Companies fail to assess success of coaching

The Industrial Society has found that companies are increasingly turning to team coaching to improve organisational performance and productivity.

Research carried out for the Society's School of Coaching (SoC) has revealed that coaching of top team members took place in six out of ten of the responding organisations, with the practice more common in large organisations (those with over 2,500 employees).

Companies with coaching skills initiatives in place said that their main reasons for implementing such an initiative were to improve individual performance (81 per cent), to support personal development (79 per cent) and to improve company performance (78 per cent). Despite this, less than one third of respondents (27 per cent) said they formally evaluate their coaching skills initiative.

According to David Webster, managing director of SoC, it is irresponsible of companies not to ask questions about the efficacy and validity of their coaching programmes, particularly at such a senior level. He added: “Organisations using coaching are hoping to improve individual and company performance and support personal development. These are creditable objectives. But if there isn’t a evaluation structure in place for your coaching initiative, how do you know if it is generating success, stagnation or even problems.”

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 per cent) say that their initiative is aimed primarily at developing coaching skills in middle managers.

Manual workers are largely excluded from the coaching process – only one in a hundred say that their initiative for developing coaching skills in line managers is aimed at manual workers.

(CL)