Investors in People Explained (3rd Edition). Peter Taylor and Bob Thackwray. Kogan Page, 1999. Paperback, 184 pages. £16.99. ISBN 0 7494 2966 6.
Later editions are produced for a number of reasons. In this case it is obviously because of the substantial increase in the acceptance of Investors and because of the inevitable changes that have taken place since it was introduced in 1991. This edition brings readers/users fully up to date with all these changes and also offers an entirely new set of case studies of companies who have achieved IinP recognition, ranging from ones with 20 to 3,400 employees.
When I reviewed the first edition of this book in 1995 I commented that Investors in People, like its stablemate MCI/NVQ, had been slow to establish itself in the business world, but was gradually becoming a force in demonstrating business effectiveness, and, above all, concern for people. Time has shown the development of interest and involvement with 3,514 organizations being recognized in March 1996, whereas this figure had risen to 13,748, with a further 21,701 committed and working towards recognition.
It is written in a clear, very reader-friendly, comprehensive and, above all, logical format.
In this book, the first of three sections takes the would-be IiPer through the recognition process from the start to the acceptance of the assessor’s recommendations — a clear route map for the hazardous journey. The second section consists of the eleven case studies mentioned earlier.
The final section looks to the future with the maintenance and retention of IiP recognition and the development of the business into the wider Learning Organization, significant numbers of organizations having renewed their recognition and developed it in a variety of ways.
Descriptions of sources of help form a final chapter and the book is rounded off with five appendices — a statement of the national standards and indicators that have to be achieved to obtain IiP recognition; and copies of the three survey questionnaires that can be used by senior managers, managers and other employees in the early stages of diagnosis. The fifth appendix gives numerical guidelines for sampling the employees.
If you are an employer intending to consider application for IiP recognition; one who has already starting the process and may be feeling a little mystified; a training or personnel department, trainer or consultant that is becoming in helping organizations through the process; one someone with aspirations to become an assessor, this is the book you must have to read alongside and interpret the official publications.
Leslie Rae
July 1999
