Companies continue to invest in coaching despite budget cuts

The latest Coaching Climate survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that while fewer companies are now using coaching compared to the last survey in 2009, the majority of those who are, say they are doing more of it than they were two years ago.

The 2011 report found that 77% of the 332 organisations surveyed are undertaking coaching activity within their companies, which compares to 90% in the 2009 survey. However, around 70% said their spend on coaching had either remained stable or had increased, despite budget cuts during the economic downturn, while less than 25% reported a reduction in spend.

The CIPD study found that the percentage of companies making use of external coaches had gone up from 14% to 20%, although the majority of coaching continues to be delivered by line managers and in-house coaches. Some 61% of organisations are using coaching to help with leadership development, while 48% said they use it to build on good performance and 47% said coaching was used to improve skills and capability. Only 43% said coaching was used by their company to improve poor performance.

Speaking at the CIPD’s Coaching Conference, the organisation’s learning and talent advisor, Dr John McGurk, said that coaching within UK businesses is in ‘good health’ and that the results of the survey demonstrate the value of this activity. However, he also noted that there is still a problem in many organisations with understanding its business effectiveness, saying that employers need to recognise that coaching should not just be used for people who have problems managing budgets or who are poor at time management. Coaching should increasingly be used to improve skills and build capability.