UK organisations are getting to grips with coaching, according to a survey for the School of Coaching at The Industrial Society. In 6 out of 10 of the responding organisations, valued team members are coached to help improve individual and company performance. However, the results of this are rarely evaluated. But the findings also show that most of these companies are not evaluating the results and don’t have a coaching strategy or policy in place.
Coaching for top people is even more common in large organisations – those with over 2500 employees – with eight out of ten reporting senior management coaching. Senior managers in large organisations are also more likely to be coached by external coaches. Companies with coaching skills initiatives in place say that their main business drivers for implementing such an initiative are improving individual performance (81%), supporting personal development (79%) and improving company performance (78%). Despite this less than one third of respondents (27%) say they formally evaluate their coaching skills initiative.
The survey also shows that developing coaching skills seems to be restricted to management. Of those organisations who currently have an initiative in place aimed at developing coaching skills in their line managers, the majority (60%) say that their initiative is aimed primarily at developing coaching skills in middle managers. Half say their initiative is aimed at senior managers and the same number have schemes aimed at junior managers/team leaders/supervisors.
Manual workers are largely excluded from the coaching process – only 1% say that their initiative for developing coaching skills in line managers is aimed at manual workers.
On average organisations are spending £246 per employee on the development of coaching skills in line managers. Manufacturing sector organisations are spending the most – an average of £275 per employee, whilst service sector employers are spending the least – an average of £164 per employee.
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