What is it?

Investors in People (IiP) is a National Standard, which sets a level of good practice for training and development of people to achieve business goals. The  Standard was developed in the U K during 1990 by the National Training Task Force in partnership with leading national business, personnel, professional and employee organisations such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The work was supported by the Employment Department.  The experiences of the UK's most successful organisations, large and small, representing all sectors of the UK economy, were very positive and the Standard received the full endorsement of the wide range of interested parties.

Now Investors in People is in over thirty countries based in Africa, Europe, South & North America, the Middle East & Australasia.

The Standard provides a national framework for improving business performance and competitiveness, through a planned approach to setting and communicating business objectives and developing people to meet these objectives. The result is that what people can do and are motivated to do, matches what the organisation needs them to do. The process is cyclical and should engender the culture of continuous improvement.

The Investors in People UK Standard is based on four key principles:

• Commitment
  Commitment to invest in people to achieve business goals
• Planning
  Planning how skills, individuals and teams are to be developed to achieve these goals
• Action
  Taking action to develop and use necessary skills in a well defined and continuing programme directly tied to business objectives
• Evaluating
  Evaluating outcomes of training and development for individuals' progress towards goals, the value achieved and future needs.

These four key principles are a cyclical process and are broken down into 12 indicators, against which organisations wishing to be recognised as an 'Investor in People' will be assessed.

ACHIEVING THE STANDARD

Being recognised as an 'Investor in People' involves a number of steps:

• Understanding the Standard and its strategic implications for your organisation.
• Undertaking a review against the Standard to identify any gaps in current practice.
• Making the commitment to meet the Standard and communicating that commitment to all members of staff.
• Planning and taking action, to bring about change.
• Bringing together the evidence for assessment against the Standard.
• Achievement or recognition as an Investor in People.
• Working to keep the culture of continuous improvement alive.