Overview
Helix has partnered with Hone to build a learning culture that evolves alongside the business. Through Hone’s live, expert-led classes and AI-powered coaching, Helix has been able to:
- Equip leaders at every level with mission-critical leadership skills.
- Deliver targeted learning experiences for specific departments, teams, and employees.
- Respond quickly as business priorities and employee development needs change.
What began as a program for new managers has grown into a multi-layered development strategy that supports employees and leaders across the organization.
The company
Helix is the leading enterprise genomics platform that connects patients to affordable genetic insights, and enables health systems and life science organizations to leverage the power of genomics across their organizations. The Helix Research Network® – the largest precision health network in the world – accelerates genomic discoveries and translates them into real-world clinical impact.
With 250 employees distributed around the world, Helix needed a way to support different roles, teams, and leadership levels while adapting development to business priorities as new needs emerge.
The challenge
When Helix first came to Hone, its most immediate need was supporting new managers.
Many of these managers were stellar individual contributors who were promoted to first time leaders. While they brought strong functional expertise to their new roles, they needed support developing the skills required to lead people effectively.
Over time, Helix’s business needs expanded, which meant their learning and development needs changed. Different teams needed different things. Senior leaders needed a different experience than newer managers. Certain departments and teams needed unique support.
For Natecia Smith, Senior Manager of L&D and IDEA, the challenge was building a development strategy that could continually adapt to what the business and its employees needed next.
“The thing that has been the most impactful about Hone has been our ability to be really responsive in a short amount of time to the ways in which the needs of the business have changed. Our ability to leverage Hone’s growing curriculum to identify what’s right for our employees at that time ensures development is timely, practical, and effective.”
The solution
Rather than locking Helix into a single development program, Hone worked with Natecia and her team to continually identify the right experience for each audience and business need.
Together, the teams asked: what does the business need right now? That flexibility produced a layered program that touches the organization at multiple levels:
New Manager Development
Helix and Hone started by creating a dedicated development journey for first-time and newer managers. The cohort-based experience combines six live, expert-led classes along with Hone AI Roleplays, giving managers opportunities to learn alongside their peers and practice applying new skills in real time.
The classes include:
- Give Feedback that Lands + Practice lab
- The Coach Approach + Practice lab
- Lead Highly-Effective 1:1’s
- Coach Towards a Goal + Practice lab
After the classes, managers can rehearse high-stakes conversations in a safe environment before navigating them in real life with their teams. One manager described the experience as “a really nice feedback practicing tool.”
Support for Teams and Employee Groups
Helix also uses Hone’s private, cohort-based programs to create targeted learning experiences for individual departments, teams, and Employee Resource Groups.
Because Helix’s remote employees may only meet in person once or twice each year, these shared learning experiences provide valuable opportunities to connect, exchange perspectives, and build skills together. Programming is selected and tailored based on the specific challenges, priorities, or goals of each group.
Director Coaching
To provide more personalized support at the senior level, Helix introduced Hone’s one-on-one coaching to its senior leaders. Through conversations with experienced coaches, leaders can work through their individual goals and challenges with support tailored to their specific roles and challenges.
Skill Reinforcement with Hone AI
When Hone introduced its suite of AI-powered learning experiences in 2025, Helix was one of the earliest organizations to pilot the new AI tools. Now, managers use Hone AI to practice difficult conversations, receive personalized feedback, and reinforce important leadership skills in the flow of work.
The pilot generated strong early engagement:
- 89% of participants returned for another Hone AI experience.
- Managers gained an additional way to practice and apply skills outside of scheduled classes.
As Natecia Smith, reflected on the partnership,
"Hone never pigeonholes us into using what we have in a certain way. They’ve always been really good partners on doing what makes the most sense for the business."
Conclusion
By partnering with Hone, Helix has built a durable learning culture that meets employees where they are and gives them the support to grow as their roles and the business evolve.
And the results speak for themselves:
- Employees are gaining skills they can put into practice, with 96% reporting knowledge gained, exceeding Hone's 88% benchmark.
- Employees consistently find Hone's learning experience valuable and engaging, reflected in a 4.6/5 average class rating.
- In 2025, 90% of employees felt their manager recognized and leveraged their strengths to achieve team goals, up 6% from 2024, and 81% reported receiving sufficient feedback on their performance, up 5% from 2024.
- In 2026, Helix streamlined its engagement survey. Manager impact remained one of the highest rated areas, a notable result in a year marked by change, with 84% of employees agreeing their manager helps them navigate competing priorities.
For Helix, the result is a more adaptable workforce, stronger manager-employee relationships, and a learning strategy that can continue evolving alongside the needs of its employees, teams, and business.
