Why you should ‘invest in your people’
To be clear right from the start, we’re not an agent for Investors in People and don’t get any financial incentive for talking about them. But we do think being accredited by them is a really worthwhile thing to do for your organisation as it shows you’re serious about being a great employer who’s committed to your people.
You can’t just order an accreditation online or pick one up from your local supermarket. To be accredited at any level takes hard-work, and you need to be prepared to take a good luck at what your organisation does, how effective your leadership team is, and what you can do better.
Before you can even think about getting accredited, it’s worth knowing a bit more about what Investors in People look for and some of the things you can do to get your organisation ready. We can’t cover it in one blog so we’ll look to tell you what you need to know in a series of easily-digestible chunks to read. We might even put them all in one place as a handy guide too.
In this first blog, we’ll focus on why you should get your organisation accredited. We’re not saying every business should take that step as it’s not for everyone, but if you’re thinking of ways to take your organisation to the next level, it’s something you should explore.
So back to the why. Investors in People are recognised internationally as setting the standard in people management. Getting accredited means you’ll learn how to measure performance effectively, get better at recognising the talent in your organisation and drive employee engagement. You’ll also gain valuable insights into overcoming challenges and managing change in a sustainable way. (Regular visitors to our website will know managing change is a subject we care a lot about, and we think the more help you can get with it, the better.)
What you’ll also get – and this is really useful – is a benchmark of how your organisation stacks up against the Investors in People Standard. The Standard is a document packed with advice about the latest thinking in workplace trends. It gives you tips around leading, supporting and improving by breaking these down into key indicators.
There’s also something called ‘The performance model’ which is designed to help your organisation continuously improve so you can reach the four levels: accreditation, silver, gold and platinum.
It’s also pretty good that you can call on the experience and support of over 14,000 worldwide-accredited organisations once you’ve joined them. Articles, case-studies and other invaluable tools are all available free-of-charge for anyone who signs up.
We hope you agree it all sounds pretty good. But to make your own mind up, check out their website.
As we said – we’re in no way linked to Investors in People, financially or otherwise. We just happen to think what they do could help your organisation, and we’d like to help you get ready for accreditation.
