been possible without AI for example.

As machines get better at being machines, humans can get better at being humans. If you deploy technology well, you can augment humans to focus on the stuff that only humans can do. Everything else can be automated. 

Our poll asked for the biggest challenge of moving from a job-centric to a skills-powered organisation. Time and making this a priority above other priorities got almost half the vote. Do you agree?

Making it a priority over other priorities is critical. If you don’t take action now when the workforce is fundamentally changed in the future, it will be expensive and you’ll be less inclusive as ‘sunset’ jobs employ more women. Prioritising a skills-based future will overcome these issues. 

What have been your biggest learnings from Standard Chartered’s skills-based journey?

I have learned a lot about effective change management. That’s been my big upskilling. I grew up in a world where effective change management was writing good communications, so I’ve had to upskill myself on what good change management looks like.

It’s a real skill, and it’s a discipline. In large organisations, the amount of time, senior leader bandwidth and investment in change management needs to change.

Early on, we spent too much time trying to convert the hearts and minds of the most senior people in the business. But the people who drive real change are leaders deep into the company. They may be fairly junior but can harness the power of your workforce. The more you democratise conversations, the more you’ll find change agents and ambassadors at different levels who can lean in and support you in driving cultural change. 

To watch the full recording of Elisa’s interview with Tanju Kapilashrami, email [email protected]

The Malteese telecommunications provider, GO, recognises the unique challenges of balancing a career and motherhood, especially for first-time mothers. 

That’s why the company’s GO Academy and Wellbeing Team recently teamed up with Mindbeat and one of our specialist parental transition coaches to design a programme to empower and support the company’s new mums as they navigate their return to the workplace. 

Here’s what Giovanella, Business Specialist – Soho, shared about her coaching journey: “Having so much to catch up on upon my return, coaching was the last thing I needed to add to my plate. However, it turned out to be the complete opposite. Coaching is what helped me deal with what I had on my plate!”

A change in business strategy can often trigger redundancies. Mike Fletcher looks at how coaching can support both managers and those leaving an organisation and ease the transition process. 

Facing up to uncertain economic headwinds, many organisations are switching tack. 

According to a Mindheat survey of almost 200 companies across four sectors (IT, Financial Services, Pharma and Energy), fast-growing companies are swapping revenue and user growth at any cost, for higher expectations around profitability and long-term business sustainability. For many, this means consolidation and change. 

Handled well, change can produce the intended outcome of a more streamlined and profitable business. However, if handled poorly, change can cause long-lasting damage to workplace morale, trust, and a business’s bottom line.

The science underscores the negative consequences of badly handled change. For example, necessary redundancies can create ripple effects throughout an organisation. Productivity may decline and the risk of losing valued remaining colleagues increases. This resulting atmosphere of uncertainty and lowered morale can severely hinder an organisation’s ability to move forward effectively.

Investing in coaching support for managers tasked with communicating anticipated and real changes impacting roles is therefore crucial. 

Four ways coaching helps manage the transition process

1. It helps those managing the redundancy process to understand the likely concerns and questions that colleagues around them may have.
2. It ensures that their methods of communication are appropriate, uncomfortable conversations are handled sensitively, and difficult messages are delivered with empathy and clarity.
3. For those being made redundant, organisations have a duty of care to minimise any detrimental impact on employees’ self-worth, identity and well-being. 
4. ‘Outplacement’ or as we call it, ‘Career Transition’ helps people come to terms with what has happened. It helps them to understand their priorities (values, drivers, and responsibilities), and identify their desired future direction of travel and how best to move forward.

Coaching is fundamentally all about helping people through change. Career Transition is a coaching service Mindbeat provides for employees leaving a business due to organisational restructuring to help them prepare and transition into new roles with greater focus, confidence and success. 

It could be anything from career guidance and setting future goals to more practical approaches such as interview techniques, CV writing and how to build someone’s personal brand. 

Our coaches have deep experience in supporting individuals navigating organisational restructuring. They’re trained to provide a safe space for your people to come to terms with job loss and turn what can feel like a challenging and disempowering circumstance into an opportunity to refocus, own and activate new career transitions. 

This investment in development not only eases the immediate crisis but also demonstrates a level of respect and care by the organisation, which can go a long way in maintaining employee engagement, productivity, loyalty and trust in the organisation’s leadership going forward. 

When managers are given the right coaching tools to support everyone’s well-being during this stressful time, they are empowered to motivate and retain their remaining team members while giving departing colleagues every chance of future success. 

Get in touch today to discuss career transition coaching with Mindbeat, 

In today’s high-stakes talent landscape, the true competitive edge isn’t found in “hard” skills.

It lies in the often underestimated, so-called “soft” skills.

They’re not merely ‘soft’, these are the strategic “power” skills that are not the “nice-to-haves” but the “must” haves.

The skills that fuel innovation, drive forward momentum, and elevate a team from functional to exceptional.

These critical, human-centric attributes can’t be coded, but they define the game-changers.

The “soft” becomes even more relevant for leaders in an organisation, do you see them as optional or essential?

 

Skills have become the new currency of work. Companies are adopting learning and development strategies and evolving HR practices to get skills-ready. In advance of Mindbeat’s upcoming virtual event, Mike Fletcher looks at the skills economy. 

For the past 140 years, the world of work has been organised around jobs in functional hierarchies. This ‘job-centricity’ has been the main mechanism governing how talent is connected to the workplace, how work is deployed, and how organisations are structured. 

However, these comfortably familiar boxes have been disintegrating since before the pandemic. 

Today, remote working, economic volatility, accelerated digital transformation and the disruption caused by AI-powered automation have changed the workplace forever. 

A recent McKinsey Global Institute survey found that 87% of companies worldwide are already experiencing skill gaps or are expecting to within the next five years. This is likely to impact both productivity and competitiveness at a corporate and national level.

Leaders must ask themselves whether or not their employees are skilled enough to adapt to the future of work. And if they’re not, how will they acquire or develop the skill sets necessary to thrive in this fourth industrial age? 

Embracing this ‘skills economy’ is now business critical. Research from Deloitte shows that companies applying skills-based models to meet the demand for agility and equity are 107% more likely to place talent effectively, 52% more likely to innovate, and 57% more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively and efficiently.

It means placing individual skills – the skills organisations have and need, and their ability to acquire new ones – at the forefront of decision-making, while challenging the significance of traditional credentials and job titles. 

A skills-based approach to talent and professional development focuses on what people are capable of learning, rather than more arbitrary factors such as job roles, degrees and contracts. 

But how do you transition from a traditional job-based model to a skills-based organisation? 

On 30 May at 1 pm (BST), Mindbeat’s CEO, Elisa Krantz will host a virtual event where she’ll interview Tanju Kapilashrami, Chief Strategy and Talent Officer at Standard Chartered Bank to learn more about her experience and understand some of the learnings from Standard Chartered’s journey from jobs to skills. Tanju will also provide actionable advice for CHROs and HR leaders looking to build a skills-powered future. 

Until then, consider the three steps below.

To learn more, don’t forget to register for your place at our Powering High Performance through Skills and AI event by clicking the link at the end.

Step One: Develop a culture of learning and skills development

Tanju Kapilashrami talks about organisations being the custodians of skills. To achieve this, promote continuous learning and provide workplace opportunities for upskilling, reskilling and internal mobility.

Standard Chartered has achieved this by creating an internal gig economy where people who have projects that need doing can ask for help via an AI-powered marketplace. Anyone within the organisation can offer their skills and sign up for a gig as part of a reskilling journey or practical real-life experience. 

Step Two: Disrupt traditional notions of performance ratings and reviews

Standard Chartered has moved away from past performance being a predictor of someone’s potential. It now looks at learning agility and skills as the main predictor for future potential.

As employees acquire more skills, it makes them more employable and provides more opportunities to work in different areas of the banking organisation.

This results in higher levels of internal deployment versus external hiring, which in turn can save a company money. 

Step Three: Consider the changing future of skills

A recent study by LinkedIn found that requested skills for jobs have changed by 25% since 2015 and are expected to change by 50% over the next three years.

Over time, the skills your business needs, the combination of skills required in specific roles and individuals, and your employees’ interests will change.

Strategy and AI-powered technology investment to track shifting trends and re-align skill-set requirements over time is vital. 

To learn more from Tanju Kapilashrami, Chief Strategy and Talent Officer at Standard Chartered Bank, register today for Powering High Performance through Skills and AI. 

It’s more than shared targets, it’s shared moments and authentic recognition.

Five things high-performing teams do differently:

1️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: They talk—a lot. Replacing texts with conversations, ensuring that nuances don’t get lost in digital translation. 66% more phone calls than average teams.

2️⃣ 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: Every meeting has a mission. They’re 39% more likely to prep beforehand and 55% more likely to have a clear agenda. Efficiency isn’t an afterthought. It is their baseline.

3️⃣ 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀: These teams know that bonding over non-work topics is 25% more likely to cement relationships that go beyond the office walls. Coffee, anyone?

4️⃣ 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: They’re not shy with ‘thank you’s’. With 72% more appreciation received from colleagues and a whopping 79% more from managers, gratitude is their currency.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 5️⃣ : Vulnerability is not a liability but a strength. It’s all about being genuinely you. Authenticity isn’t just encouraged, it’s expected.

𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝗸: Does your team’s culture allow for a quick call to clear the air? Do meetings leave room for personal connection? Is saying “thank you” as habitual as morning coffee? Are members encouraged to be themselves, truly?