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Burton OD and Mirador Development are delighted to bring you the first in our series of quarterly newsletters.  We want to share with you our responses to the questions most commonly asked by the people we work with.  Let us know if there are any topics you would find interesting to know more about.  As this is the first in our series we welcome any feedback too.

Investors in People has been around for nearly 20 years now – pretty well a complete generation in fact! Is it time to look for something more up to date?

Well, let’s get the facts straight first of all:

• Around a third of UK employees work for an Investors in People recognised organisation
• Research shows that it is still popular with organisations, who report that there are significant benefits - particularly because of the Standard’s emphasis on continuous improvement and management capability
• The economic gloom has led to a significant reduction in the numbers of organisations renewing their recognition and fewer first time recognitions, so the number of recognitions is currently declining
• The body that “owns” the Standard – IIP UK – will be absorbed into the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) in 2010. New Government money is highly unlikely to follow the Standard, although UKCES has made very positive public statements about the Standard.

There’s a mixed picture out there – plenty of profile for the Standard and an acceptance that it has value but a feeling that it is some way down the pecking order when organisations are strapped for cash.

But cash isn’t the only objection to continuing with Investors in People or going for recognition in the first place. Organisations that have been recognised for some time are asking the question: “We’ve met the Standard consistently for a while now, practices are well embedded – why do we need to pay for an external assessment that will just tell us what we already know?”

So, is it old hat – or can organisations still gain some competitive advantage from Investors in People? Let’s look at some points to consider:

The Standard is still a good benchmark for people management practices.

Investors in People was last revised four years ago and, by common consent, the changes made it more robust and certainly more challenging. It became more difficult to achieve and retain recognition (as indeed it should be if it is tracking ever-improving practices)

It puts the management of people’s performance and their development at the forefront and ensures that these aspects of organisation are rigorously assessed

Research by the Work Foundation and the Institute for Employment Studies now shows that Investors in People-recognised organisations are more innovative, have better leadership skills, reduced costs and a competitive edge

There’s excellent support to help organisations understand and put into practice the principles of the Standard.

• The Investors in People website (www.investorsinpeople.co.uk) has a set of very useful tools to help organisations identify how their practices match up to the Standard and what they could do to improve. This is all free of charge.
• There is a well developed network of Investors in People advisers who are regularly trained and have to be licensed annually to ensure that they provide good quality advice and support.

The relative costs of achieving assessment have reduced.

• The daily fee rates for assessment have remained constant for a number of years and assessors have been working smarter to keep costs down.
• The UKCES is likely to ensure that this trend continues, emphasising a theme of “more for less” in their discussions with the network of assessors.

The wider framework offers a “pick and mix” approach to assessment.

Organisations will now be automatically offered assessment against any part of the wider Investors in People framework. In this way, they can work with the core of the Standard (which maintains their recognition) and pick extra performance indicators to be measured against as well. These additional indicators address emerging strategic topics such as:

• Coaching
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Employee Involvement
• Equality and Diversity
• External benchmarking
• Knowledge management
• Leadership and management strategy
• Learning styles
• Mentoring
• Talent management
• Work-life balance

There are extra “gongs” available

Organisations using the wider framework can achieve extra recognition in the form of a gold, silver or bronze award – and by November 2009 around 600 organisations in the UK had achieved one of these. In practice, these are thoroughly deserved by the organisations that achieve them because they signify people management practices that are moving towards world class – although for some competitively-minded corporate people, a bronze or silver award signifies “loser”!

There are also long service awards, made to organisations that have maintained recognition for 10 or 15 years.

Conclusions

The Standard is still worthwhile – but if you and your management colleagues are no longer feeling that you get much out of it, we would recommend you go on to look at the wider framework... or save money by de-recognising.

Read about Coaching at: www.miradordevelopment.co.uk