Barry Elliott is a Business and Management Coach with many years experience. To find out more visit his website www.thebusinessandmanagementcoach.co.uk or email Barry barry@barryelliott.biz
Investors in People appears to have survived the quango cull and now sits under the protective umbrella of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The basic principles of IIP are fundamental good business practice. So why are there so many critics and why have so many organisations failed to maintain their registration?
Despite the claims made by IIP that it’s all about outcomes, there is still the perception that it involves a lot of paperwork. This may be due to the need to have written policies and evidence that performance is being managed and reviewed.
When visiting organisations displaying an IIP plaque I ask front line staff what it’s for; I am usually told ‘it’s something to do with HR’. If I dig a little further I often find that the big push to get the award has not been sustained.
If I ask ‘how are things now?’ I’m given the kind of look my teenagers give me when I ask if they’ve had a nice day at school. Those who express an opinion all too often tell me it was another ‘flavour of the month’.
What a shame that the initiative, which started 20 years ago, now has a ‘curates egg’ reputation. Maybe it is the fate of UK organisations to be forever subjected to initiatives which enjoy a one or two decade existence and then - it’s time to reinvent the wheel!
Given the stop-start policies that seem to prevail in our quango dominated culture, it seems to me that it’s down to the heads of organisations to decide if they want to invest in their people. It’s not really about badges, if they invest then fail to measure the return on that investment, then no surprise when they cut back when the going gets tough.
To paraphrase W. Edwards Deming, ’you don’t improve what you don’t measure’. All too often investment in management development is measured by the ‘spend’ on training courses. Asked to evaluate a course far too many managers give feedback on the accommodation, food , even golf course, but are at a loss to explain what they have gained and how they intend to embed their newly acquired skills back at the coal face.
The UK mentality is to stop investing in training and development every time there’s a recession. As a consequence, every time we come out of recession, our competitors – who kept up the investment – move slowly ahead of us yet again. We slide gently down the international league tables but seem unable or unwilling to change the way we do things.
Of course some training survives, where there is a H&S related risk or training is mandatory, then the money has to be found. But training and development of managers and leaders is readily axed. Yet it’s those very managers and leaders the organisation will rely on when the upturn comes.
If you head an organisation, make a New Year resolution to take a look at your top teams and ask yourself how well equipped are they to take the lead when called? Do they inspire others? Do they communicate your goals in a way that will deliver success? Are they applying that simplest of three step processes which is the cornerstone of Investors in People – Plan Do Review?
And if you have any doubt, even an inkling, seek an independent opinion. You deserve it and your staff deserve it.
Please contact me barry@barryelliott.biz
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