Informal training has also risen up the agenda with a manager spending on average 8.5 days on activities such as job rotating, job shadowing and being coached and mentored. Soft' or people skills such as managing staff, teamworking and customer focus ranked highly in organisations of all sizes. However, managers report that training is triggered as a result of their appraisals only 26 per cent of the time. Over half of managers say that training is their own initiative taken for a job or career change. A larger than expected number of organisations, over seventy per cent, are committed to at least one national programme.
Managers use NVQs above all other programmes to expand their qualifications.
Three quarters of managers using Management Standards and Investors in People say they have a positive impact. A quarter of HR professionals say they do not measure the benefits of management development. Those that do, use job performance and satisfaction, productivity, improved quality, staff retention and motivation as indicators. Alternatively e-mail the Institute's Press Office. The report identifies smaller organisations as those with under 100 employees.