Interested In The Disruption And Democratization Of Workplace Coaching? You Need To Know About EZRA

“Four years ago we were challenged with the question, what is the future of learning and development? We quickly identified that coaching is an industry that is really waiting to be disrupted. It's a tremendous instrument for professional development but it’s expensive and has traditionally been reserved for the executive class. We have the ambition and the willingness to disrupt the space and reimagine what coaching might look like. Our mission is to democratize coaching.”

So spoke Jack Prevezer, cofounder and COO of EZRA, financed by the Innovation Hub of the long-term human resources consulting company LHH, in turn part of The Adecco Group of companies. Talent management has been around for 25 years, as have many of the assumptions behind it. The primary assumption has been to serve company strategy, with coaching commonly being reserved for a privileged group of senior managers. The mission to democratize coaching challenges that assumption.

EZRA opened for business in 2019 and secured McDonalds, Kraft Heinz and Royal Bank of Canada as early customers. Prevezer reported that “all three companies embraced the idea of embedding coaching in their leadership development programs.” Coaching could run in parallel with these programs, and serve to “sustain and embed the learning that emerges from the leadership program.” Those early experiences illustrated that “organizations were asking to focus on specific competencies, and to bring a coaching lens to improving those competencies.”

EZRA brought its behavioral science team together, scanned the market for competency development approaches, and hooked up with subject expert professor Nigel Guenole of London University. They developed a set of 35 competencies they deemed to be both measurable and coachable. Prevezer insists “If we’re in the business of delivering impact, we can’t rely on anecdotal responses. We have to be able to truly, empirically and scientifically measure the progress that’s been made.”

A typical EZRA intervention will involve understanding a company’s strategic priorities, targeting a group of workers, then assigning them professional coaches. All coaches are accredited by established coaching bodies, such as the International Coaching Federation. Ezra identifies with the customer which competencies need priority attention and agrees on a three- or six-month period over which to focus on those competencies and measure improvements gained. Insights gained across the coaching period can then inform ongoing professional development for the individual and determination of further coaching initiatives across a wider talent population.

Moreover, EZRA has measured the impact of coaching for over 10,000 leaders, and cites widespread evidence that their approach works. 58% of line managers observe substantial improvements in their workers’ performance, Customers achieve up to a 28% improvement across key development goals, 77% of participants say they are more likely to stay at the company, retention rates are 14% higher and promotion rates are 11% higher for people receiving coaching. The EZRA website offers impressive videos of McDonalds, Nestle, Corus, Brambles and other customers affirming the value of the approach.

The conversation turned to some specific questions.

Michael B. Arthur: The guiding principle for this column is one of career ownership, where people can make choices about the work that they do and the careers they develop. May I ask how your company responds to that?

Jack Prevezer: We're a mission-driven business, about delivering behavioral change but also delivering business outcomes. We sit down with a company’s HR leaders and ask what’s going on, what are the key challenges, and how can EZRA coaching help? Business outcomes for most organizations include making sure they have the best talent, but at the same time individual employees can witness their own improvement across the competencies they are developing. We are also directly concerned about the integrity of the coaching relationship, and as the coaching provider we need to engage with any tension between business and coaching outcomes.

Why are organizations spending millions on coaching thousands of leaders when five years ago they were only coaching their executives? I think we're beginning to answer that with data, which is that if you deploy EZRA in an intentional way, it’s a powerful instrument to drive retention and productivity. Part of that is through helping leaders at all levels really own their careers, and see more career pathways in the organization.

Arthur: May I also ask about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and whether EZRA competency assessment gives everyone a fair shake?

Prevezer: You're raising a really important point, around how do we support and elevate those from diverse backgrounds, including minority backgrounds. It's important because coaching really is such a powerful driver of career opportunity and mobility. Organizations are also seeing the value of providing professional development support for those who may come from disadvantaged backgrounds. We stand ready to support any organization’s DEI efforts through our coaching and related competency measures, and to respond to any insights that we gain.

Arthur: A related question is how do you promote deeper career conversations between managers and the people reporting to them?

Prevezer: At the end of every coaching intervention, a development plan is created, and the career is always a key component in that development plan. The assessment includes line manager and collegial feedback, and there's a framework for line managers and their employees to follow. Also, there’s an optional extra for tripartite or three-way coaching, where the coach plays the role of the facilitator. Whatever approach is adopted, it's natural that when you get to the end of the coaching, career development pathways become an important part of the conversation.

Arthur: In summary, how far have you come and how much further can you go?

Prevezer: I sometimes use the example one of the big banks where they used to coach 50 people five years ago, and now with EZRA they coach 1,000 employees each year. But we haven’t yet opened up access to coaching for the 79,000 other employees in the organization. However, we are creating a strong ripple effect, and shifting the paradigm. We want to develop the best talent that we can at every level. That means it's really important that we continue to innovate and continue this mission to democratize so that even more people can benefit.

Arthur: Thank you. I really appreciate your outreach to career owners, and description of how your system can work for them.