JOHNSON COUNTY — Having someone cheer you on is never a bad thing. Several employers in Johnson County are coming together to pay the salary of someone known as a success coach.
At Greenwood Village South, workers care for residents at this retirement community.
"Our employees work night and day to care for our residents," Cindy Erickson, Greenwood Village South human resources, said.
At Endress Hauser, production workers make several types of instrumentation.
Two sets of workers on different paths who will be among those sharing a success coach.
"We kept hearing from our businesses that we need a way to help the workforce," Stephanie Wagner, with the Johnson County Community Foundation, said. "They want to keep their engaged employees. It's more a human factor. I think it's a differentiator if they have this additional benefit that is free of charge."
The Johnson County Community Foundation will oversee what's known as the employer resource network. The network is made up of member companies which pay for the success coach to help in personal areas usually not covered by human resources — like connecting people to child care or finding a solution to a lack of transportation. Issues that could all impact the work life.
"When they have those challenges in their home lives sometimes it bleeds into performance at work," Erickson said. "So we're hoping with the success coach that it will provide them that resource and help with their performance."
"Get rid of the roadblocks that are in their way for being able to focus at work or being successful at home," Amanda Parkhurst, human resources at Endress Hauser, said. "We want to offer our employees the full benefit, anything that we can offer them to make life easier."
No matter where people work the goal of the program is to put people on the road to personal and professional achievement.
The foundation is currently working to fill the coach position. The goal is to have the person in place by April 1.
A grant of nearly $700,000 is helping fund the program for the next four years.
