Could coaching be under threat as budgets and spending priorities come under renewed scrutiny?

01 July 2010

In these times of major cuts across all sectors, reflected particularly in yesterday’s budget, will training and development budgets be ring-fenced or also face cuts?

It seems that coaching at least is being invested in for the moment, as the results of this type of training are seen as crucial in sustaining performance. The CIPD had written a white paper examining the above question, having reviewed the results collected from an in-depth survey they conducted in 2009. Please find a summary of the results listed below (the full report can be found on the CIPD website.

Coverage trends

Coaching is reported as taking place by 90% of respondents. This is a very high level and may reflect a re-appraisal and re-labelling of other management practices and programmes.

Expenditure trends

Seventy per cent report that coaching expenditure is either increasing or being maintained, with only 20% reporting reductions.

Role and contribution

Just over half of our respondents describe coaching as primarily a learning and development intervention; the remainder say that it is used for organisational development and change management.

Responsibility for delivery

Line managers, supported by internal coaches, are responsible for delivery of coaching in 63% of cases. In 37% of organisations surveyed the main responsibility for coaching rests with line managers, with 15 % of responsibility lying with external coaches. This confirms our previous findings that coaching is increasingly being delivered by line management. . External coaches and consultants are used in over 60% of respondent organisations, mainly for design and development of coaching programmes as well as providing a coaching service to executives..

Purpose of Coaching

40% of the organisations surveyed declared the purpose for coaching as performance management.. Leadership and change management is the purpose in just over one third of the respondents. Employee engagement is the purpose in just over a quarter of the organisations..

How is Coaching evaluated?

More than 80% of organisations report that they measure or evaluate the impact of coaching. Just under a fifth of respondents use evaluation practices developed at the outset. However under 3% report using return on investment (ROI). . Over 20% use measurements of key performance indicators (KPIs) and other corporate and HR metrics while around the same number use stories and testimony to prove the value of coaching.

In conclusion, the CIPD’s 2009 survey on coaching indicates that coaching is in relatively good health. Coaching continues in organisations at a high level and the expenditure on coaching is either increasing or remaining the same. Coaching is increasingly being used for performance management and change and leadership development, as well as talent management and employee engagement. The delivery of coaching is increasingly undertaken by line managers supported by external coaching consultants, who provide the design and development capability.

Overall, coaching has proved resistant, even vibrant within a challenging environment. In organisations the challenge is to prove its lasting value. The Prime Partnership has extensive experience in helping individual leaders develop and cultivate a high performance coaching culture, through developing processes and practice which has seen them achieve success.

If you feel that you or your business would benefit from development on leadership coaching, please email us on: clare.maberly@primepartnerhsipuk.com or call us on: 07590848814.