How Managers Can Engage a Job-Hugging Workforce

Q: What is Lyra’s Manager Coaching?

Lyra’s Manager Coaching helps people managers build management and work design skills they can apply to day-to-day challenges. Through personalized support, managers can strengthen their leadership skills, adapt to change, navigate uncertainty, and support individual and team performance.

Q: Who can get support from Lyra’s Manager Coaching?

Manager Coaching is nomination-based through the employer and designed for people managers at different stages of their careers, from first-time managers to experienced leaders who manage other managers. It is not intended for executives.

Q: What topics or workplace issues can Lyra’s Manager Coaching support?

Manager Coaching supports a range of leadership challenges, from building trust, motivating teams, and creating psychological safety to giving feedback and handling difficult conversations. Managers can also get support with clarifying roles, managing workloads, mitigating burnout, leading through change, navigating ambiguity, and influencing upward.

Q: How does Lyra’s Manager Coaching support both manager well-being and organizational performance?

Manager Coaching helps managers build practical skills for solving workplace challenges and leading teams effectively without relying on unsustainable ways of working. That can strengthen manager well-being while supporting individual and team performance.

Q: Why are organizations investing in additional manager support?

Managers are increasingly responsible for employee development, engagement, performance, and navigating organizational change while delivering on their own responsibilities. Personalized support can help managers meet those expectations effectively and sustainably.

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Key takeaways

With more employees staying in their roles, organizations have an opportunity to build critical skills from within.
Managers are increasingly responsible for keeping teams engaged, developing talent, and translating organizational change into day-to-day work, often while managing significant demands themselves.
Lyra is expanding Manager Coaching across the U.S., combining personalized coaching, evidence-based skill building, in-the-moment support, and practical resources to help managers lead effectively.

Author

Claire Podgorski

Senior Product Marketing Manager,
Lyra Health

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October 1, 2026

Organizations need new skills and capabilities now. Increasingly, they’ll need to build them from within.

One study found that 75% of workers expect to remain in their jobs through 2027. The trend has been dubbed “job hugging,” reflecting the security employees may find in a familiar role amid economic uncertainty, rapid workplace change, and AI anxiety. At the same time, global employee engagement continues to decline.

For organizations, employees staying isn't inherently a problem. Retention can preserve valuable experience and institutional knowledge. But when hiring and turnover bring fewer new capabilities into the organization, developing the people already there becomes even more important.

That puts managers in a pivotal position. They're being asked to keep employees engaged, build new skills, lead through change, and translate organizational priorities into everyday work, all while delivering on their own responsibilities.

A workforce that stays put can still move forward. But managers need the capacity and support to help make that happen.

Managers need more than training

Managers don't all face the same challenges. A new manager learning to give effective feedback needs something different from an experienced leader guiding a larger team through AI-driven change.

Traditional learning and development remains important, but knowing what good management looks like doesn't always make it easier to handle a difficult conversation tomorrow morning. Managers also need opportunities to apply skills to the situations, relationships, and decisions in front of them.

The most beneficial part of this experience has been having a space to learn, reflect and build confidence as a new manager. It has helped me become more intentional about how I communicate, give feedback, support my team's growth and approach challenging situations.

—Manager Coaching participant

Lyra’s Manager Coaching is designed to provide that flexible, personalized, and scalable support.

Personalized support for the real challenges managers face

Beginning October 1, 2026, Lyra’s Manager Coaching will be available to eligible members across the United States, with global expansion planned for 2027. The expanded offering combines personalized coaching, an evidence-based approach, organizational context, AI-enabled support, and dedicated manager resources.

An elite coaching network that understands the workplace

Lyra coaches bring experience across corporate leadership, HR, and organizational development, so managers can work through the realities they face on the job—not just leadership theory. A shared coaching approach helps organizations deliver a consistent experience across managers.

Development that reflects your organization

Coaching can incorporate organizational competencies, language, values, and leadership expectations alongside each manager’s individual goals, helping organizations build the capabilities they need while keeping development personally relevant.

Support between coaching sessions

Managers can turn to a 24/7 AI guide when challenges arise between coaching sessions. Built with human oversight and safety guardrails, it provides additional support while directing certain issues back to the organization’s HR team.

Resources managers can return to

Learning plans, articles, workshops, and live events extend development beyond coaching sessions, giving managers practical resources for the leadership challenges right now.

Having someone else listen to my challenges and offer reframing/probing questions so that I can see the problems in a different light. The articles have also been helpful resources that I can see myself turning back to in the future.

—Manager Coaching participant

Connected to mental health support

Because Manager Coaching is part of Lyra’s broader mental health ecosystem, coaches are trained to recognize when a manager may need mental health support and help connect them with clinical care.

Through coaching, I realized I can remain deeply committed to my work without doing so at the expense of my personal well-being. Operating at my previous pace may have worked in the past, but shifting toward a sustainable balance has reduced my burn-out risk while keeping me grounded and effective as a leader.

—Manager Coaching participant

From working harder to leading more sustainably

As expectations increase, managers are looking for practical support that helps them work through challenges and find more sustainable ways to lead. Early feedback shows what that can look like in practice.

The feedback reflects something we continue to see across the program: helping managers become more effective shouldn’t come at the expense of their well-being. Support needs to be practical, accessible, and available when managers need to return to it.

Build the skills you need from within

Employees staying longer can be an advantage when they're still learning, growing, and adapting. That makes manager development more than a leadership investment. Managers can help organizations build new capabilities from within while helping employees see growth and possibility even when they aren't changing jobs.

Lyra's Manager Coaching is designed to give managers the personalized, practical support to make that growth possible and to lead in ways they can sustain.