By Liz Hall
Many organisations are failing to evaluate coaching properly.
A fifth of organisations take a “lazy” route, relying on “stories and testimonies to prove value”, said John McGurk, CIPD learning and talent development adviser.
“It’s lazy. I think coaching is an enormously productive and powerful intervention but if you can’t defend it, that’s a real concern,” said McGurk, presenting the findings of the CIPD’s Taking the temperature of coaching survey, carried out among 600 respondents this summer.
Only 3 per cent of the 600 respondents evaluate return on investment (ROI), 8 per cent return on expectation while a fifth use measurement of key performance indicators.
In an earlier CIPD report, Promoting the value of learning in adversity, the mnemonic RAM (Relevance, Alignment and Measurement) was coined. It showed that a compelling evidence base for the impact of interventions also applied to coaching, said McGurk.
“ROI and hard evaluation is rare and we need to RAM that home. We see coaching as a positive intervention and organisations don’t necessarily want to lose that, but there are issues about quality and we need to watch our backs.”
More than 90 per cent of organisations use coaching, revealed the survey. Commenting on the high percentage of respondents using coaching – higher than the 70 per cent reported in earlier CIPD research – McGurk said: “This could possibly reflect a rebadging of other interventions such as leadership development.”
The research presents more evidence showing line managers to be at the front line. “They are the load bearers and external coaches are, and should be, the architects, advisers and providers of executive coaching,” he noted.
McGurk warned that we must be vigilant and proactive to ensure coaching continues to take place. “Coaching is becoming an almost normal organisational intervention, almost like quality management. It’s something that happens but it’s how it happens that matters. We need to step up to the plate to make sure it continues to happen.”
Key business finding
- 90 per cent use coaching
- 70 per cent are increasing or maintaining coaching expenditure
- Coaching is used to manage performance in 40 per cent of businesses; for leadership and change management in just over a third, and to engage staff in just over a quarter
- More than half describe coaching as a learning and development function; the remainder as an OD and change management intervention
- 85 per cent say coaching is delivered by line managers using support from internal or external coaches
- More than 80 per cent of businesses measure or evaluate coaching
- About a quarter reserve coaching for managers and fewer than 20 per cent for executives/board level only.
Volume 4, Issue 6