What is Investors in People?

Investors in People is the national Standard which sets a level of good practice for training and development of people to achieve business goals. The Standard was developed 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 Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD). 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.

The Standard provides a national framework for improving bsiness 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 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

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

What does Investor In People mean to EcoQuip?

"Whilst our journey to achieving Investors In People recognition was one which we took very seriously, it was the principles which underpin the standard which excited us. The business improvements which we believed would come from achieving IiP were important however, we primarily wanted to instil values within our managers which would engender an environment which valued, respected, encouraged and developed our people.

We believe that the IiP framework is an intrinsic element of achieving and sustaining this ethos and will encourage us to continually focus on best practice when it comes to achieving success through our people. It goes beyond simply training our people, it has helped us to reflect on the way we communicate and support our people to achieve personal and company goals in harmony." Mark Isaacs, Managing Director