Global trends in the use of coaching in the workplace

Key findings from a 2010 wide scale research study

About the study

In 2010 the NeuroLeadership Group ran a study of how organizations around the world are utilizing
coaching in the workplace.
363 respondents qualified and completed the survey. 79% of these had a coaching program in operation.
The breakdown of respondents by region was Europe (26%), North America (22%), Oceania (16%), Asia (11%),
Latin America (8%), Africa (7%), Middle East (5%) and South Asia (5%). The majority of respondents (30%) had
more than 10,000 employees.

Key findings about coaching strategy

55% of responding organizations have a clear strategy for coaching. Of these, 74% indicate their
coaching strategy is less than 5 years old and 16% less than one year old.
The following chart shows, by country, the percentage breakdown for respondents with coaching strategies:
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

North America 59%

Europe 54%

Oceania 54%

Latin America 52%

Asia 45%

Africa 36%

South Asia 27%

Middle East 25%

Q 66% of respondents provide coaches (either internal or external) to fewer than 50 people in their organization.

Q 51% of all respondents invested no more than $50,000 in coaching programs in the previous financial year.
About a third spent between $50,000 and $250,000 on coaching. Only 16% spent more than this amount.
Q 28% of respondents have one definition of coaching that was widely shared and understood.

Q 7% indicated that they have a dedicated team to manage their coaching programs.

Across all modalities of coaching, approximately a quarter of all respondents do not measure the impact
of coaching at all. From those that are, around one in five measure against organizational metrics, and only one
in ten measure business impacts.

Coaching skills programs

Q 72% of respondents offer some form of coaching skills training, however 59% of these organizations have
trained less than 100 managers each.
Q 81% of respondents plan to maintain or increase their level of spending on coaching skills training.

Q Of those organizations with coaching skills training programs, 57% have programs of one to two days
in length and 43% have programs of three days or more.
© NeuroLeadership Group 2011

Q 42% of respondents have no formal plans for coaching skills training retention or development, post training.

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 Global trends in the use of coaching in the workplace
Key findings from a 2010 wide scale research study

Internal coaching
67% of respondents utilize internal coaching as part of their coaching strategy. Those respondents
indicate that they use internal coaching to:
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Improve individual
92%
performance
Improve overall
83%
business performance
Develop high
79%
potentials
Improve engagement
75%
levels
Support leaders
75%
in transition

Increase retention 66%

Focus on behavioral
50%
improvement
Help the thinking
45%
of senior leaders

Q 60% have fewer than ten internal coaches delivering formal coaching engagements as part of what they do,
or as a stand-alone role.
Q In North America, 23% of internal coaches are given no training at all.
Q Approximately half of the respondents cited that they do not assess the skill level of their internal coaches.
Only 6% of respondents indicated their coaches are assessed by the International Coach Federation.
Q 76% of coaches are working with between one and five coachees at any one time.
Q One in five organizations indicated that they have formal frameworks in place for supervising internal coaching.
Q One-fifth of the organizations indicated that internal coaching is replacing the hiring of external coaches
in their organization.
Q 77% of respondents plan to increase or maintain their level of spending on internal coaching.

External coaching
The majority of organizations were using between one and ten external coaches (74%) and were
providing external coaches to less than 100 employees (84%).
Q 66% of respondents offer external coaching as part of their coaching program.
Q 70% of respondents plan to increase or maintain their level of spending on external coaching.

The value of partnering with an external resource

41% of respondents said that their coaching strategy was created internally. Respondents
who used external resources to create their coaching strategy:
Q Had more support at the CEO level (75% compared to 52% across all the respondents).
Q Were thinking more long term (81% thinking one to five years ahead compared to 65% across all responses).
Q Were nearly twice as likely to have one definition for coaching that is widely understood
(51% vs. 28% across all responses).
Q Provide an internal or external coach to more employees (46% provide coaches to 50+ employees compared
to 34% across all responses).

Conclusions
Despite increased interest in the use of coaching, it is still largely reserved for the top. Investment in
coaching is surprisingly low, which may be linked to the fact that coaching is not being managed strategically
or measured well. With the increased pressure on leadership and learning, finding cost-effective solutions to
provide coaching more broadly across organizations is more important than ever.
© NeuroLeadership Group 2011

Review the complete paper

Visit www.neuroleadership.com to download a copy of the complete white paper: ‘Global trends in the use
of coaching in the workplace’ by Matthew Rule and Dr. David Rock.

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