Employers and Coaching Evaluation

A Carter, H Wolfe, M Kerrin International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 2005

Many UK corporate purchasers perceive coaching as a widely accepted method for the development of executives’ talents in support of corporate objectives. There is, however, perceived to be a paucity of evidence about whether coaching is an effective tool for improving individual and organisational performance despite its widespread purchase and use in practice. As far as employers are concerned, advice and guidance are not readily available to them on how to evaluate the coaching which they are providing within their organisations. Using three case study illustrations of how leading UK organisations are evaluating their coaching provision, this article explores issues in evaluating coaching in an organisational context. It also identifies what factors seem to help and hinder good evaluation practice in a workplace context. The article draws on findings arising from a 2003-04 study of coaching evaluation practices funded by the UK-based IES Employee and Management Development Research Network of 57 large employers. Commentary is drawn from the authors’ own experiences: all as evaluators and one as an executive coach.