How to Achieve Investors in People Step by Step
The principles of the standard, Leading - Supporting - Improving, are broken down into 9 indicators of good practice, each with a central theme.
To become an Investor in People you will be assessed against all the evidence requirements of each indicator.
Try this quick survey to see an example of the evidence we look for:
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The first level of Investors in People Accreditation shows that best practice has been developed, is in place and communicated.
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Here are some examples of what you can do in your organisation to make sure you meet the evidence requirements:
1. A strategy for improving the performance of the organisation is clearly defined and understood.
To meet this indicator, your organisation needs to demonstrate a clear understanding of where it's heading, how it's going to get there and how people will know when the destination has been reached. Milestones that are required along the way will be clear to people and it will be possible for them to explain how these milestones link to the overall journey.
People in your organisation will feel there is good communication. They will feel involved and be clear about their roles. They will understand what their team and (at a level appropriate to their role) the organisation as a whole is trying to achieve, how they are helping to make it happen. They will be able to describe their involvement in their own terms.
People in your organisation may be managing teams or working as part of a team or individually. They will understand your plans for the organisation and will be able to describe easily how they help the organisation get to where it wants to be.
People will have the opportunity to discuss and agree what the important activities will be and how they will be undertaken. Possibly some people will be members of staff groups or unions, and it will be important to involve these people, if they wish to be involved, in developing and reviewing the business plan.
The Assessor will be interested to hear how people at all levels have been involved in planning and review activities, and to see how individuals and teams have been involved in agreeing and reviewing the activities they have been working on.
2. Learning and development is planned to achieve the organisation's objectives.
Once you have your plan you will need to decide what learning and development your people will require to be able to achieve the objectives your organisation has agreed.
You will need to describe how learning and development will be made available to people. You will also need to describe why you are doing it, and what impact development activity will have on your organisation's objectives.
There will be plans for the type and style of development activities that your organisation wants to utilise. Resources for learning and development will be defined with and understood by managers, who will be able to describe how money (if appropriate), time and facilities have been set aside to ensure people receive the development they need. Managers will be aware of the knowledge, skills and behaviours that will be required for people to achieve their objectives.
Managers will plan for the learning and development that will be needed to help people achieve their own objectives and those of their teams. People will be involved in regular discussions to decide on the best course of action for themselves and the team. They will be able to explore how success in these activities will be measured, to ensure that the impact of the learning and development activities is positive.
People will discuss their learning and development needs with their manager on an ongoing basis, and they will be able to agree the most appropriate action. This will enable them to understand clearly how their development activities are intended to contribute to improving their performance and that of their team and the organisation as a whole.
3. Strategies for managing people are designed to promote equality of opportunity in the development of the organisation's people
Having a culture that encourages people to recognise how they can improve their own performance in the job, as well as that of their colleagues, is paramount to an organisation's continuous improvement.
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Recognising the diversity of your people when developing appropriate learning and development activities is vital in ensuring all people have fair access to the development they need. For example, whether they are full time, part time, volunteers or located in different parts of the organisation, people will feel that they are involved in continuous improvement activities, and they will recognise the support their managers provide in offering learning and development opportunities for all.
Everyone in your organisation will have the opportunity to learn and develop in order to improve their own performance. They will feel able to contribute to the organisation achieving its objectives and will see that their efforts are an important part of this process. For teams and individuals, people will be discussing how performance can be improved and what they can do to contribute.
People will be able to describe the different kinds of support they receive from their managers to help them and their colleagues improve. People will feel that their managers are supportive and be able to give examples of the kind of support, advice and guidance they have received.
Support could be formal, in the shape of a specific learning and development activity or programme, or more likely informal, in the form of advice, guidance or shadowing discussed at a one-to-one meeting or team meeting.
People will be able to outline how they have been encouraged to come up with ideas for improving their own performance and enhancing the performance of the team as a whole.
4. The capabilities managers need to lead, manage and develop people effectively are clearly defined and understood.
To meet this indicator, your managers will know what is expected of them. People will recognise that managers are good at leading, managing and developing people, and they will be very clear about the ways in which managers can and do manage people well.
You need to ensure that your organisation has defined and described what makes an effective manager. This description (which may or may not be written down) will include the knowledge, skills and behaviours that your organisation expects managers to demonstrate at all times.
For new and existing managers in your organisation, learning and development support will be available (again both formally and informally) to enable managers to grow and improve. This support should be available to managers when they join the organisation and following any one-to-one reviews, where, for example, it's felt that learning and development would be appropriate.
It is up to you to decide how your organisation defines and communicates the required knowledge, skills and behaviours. The important issue is that managers and their people understand what is expected of them and, in turn, they are able to clearly describe their understanding of the desired management capabilities.
The expected management capabilities ought to reflect the culture and values of your organisation and be in line with the expectations of the people they manage.
People will clearly recognise what an effective manager of people looks like, what they should know, what they do and how they go about it. This is as important for current managers as it is for any people who may wish to develop towards becoming a manager in your organisation in the future.
5. Managers are effective in leading, managing and developing people.
Once the desired management capabilities have been clearly defined and communicated, it's important to make sure that managers are genuinely acting in line with them.
To meet this indicator, your organisation will have moved from simply defining what is expected of managers, to ensuring that managers demonstrate the people management capabilities that your organisation requires and your people expect.
Managers will be describing clearly what leading, managing and developing people really means, providing practical examples such as giving their people regular and constructive feedback about how well they are performing. Similarly, senior managers will be giving managers regular and constructive feedback about their performance as managers of people to motivate and encourage managers to improve.
People will be able to recognise how effective their manager is in supporting them, and describe the way in which they receive feedback about how well they are performing their role. People will also be able to identify how well their manager motivates and encourages them towards improving their performance.
6. People's contribution to the organisation is recognised and valued.
The behaviour and sincerity of managers is an important factor in meeting this indicator. Managers will be describing how they appreciate what their people do, providing clear examples of how they show this appreciation.
There will be a regular two-way dialogue between managers and people in your organisation, and people will feel valued because their efforts are noticed and acknowledged by their managers in a meaningful manner.
People will be able to provide examples of instances where their manager has acknowledged their performance, commented positively on it - possibly in writing - and ensured that the individual and/or the team felt that this appreciation and the value placed on their performance were genuine.
Examples such as regular and consistent praise for a job well done or encouragement for improved performance will be forthcoming. People will also be able to recognise how they have contributed and will talk about the ways in which managers show that they value and appreciate what people do.
7. People are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility by being involved in decision-making.
To meet this indicator, people throughout your organisation will have the opportunity to get involved in making decisions that will have a positive impact on the organisation's performance.
Through their involvement, people in your organisation will demonstrate the ways in which managers encourage them to own decisions and take responsibility for them in a way that improves their own performance and that of their team and the organisation as a whole. In line with the shared values in your organisation, people will describe how their involvement in decision making has been encouraged by managers.
Managers may adopt a number of different approaches to involving their people. A manager's style and approach may vary depending on the people involved. For example, some people may need advice and guidance in decision making and will look to their manager for this support. Other people may seek responsibility and ownership for decisions more readily. The common factors will be encouraging people wherever possible and ensuring that this encouragement is recognised by all concerned.
8. People learn and develop effectively.
Your organisation will be ensuring that people are given the knowledge and skills they require and the chance to apply their new learning to their job role.
Managers will be playing an important role in agreeing and implementing the learning and development activity that their people need. This activity will be in line with the activity defined at a senior level, plus any learning and development that the managers identify to help meet specific job-related or personal development needs.
People will be able to describe the different kinds of learning and development activities they are involved in, whether formal or informal. They will recognise what they are learning or have learnt and be able to describe how the learning and development activity has helped them in their job role.
People who have recently joined your organisation will be able to outline the effectiveness of their induction. They will discuss how the knowledge and skills required to do their job were made available to them and whether they felt they had been introduced to the organisation in an effective way.
Similarly, anyone new to a role within your organisation will be able to confirm that they have been given the support and development necessary to enable them to understand their new role and carry it out to the standard required.
9. Investment in people improves the performance of the organisation.
Senior managers will be able to describe how much money, time and other resources have been invested in learning and development activity. They will be able to give significant examples from across the organisation of how the learning and development activity has helped to improve the organisation's performance.
Senior managers will outline the benefits and learning points gained from investing in learning and development, and be able to describe how these benefits have contributed to the organisation's success. Senior managers will explain how the benefits gained have been fed into the planning and review processes, to explore how these benefits and any learning points can be built into the future plans for your organisation.
By providing examples of the success of the investment in learning and development, people will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the improvements in performance gained by the team and by individuals. People will be able to describe how this success has helped improve the performance of your organisation as a whole.
People will be involved in evaluating the learning and development, and they will see how their learning and development has improved their own performance their team's and the organisation's performance, too. People may describe how they were involved in evaluating the learning and development, and some people may contribute (with their managers) to the future planning process.
10. Improvements are continually made to the way people are managed and developed.
Your organisation will be demonstrating how it has improved the way it manages and develops your people. In particular, there will be a positive culture of continuous improvement. People will feel encouraged to look for improvements and to learn from past experiences. People will recognise what managers and senior managers look for in order to improve the performance of the organisation, and they will understand clearly why this is important.
At every level people will contribute to continuous improvement by giving feedback about the relevance or success of learning and development activities. Senior managers will seek to improve how they manage and develop people, and encourage managers to do the same with their teams.
The way people are managed will be reviewed. Based on constructive feedback, your organisation will be seeking to improve the way managers manage people. Managers themselves will be reviewing their own management capabilities and examining how they can develop themselves.
People should be identifying improvements in the way they are being managed and note the ways in which their manager is developing them. They should be able to recognise managers' enhanced knowledge, skills and behaviours, and be motivated to improve their own performance.
Once you are confident your firm meets these evidence requirements - we can book an assessment for you.
Here are some guidelines on what the assessment will involve and how to prepare for it << CLICK HERE >>
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