When I first met BetterUp co-founders Alexi and Eddie, it was inspiring to see how their mission of delivering always-on, personalized development to employees would empower the “future of work”.
How we interpret the “future of work” is continuously changing. Employers need to adapt to evolving work styles, leadership styles, and diversity of thoughts and ideas. Meanwhile, employees are integrating the latest technological innovations into their preferred working style to achieve an ideal “work-life blend.”
Applying traditional professional development programs amidst these seemingly conflicting trends is a challenge for organizations, and mismanagement has resulted in plenty of high profile cases that tarnish trust of employees and customers. In a PWC report entitled “Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace”, more Millennials ranked ‘Training and Development’ as the #1 benefit they value from an employer than any other perk or benefit.
So Alexi and Eddie set out to reimagine professional development through personalized mobile solutions that engage employees at all levels with professional coaches in a 1:1 setting. Each employee’s engagement becomes more personalized as continuous assessment and coaching feedback loops occur. This level of personalization and accessibility is a first in the professional development industry, and BetterUp is experiencing best in class employee engagement as they define the ‘gold standard’ for career coaching. High levels of employee engagement enable BetterUp to close cultural and behavior gaps in an organization, while delivering evidence based outcomes by connecting learning to demonstrable improvements in performance, retention, and engagement.
By aligning individual development with organization’s culture, values, and performance goals, BetterUp can empower employers to achieve an inclusive culture, which sets the path to a more engaged and diverse organization. Companies across all industries face this challenge, and will not solve it with C-suite only workshops or programmatic classroom-based learning.
BetterUp’s growing list of customers are offering its anytime, anywhere coaching platform to new managers, high performing employees, diverse teams, and new parents looking to hit the ground running after leave. These are just a few of the multiple entry points into organizations that are beginning to embrace the Whole Person approach to career development — recognizing that work and well-being are inextricably linked.
Alexi and Eddie have been dedicated to building leaders of tomorrow for some time through a non-profit organization that connects high school students with civic, business, and community leaders.
We could not be happier to lead BetterUp’s Series B financing and support their latest dedication to developing the leaders of tomorrow at organizations across the globe. Personally, I could not be happier to serve on the board of a company that makes me a better person and investor.
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