TL&L Summary Notes: Evaluation of Coaching for Business Impact

On 14^th November CRF hosted an online event Evaluation of Coaching for Business Impact for its Talent, Leadership and Learning (TL&L) community. The session focused on the critical need for effective evaluation and strategies for overcoming barriers, and included a case study shared by leadership development, coaching and ED&I professional Lawrence Parsons, and comments on working with providers from Nicola Jones, Executive Coach Centre of Excellence for Europe at BTS. These notes summarise the presentation.

Key Insights from CRF’s Coaching Research
Coaching has significantly increased across organisations, with 65% of CRF survey respondents saying their coaching spend increased from 2020-2023. 67% also said they expected their coaching spend to increase further, underscoring the importance of evaluating coaching practices to ensure they have a tangible impact. Other trends identified by the research included:

• The increasing use of external coaches, with many organisations now using a blend of internal and external coaches.
• The greater integration of coaching into development programmes.
• The rising use of AI coaching bots.

The research identified several critical success factors to enhance coaching impact:

• Setting specific and challenging goals.
• Enabling behaviour change through reflection.
• Transferring lessons learned into the real work environment.
• Coachee motivation.
• Coach quality.
• The relationship between coach and coachee.

Regarding evaluation, only half of CRF survey respondents had a robust process in place to evaluate the business impact of coaching. The research also encouraged organisations to focus on the ‘Return on Expectation’ rather than the Return on Investment, emphasising the importance of defining success from the outset.

Case Study: Grant Thornton Coaching Academy

Background

• Grant Thornton is a UK-based accountancy and professional services firm with over 5,000 employees.
• The organisational culture at Grant Thornton emphasises the importance of coaching; external coaches are available for partners, internal Job+ coaches are available for all other employees and the organisation has the capacity to accredit coaches.
• The coaching agenda prioritised strategic alignment between coaching and the business’ people agenda (rather than focusing on performance management). For example, specific groups of people were targeted for coaching, reflecting the organisation’s strategic focus on ED&I.
• Checks and balances supported quality at scale, including a training programme for coaches and a supervision framework.

Evaluation Methodology
Grant Thornton conducted an evaluation of their internal coaching programme, focusing on business outcomes rather than the coaching process itself. Over two years, they compared outcomes for coached and non-coached individuals, leveraging existing HR data and conducting additional surveys. Key quantitative metrics included performance, retention and progression.

The cost of internal coaching was also compared to external alternatives by analysing internal coaches’ salaries, hours spent coaching and simple cost measures, such as the impact of improved retention on cost savings.

The evaluation leveraged robust HR record-keeping and a culture which valued measurement and analysis. Lawrence emphasised that many organisations already hold much of the required data.

The organisation also faced the following data challenges:

• Data Gaps. This was mitigated through regular communication with coaches to ensure visibility.
• Skewed Data due to higher coaching uptake among mid-career employees and high turnover amongst early career. However, HR’s familiarity with these patterns helped to minimise the impact.
• Causality: Time lags between coaching and measurable outcomes, such as promotions, made proving direct impacts challenging. Therefore, the evaluation focused on individuals coached in year one and their outcomes in year two.

High Level Results and Lessons Learned
The evaluation found that coached individuals showed higher performance ratings than non-coached peers and a slight improvement in retention was also noted. Overall, internal coaching delivered a 62% cost saving compared to external providers.

Lessons learned:

• Organisations should keep evaluation methods simple to maintain leadership buy-in, even if data isn’t perfect.
• Screening out outlier populations, such as early careers, can refine evaluations.
• AI tools can provide valuable nudges and support scalability, though require human intervention to drive meaningful outcomes.

Working with External Providers
Nicola Jones, Senior Director, Executive Coaching Centre of Excellence at BTS, outlined the following insights on what clients should ask for and expect regarding quality and measurement, when working with external coaching providers and the coaching process:  

• For senior-level executive coaching, BTS recommends capturing feedback from the leader during (and at the close of) each engagement. This could include the leader’s evaluation of the coach behaviour, of their own, the impact of the coaching and an NPS.  Include the line manager and HR partner in evaluation of progress.
• Capture and share internally any anecdotal success stories of these leaders developing and strengthening skills, achieving objectives and positively impacting the business, where the leader and their manager attribute the leader’s actions to coaching. This is to build a positive coaching culture, ideally from the very top of the organisation.   
• For scaled or democratised coaching, KPIs could include engagement levels, retention, the extent of change achieved and the alignment with business objectives. On retention, it is possible to convert this to pounds saved; for example, X times salary to replace and retrain a new employee, with the X factor dependent on the seniority of the position.
• It is essential to set clear expectations for coaching programmes upfront to measure success effectively. This includes being clear about what you want to achieve, as well as what you want to receive from external providers (e.g. regarding reporting and themes).
• When partnering with external coaching firms, organisations should ask how providers ensure and then monitor the quality of coaches. Questions to consider include: how are coaches chosen and vetted? How rigorous is that vetting process? What trainings and accreditations are expected? What frameworks and supervision structures are in place to ensure consistency? How is the quality of the coaching measured and assessed on an ongoing basis?

Further Resources
CRF. 2023. Coaching – Maximising Business Impact
CRF. 2023. Strong Foundations: Evidence-Based HR
CRF. 2024. Evidence-Based HR: a New Paradigm

The next TL&L community event will take place in February 2025. To register your interest, or if you have any further questions, please contact communities@crforum.co.uk.