The Latest on Peer Coaching

How to Foster Human Connection in a Hybrid Workplace

Aug 24th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

As hybrid work is quickly becoming the new norm, it poses big risks: disconnection, loneliness and employee dissatisfaction.

Smiley Poswolsky, bestselling author and world-renowned speaker on belonging in a hybrid workforce, has uncovered some key factors to how leaders can support their people in this challenging new age of work.

Join a conversation between Smiley Poswolsky and Imperative's CEO Aaron Hurst, where they'll discuss how to tackle the increasing issues emerging from the hybrid workplace. As the foremost millennial workplace expert, Smiley has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, TIME and NPR. During the webinar on August 24th, Smiley will share actionable takeaways for how to create a culture of belonging and purpose at any organization.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Understanding of the current loneliness crisis in the workplace
  
• Insight into new factors affecting employee loneliness and disconnection
  
• Actionable ideas for how to build belonging and increase authentic connection at your organization

MIT on the Surprising Role of Peer Coaching Driving DE&I Success

July 22nd, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Traditional diversity and inclusion initiatives simply don’t work, new research from MIT and accomplished researcher Rob Cross clearly outlines. 

MIT recently published Rob Cross’ findings in partnership with Kevin Oakes and i4Cp, based on analysis of over 20 years of data, showing that an employees' internal network is the key to realizing inclusion.

Join a conversation between Rob Cross and Imperative's Aaron Hurst, where they'll discuss the research behind internal networks and how to create and sustain the type of networks needed to create inclusive cultures that last, while supporting employees to be more fulfilled, productive, and have longer tenure. 

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Understanding of how traditional diversity and inclusion training falls short
  
• Insight into the type of internal networks needed to create sustainable and authentic inclusion 
  
• Actionable ideas for how to create and sustain these types of networks at your organization

Manager Coaching Networks at Three Leading Employers

May 25th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Hear directly from managers at Hasbro, Tripadvisor and Boston Scientific about how peer coaching has unlocked increased collaboration, belonging and leadership growth.
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Managers face increasingly complex challenges as the workplace and world changes. Given the outsized impact of managers on organizations, it is an imperative for every company to develop and support them.  Leading companies like Hasbro, Boston Scientific and Tripadvisor have turned to peer coaching as the key way to give their managers the critical support they need.
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In this webinar, you’ll get to hear directly from managers at Hasbro, Boston Scientific and Tripadvisor about their experience using Imperative’s video-based employee engagement platform. They’ll share insights into why this has worked where other solutions have failed, along with powerful stories of how this tool has unlocked increased collaboration, belonging and leadership growth.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into what managers actually look for and value in a support tools
• Actionable ideas for how to build manager networks at your organization
• Understanding of how manager networks create sustained behavior change and growth and build a culture of belonging

How Hasbro Builds Manager Networks with Peer Coaching

April 27th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Hasbro has been widely recognized as one of the most innovative, creative and socially responsible companies for over 100 years.  As the workplace continues to evolve, the Hasbro leadership team began to reimagine their employee experience to continue to be an employer of choice for the brightest creative talent in the world. Their goal was to take something great and build something even better, while adding back the sense of community that’s been missing in this heavily virtual world.

Melissa Henderson, VP of HR, is leading the employee experience transformation, by using peers to support each other and increase the sense of connection and community.  Join a conversation co-hosted by The Learning Forum, where Melissa and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst will discuss how she is creating new manager networks which allow Hasbro to connect and empower their people—humanizing an increasingly remote workforce.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into how an innovative HR leader is courageously transforming how Hasbro supports their managers
• Actionable ideas for how to build manager networks at your organization
• Understanding of how manager networks create sustained behavior change and growth and build a culture of belonging

How Accolade is Creating A Coaching Culture

March 30th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Accolade is a fast-growing private healthcare company, recognized as one of the nation’s 25 most promising companies by Forbes magazine. To sustain their success and growth, Accolade’s leadership team set out to create a coaching culture that activated and maintained behavior change, while deepening leadership practices.
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Join a conversation between Accolade’s CHRO, Britt Provost, and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst, about how they are using peer coaching to create a coaching culture. By leveraging peers, rather than just paid coaches, they are making coaching truly accessible to everyone and building coaching skills into the day-to-day flow of work. In this conversation, they will explore how peer coaching is driving learning and growth, where traditional learning and development models failed.
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After this webinar, you’ll walk away with:

• Insight into how innovative HR leaders are embracing the new model of learning & development
• Actionable ideas for how to scale a coaching culture at your organization
• Understanding of how peer coaching compares to other forms of coaching

How Griffith Foods Boosted Employee Ownership Through Peer Coaching

February 24th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Griffith Foods, global food manufacturer, has been committed to purpose since the day it was founded, over a century ago.

With all the change and stress 2020 brought, Brian Griffith (Executive Chairman) and Todd Mansfield (VP of HR for North America) knew it was critical to increase employee ownership and fulfillment. They turned to peer coaching as a tool that solved for that by connecting employee's individual purpose to the company’s purpose.

Join a conversation between Brian Griffith, Todd Mansfield and Imperative's Aaron Hurst (author of The Purpose Economy) about how they used peer coaching to help employees discover, activate, and connect to their purpose, which created ongoing support and increased ownership.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight from HR leaders on how to boost employee ownership
• Statistics and stories from real employees about the effects of peer coaching
• Actionable ideas for how to increase fulfillment among employees
• Understanding of how to activate purpose at scale

How Zillow Builds Community Among Managers with Peer Coaching

January 14th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Zillow is known for their culture of innovation and Corina Kolbe, VP of Learning and Development, wanted to bring that same innovation to how they support their managers who suddenly found themselves managing remote teams in 2020.

Corina and her team were looking for a way to build community among their managers, and increase how many managers they were able to support. Join a conversation between Corina Kolbe and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst, about how she used peer coaching to create a scalable, agile and on-going program that was in the flow of work and connected to each employee's sense of purpose.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight from an HR leader on how to approach building manager community
• Statistics and stories from real employees about the effects of peer coaching
• Actionable ideas for how to increase manager community at your company

How Boston Scientific Is Scaling Inclusion Across the Business Through Manager-to-Manager Coaching

December 8th, 2020 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Like many companies this year, Boston Scientific made inclusion an imperative for their teams while at the same time adjusting to the realities of employees working from home. Each would be a challenge in a normal year, but Kari Murphy, HR Director of Global Manufacturing, saw an opportunity to innovate.

Join a conversation between Kari Murphy and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst, about how she used the power of meaningful conversations to restore human connection and increase empathy in their culture. Despite being apprehensive about employee interest with her highly technical teams, she found that when given the chance to help each other, people rise to the occasion.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into how innovative HR leaders are addressing the unique challenges of 2020
• Actionable ideas for how to scale inclusion at your organization
• Knowledge of the latest research on scaling inclusion in a distributed and work from home environment

The 3 Drivers of Strong Relationships at Work with Author Shasta Nelson

November 10th, 2020 at 9am PT/12pm ET

From wellbeing to inclusion to innovation to working from home to productivity to happiness, it all comes back to relationships. When we have strong relationships we thrive and when we don't we struggle. In her new book, The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time, Shasta Nelson, the leading expert on friendship and healthy relationships distills the research down to three core drivers. In this webinar, she will share the drivers and research behind them in engaging conversation with Imperative's CEO, Aaron Hurst.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Knowledge of the latest research regarding relationships in the workplace
• Insight into how specifically employees AND employers benefit from good relationships in the workplace
• Deep understanding of the three drivers of a strong relationship
• Actionable ideas for how to create and build meaningful relationships at work

Peer Coaching Research: The Key to Employee Fulfillment Starts with Something You Already Have

October 13th, 2020

This summer, we engaged thousands of employees and tracked their productivity and fulfillment. What we learned was powerful and truly a bright spot in this challenging year.

In this webinar, Aaron Hurst, the foremost expert on the science of purpose and fulfillment at work and CEO/co-founder of Imperative, will share the results and key take-aways of 20+ beta clients who participated in Imperative's video-based, 1:1 peer coaching conversations with their internal peers. The results should be fascinating for any people leader: the solution to navigating the complexity of work today is already inside your company.

Zeryn Sarpangal, Chief Financial and People Officer from Code for America, will join and share the results her company has seen with peer coaching on Imperative.

How Employers can Stem the Costly Great Resignation: Build Employee Fulfillment Through Peer Coaching

Nov 22, 2021

The ‘great resignation’ is growing. About 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September, comprising 3% of the workforce -- the most ever recorded. Even if some seasonal hiring ends up stemming the tide, the big picture remains clear: workers are looking for something new.

Nasdaq: Why Businesses Need New Networks to Recover Post-Pandemic

May 5, 2021

Research shows that the more people network internally at a company, the more likely they are to stay. They need help in getting the process started and organized. As businesses look to create a new normal, be sure to keep this need front and center. The stronger the bonds between people, the stronger the organization.

MIT: Developing Future-Ready Skills With Peer Coaching

March 10, 2021

To avoid mass long-term unemployment, we must prioritize and pour efforts into preparing workers for the jobs of the future. Increasingly, these are the kinds of jobs that focus on uniquely human skills that current technologies cannot simulate — things like empathy, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. Increasing such skills not only helps workers but also has real business implications: Human skills make companies stronger.

Money Doesn’t Fuel Innovation and Transformation. Relationships Do.

February 9, 2021

As businesses look to “build back better” in keeping with calls by the new Biden administration and the United Nations, chief executives have made clear what their biggest concerns are for 2021. In a survey by The Conference Board, CEOs in the United States and around the world said digital transformation and innovation top their list of internal challenges. Following up closely behind is the need to control costs.

How Zillow and others are reimagining the role of managers

February 5, 2021

The role managers play in organizations was already undergoing a transformation even before the events of 2020 brought profound change to daily operations. “Many of us grew up with this mental model of what a manager is from our parents, which was, ‘Oh, they just give the orders,’ ” Corina Kolbe, vice president of learning and development at Zillow, said in a recent webinar with me. “Now, you’re a mentor, you’re a coach, you have to set vision and strategy and give feedback. There’s just so many things for managers to do, and that’s complex.”

CLO: Unleash the Power of Peer Coaching

December 7, 2020

With many organizations stretched thin, finding the time and resources for L&D is a tough task. It doesn’t have to be. One of the most powerful tools to help staff gain new skills is already inside our organizations and vastly underutilized: the power of peers.

ATD: Tap Into the Benefits of Peer Coaching

December 2, 2020

Building employee's skills as long been a top business concern, and recent events have made it even more urgent. According to McKinsey & Company, "To emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, companies should start reskilling their workforces now."

World Economic Forum: Want to build skills and inclusivity? It's all about peer power

September 30, 2020

This year has brought to a head two of the most crucial issues facing businesses worldwide. Firstly, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the skills gap. In order to recover and rebuild after record losses and unemployment, businesses need to reskill and upskill their staff. Skills such as adaptability, agility, communications and more are at the top of the list of needs, in addition to some technical skills that can help companies boost their operations with a newly remote workforce.

MIT: Newly Remote Workers Need Peer Coaching

April 20, 2020

While there are tremendous benefits to remote work, there are also challenges — particularly for those who count on the routine and social atmosphere of an office or work site. As Susan Ashford, professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and her coauthors stated in their literature review of nonstandard work, many scholars and researchers “have documented the feelings of isolation experienced by teleworkers” and have found that the experience can lead to “significantly more negative emotions such as loneliness, irritability, worry, and guilt.”

HR People + Strategy Blog: The Aftermath of 9/11 and the Financial Crisis Predict The Post-Pandemic Workplace

May 13, 2020

Crises reshape the workplace. They spark a shift in how people think about their jobs, their organizations and their desire to contribute to the world. As an entrepreneur starting and running organizations during the last two global crises, I have seen that along with all the pain comes an opportunity to advance progress, moving towards a more human workplace.

Newsweek: Here is Why Laying Off Your Employees During COVID-19 Can Hurt Your Company in the Long Run

April 29, 2020

There's no doubt that some types of businesses have no choice but to let many employees go. But others are rushing to take such steps. Case in point: Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and a $4.8 billion portfolio including casinos, laid off 45,000 people. "You're doing the people a favor if you get them furloughed first, because you have them first to (the) unemployment line after the severance that you give them," he said. "It's a trick that I've learned many years ago." (Furloughs are temporary layoffs, although there's no guarantee that they'll be brought back to work.)

Human Resource Executive: How Peer Coaching Helps Your Employees Find Purpose

May 1, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a slew of unprecedented challenges for HR teams: determining which employees are expected to work where and when; ensuring workers have what they need to get their jobs done securely from home; handling layoffs and personnel changes; ensuring healthcare coverage; and much more. One of the biggest and most important is helping workers focus on business-critical tasks even as they’re caring for sick loved ones and ensuring their children get educated via remote schooling.

Glassdoor: Burnout Is On The Rise. Here's What All Employers Can Do Without Sacrificing Productivity

June 10, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is having widespread effects on people's mental health, with stress on the rise. A survey has found that it's contributing to a spike in burnout, and costing employers. About a quarter of workers are experiencing burnout as a result of the pandemic, while another 19% are feeling burnout for other reasons, the study by Eagle Hill Consulting found.

TLNT: The Best Way to Develop Interpersonal Skills Is Not the Usual Way

July 24, 2020

In trying to provide the kind of leadership employees need right now, many businesses are struggling. Executives are aware that people need to feel supported and heard through the tumultuousness of COVID-19 and the protests against the killings of Black people by police. They know that workplace cultures must provide empathy and psychological safety. But that’s much easier said than done. In many cases, past efforts to do this have failed altogether, or had only partial success, despite best intentions.

The Definitive Manager-to-Manager Coaching Guide

In this guide, we explore innovative ways to support managers, solving the critical issues that traditional development programs can't.

The fresh approach of manager-to-manager coaching has given companies like Zillow and Boston Scientific immediate results. It is driving behavior change, creating coaching cultures and making sure every manager has the support and development they deserve.

In The Manager-to-Manager Coaching Guide, we'll cover:

• Where traditional manager development falls short
• The key differences between peer coaching & mentorship
• The ways manager-to-manager coaching harnesses the power of peers
• Insight and real-life examples from innovative HR leaders
• Compelling results from Zillow’s current manager-to-manager program

Snapshot: Building a Coaching Culture

Employers increasingly seek to build coaching cultures, where everyone is skilled at bringing out the best in each other. In a coaching culture, the core skills of a professional coach are developed in every employee.

In this quick read, learn how leading companies like Zillow, Boston Scientific, and Accolade are leveraging peers, rather than paid coaches, to make coaching truly accessible to everyone and incorporate building coaching skills into the day-to-day flow of work.
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We'll cover:

• The benefits of coaching culture
• How peer coaching on Imperative enables employees to begin coaching with no formal training
  
• The ease of launch and scaling across large organizations

Snapshot: Building Manager Capability with Peer Coaching

As the role of management becomes increasingly complex and challenging, companies are finding that traditional manager development programs are falling short.

In this quick read, learn how to empower managers to lean on each other for support and to develop skills. They're able to get the benefits of coaching at a fraction of the cost, while building life-long relationships inside the company.
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We'll cover:

• Why traditional manager development programs fall short
• How peer coaching harnesses the power of peers to support each other
  
• The critical management skills peer coaching helps cultivate
• How to easily launch and scale within large organizations

Activating Purpose with Managers

When managers specifically connect with their sense of purpose, the benefits amplify throughout their organization. It creates more productive workers and more successful teams.

In this quick read, learn how leading companies like Hasbro, Zillow and Boston Scientific are using peer coaching to help each manager identify their purpose drivers and connect the drivers to their work.

We'll cover:

• Research pointing to the value of personal purpose
• How is purpose is connected to increased productivity, retention, and fulfillment
  
• The easy steps to launch and scale at your organization

The Definitive Guide to Peer Coaching

Meaningful conversation is how we learn, adapt, connect, and become fulfilled at work. This white paper highlights the data behind social learning and human connection, the major implications for businesses today and how to globally scale fulfillment.

2019 Workforce Purpose Index

In this Workforce Purpose Index, we uncovered something that surprised us - it is statistically impossible to be fulfilled in life if you aren’t fulfilled at work. This makes employee fulfillment, unlike employee engagement, a true imperative.

Make Work More Meaningful

This 2018 study in partnership with PwC and CECP explores how companies can build fulfilling employee experiences. 82% of employees consider fulfillment their responsibility and are ready to shape work to be more meaningful for themselves. This new data will help you recognize and grow the roots of fulfillment within your organization.

2016 Workforce Purpose Index

In 2016, we conducted our second annual study of the role of purpose in the workforce in partnership with LinkedIn. This index provides data that shows the tangible outcomes of purpose-driven performance for talent and businesses.

Purpose in Higher Education

We conducted the Purpose in Higher Education study in collaboration with the University of Michigan, Grinnell College and Seattle Pacific University—learning that 47% of college students are purpose-oriented and are raising the bar for higher education and the workplace.

2015 Workforce Purpose Index

We partnered with NYU to learn more about the current state of fulfillment at work. We found that only 33% of the workforce was fulfilled at work, despite 28% of people defining the role of work in their lives primarily as a source of personal fulfillment and a way to help others.