Latest research by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) has suggested that only half of UK companies are coaching all of their staff.

Yet it has been shown for some time that coaching is highly effective at developing and increasing the performance of all employees at relatively low costs to implement.

The ILM report, “Creating a coaching culture”, reveals that 80% of companies use coaching as a staff development tool, with 95% reporting benefits to the organisation and 96% seeing benefits to the individual being coached.

But is coaching being used to its full extent? Probably not, since the report also revealed that it is mainly being targeted at management (85% of companies), with only 52% of the companies coaching non-management staff.

Penny de Valk, Chief Executive of the Institute of Leadership & Management, says:
“Coaching is the single most cost-effective development investment an organisation can make as this learning naturally spreads across the workplace. Yet our research suggests that a limited segment of the working population receives coaching. Companies direct it at the lucky few rather than embedding a coaching culture across an organisation.”

The survey of learning and development managers also found most companies (83%) use their own managers to provide coaching for staff, while 65% hire them in. A third (34%) of organisations offer no training or support to their internal coaches, they are selected on the grounds that they are line managers (53%), senior staff members (46%) or a member of the HR department (43%).

De Valk continued: “At present many coaches inside organisations are chosen informally. Managers expressing an interest in coaching are encouraged to “have a go”, but coaching is a specialist management skill, you do not become a great coach just by reading a book, it calls for training, experience, ongoing development and support. A willing attitude or natural aptitude is not enough.

“Encouraging staff to coach others without suitable support may well restrict the scope and effectiveness of the coaching provided. Without appropriate training for internal coaches and a support structure, organisations will struggle to apply a consistent approach to ensure they obtain the maximum benefit.”

The survey questioned participants about the value of coaching to their staff, the majority of respondents (95%) said coaching was a direct benefit to their organisations: with 96% seeing benefits to the individual.

From 12 September 2011, all reportable work-related injuries and incidents under RIDDOR (the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995) will move to a predominantly online system, with a suite of seven forms available on HSE’s website to make the statutory reporting process quick and easy.

Businesses will still be able to notify fatal and major incidents and injuries by phone following changes to reporting arrangements.

Said Trevor Carlile, HSE’s Director of Strategy: “More than half of reportable injuries are already notified to HSE through the website and this proportion has been increasing steadily over the past seven years.

“Taking advantage of the growing use of the internet allows HSE to be more efficient in the way it works. We do recognise, however, that people reporting a traumatic event still need that personal interaction so the notification of fatal and major incidents and injuries will still take place by phone.”

This is a sensible and helpful approach which should save time and make the important duty of reporting accidents at work simpler to fulfil.

New research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) sheds light on how well prepared employers are before the final phasing-out of the Default Retirement Age (DRA).

From October, employers will no longer be able to require employees to retire at a certain age, except in some limited circumstances, which will mean employers will need to ensure their performance-management systems and practices concentrate as much on older workers as the rest of their workforce.

Commenting on the findings of the ‘Focus on an Ageing Workforce’ survey, Diannah Worman, diversity advisor at the CIPD, said: “The survey shoots down the myth that workers’ ability to do their job suddenly declines after they hit 65. However, the survey does show that employers need to do more to provide reasonable adjustments for workers of all ages to enable them to carry on working in light of physical, or mental-health difficulties – or, indeed, caring responsibilities, either for children, or for an ageing spouse, or partner.”

Said Worman: “The survey finds too many older workers are currently neglected in the workplace when it comes to training and performance management, with some employers perhaps assuming older staff are nearing the end of their working lives and need less attention. . .

“Failure to address poor performance of older workers may also pave the way for discrimination claims following the phasing-out of the DRA if there is a dispute over capability. Employers should treat all employees fairly at work to ensure they get the best out of all staff, whatever their age.”

It is now a fact of employment life that the workforce is attaining a greater age. This brings with it increased experience and capabilities that need to be integrated into the company, balancing and compensating for the lesser experience of younger staff.

To avoid difficulties around discrimination and to maximise your key resource – your people – your training programmes should be developed to not only improve an individual’s performance, but to look at the workforce as a whole and how to gain synergy from all its components.

You may have heard about outsourcing HR, but what does that really mean and why do it?

Well it can mean different things to different size businesses – this article looks at a small to medium size business, on another occasion I’ll talk about HR Outsourcing for a much larger corporation.

Years ago I worked for a small group where the total number of employees were around 120, but split across 3 businesses, one of which I ran.

As directors we were expected to understand our employees and have them productive. Basic statutory legislation was handled by a P.A. and there were no common pay scales across the group. No employee handbook of course, barely a job description and both employees and management were confused and inconsistent in handling staff grievances.

In those days to say you could do with “personnel” advice and maybe it would be a good idea to have some agreed staff guidelines, was admitting you weren’t good enough to run the business.

So we muddled through, making mistakes that demotivated staff and causing lost hours dealing with problems that should never have occurred. It didn’t help that the owners of the company, were themselves always so busy that they didn’t have time for putting anything better in place.

Then one day after a major contract opportunity was lost we stopped to figure out what had gone wrong. It seems that one of the cost estimates was too high, so we ended up uncompetitive. Why was it too high? The staff member working on it had left in tears one night after feeling she wasn’t valued and discriminated against (she had a good case, since our procedures were non-existent), no one had spotted the work wasn’t complete.

That was the spur to bring in some expertise and ensure we made our people the best resource we had. We could have started up an in-house HR department, but after looking at the learning curve, the costs and efficiencies’, we outsourced the HR to a small group of specialists. That allowed us to continue to concentrate on our core competencies’.

The immediate effect was of relief all round in the management team that a burden was taken from our shoulders. We still had ultimate responsibility, but now had an HR resource that was able to take away the niggles, the confusion and allow us to coach our people in operational performance.

For a small to medium business HR outsourcing can free up valuable management time and ensure your people work to their best, whilst complying with the increasing burden of statutory regulations that appear to grow every year.