Employee coaching has traditionally been difficult to scale. One-on-one sessions can provide meaningful development, but they require time, specialized resources and access to coaches limitations that become more significant when companies have thousands of employees across different locations and roles.
MacLean-Fogg is taking a different approach by embedding AI coaching into the employee lifecycle. During a webinar hosted by Cloverleaf, Nick Stauffer, the company’s director of organizational development, explained how the manufacturer has moved from traditional assessments toward a model in which personalized development is available through the tools and processes employees already use.
The company has approximately 2,400 employees and about 20 manufacturing facilities, with a significant portion of its workforce operating on the frontline. Many of those employees do not work at desks or have regular access to corporate computers, making digital adoption a central part of the company’s development strategy.
The challenge is widespread. Research from Boston Consulting Group estimates that deskless employees represent between 70% and 80% of the world’s workforce, highlighting the difficulty organizations face when trying to deliver consistent digital experiences to employees outside traditional office environments.
For MacLean-Fogg, the starting point was a realization that assessments alone were not generating enough behavioral change.
The company had already been using DISC and other assessments, but employees would typically complete the exercise, receive their results and move on. Stauffer said the value emerged when the information became connected to employees’ actual work.
“The power of being able to take the value of assessments and connect it with something that’s in the flow of work,” Stauffer said, was a key reason MacLean-Fogg adopted Cloverleaf.
From Assessments to AI-Powered Coaching Across the Employee Lifecycle
MacLean-Fogg initially introduced Cloverleaf through a small early-career program before expanding its use across other employee-development initiatives. Daily personalized tips, Microsoft Teams integration and calendar functionality helped move coaching away from a separate training activity and into employees’ normal workflows.
That distinction also changed how the company measured adoption.
Stauffer argued that having an account or access to a platform is not enough to demonstrate that employees are actually benefiting from it.
“Just because someone has access to the tool does not mean that they’re using it effectively or to its fullest extent,” he said.
MacLean-Fogg consequently focused on reducing friction. It created a short internal video explaining the platform, introduced automated communications and adjusted the language used to describe assessments. The company found that calling the process a “questionnaire” made it easier for employees to approach.
It also established a clear boundary around how the technology would be used. Cloverleaf is positioned as a development resource rather than a performance-management system, and employees are told that their results are not used to rate or rank them.
AI has expanded that approach further. Through the Model Context Protocol, MacLean-Fogg can connect Cloverleaf information with large language models such as Claude and Microsoft Copilot.
This allows employees and HR leaders to use AI with additional context about working styles and interpersonal dynamics. Instead of receiving generic advice about handling a difficult conversation, for example, a manager can provide information about the specific situation and the people involved.
“It goes from being a very generic ‘this is how you should have a difficult conversation with an employee’ to this is how you have a really, really hyperpersonalized conversation,” Stauffer said.
For MacLean-Fogg, AI is therefore not intended to replace managers or coaches. Instead, it provides additional support that can help them prepare for conversations and make development more individualized.
The company has extended the approach across onboarding, leadership development, engagement activities and mentorship. Mentorship is one of the clearest examples: employees complete a DISC assessment before registering, allowing the company to use working-style information as one factor when creating potential matches. However, Stauffer stressed that assessment results are only one part of the process, alongside goals, availability and preferred mentoring styles.
Once mentors and mentees are paired, Cloverleaf can help prepare them for their conversations by providing prompts and recommendations tailored to the particular stage of the relationship.
The company has also introduced what it calls a “Cloverleaf moment.” Inspired by safety moments commonly used in manufacturing, these are short development exercises incorporated into meetings. A meeting might begin with a question asking employees to identify a strength they have overlooked or something they want to develop.
The objective is not to create another lengthy training session, but to make development part of the normal rhythm of work.
“It takes two minutes. It’s super easy,” Stauffer said.
For MacLean-Fogg, the rollout has been deliberately incremental. Stauffer’s team began with small experiments, adjusted communications and gradually embedded the technology into additional programs.
His advice to other organizations considering a similar approach was straightforward:
“Just try something,” Stauffer said, noting that the company’s initial videos, emails and other initiatives were refined over time.
The lesson from MacLean-Fogg’s experience is that AI coaching does not necessarily need to begin as a large-scale transformation. It can start with one program or one employee population and expand as the organization learns what works.
By placing personalized coaching inside existing workflows rather than treating it as another destination employees must visit, the company is attempting to turn development into a continuous part of work—one that can reach beyond the employees who traditionally have the greatest access to coaching and professional development.
