Newsletter - July 2008
OI Partners Survey Finds HR Professionals Value Coaching, Concerned about Leadership Development
July 17, 2008
Nearly 150 people who attended SHRM ’08 told OI Partners that business coaching is an important part of their organization and that developing leaders is a concern for the coming year.
Some attendees to the 60th Annual Society for Human Resource Management Conference in Chicago in June took time to tell OI Partners via survey how coaching has impacted their organization and what some of their biggest HR concerns are for the coming year.
When asked how important coaching is to their organizations’ talent development strategy, 55 percent of survey respondents said it is important, and 44 percent said it is critical (only one percent said it is not at all important).
Most respondents—48 percent—said the economy or budget cuts has not affected their coaching strategy.
Twenty-five percent of respondents said that their greatest coaching challenge is having too many assignments to manage effectively.
When asked what coaching has done for each respondent’s organization, 28 percent said they now have better-performing employees. After that, 24 percent said their employees now work together better, and 23 percent said they have more confident employees.
In response to what issues most concern HR professionals for the coming year, respondents ranked developing leaders / succession planning as the number one response. That was followed by retaining top employees (#2) and finding workers with the best skills (#3). These results follow closely with the same survey last done at SHRM ’06, with the same top three results (with retaining top employees ranking as number one, and leadership development / succession planning ranking as number two).
The complete results are as follows:
How important is coaching to your talent development strategy?
55% - Important
44% - Critical
1% - Not at all important
Have the economy or budget cuts affected your coaching strategy?
48% - No, coaching is critical, period
31% - Yes, we have had to make cuts in coaching
21% - Yes, but we have re-tooled our coaching program to make it more cost effective
What is your greatest coaching challenge?
25% - Too many assignments to manage effectively
21% - Not in our budget
19% - Too few coaching resources (i.e. tools, assessments)
14% - Decentralized coaching resources
13% - Little ability to determine return on investment
8% - Difficult to track coaching client’s progress
What has coaching done for your organization?
28% - We now have better-performing employees
24% - Employees work together better
23% - Employees are more confident
20% - Now have prepared future company leaders
5% - Not very much
What issues most concern you and your business for the coming year?
- Developing leaders & succession planning
- Retaining top employees
- Finding workers with the best skills
- Getting the most from human capital
- Creating an effective coaching culture
- HR playing a key role in developing business strategy
- Handling generational differences in the workplace
- Managing the virtual workforce
- Containing benefits costs
- Dealing with outplacement
One hundred and forty one people responded to the survey.