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Invest in YOUR people
Lantra represents the interests of over 400,000 businesses and 1.5 million workers in the UK environmental and land-based sector, whereas Investors in People (IiP) UK is responsible for promoting and developing the Investors in People Standard helping to improve the way people work. People are an organisation's greatest asset and for an organisation to succeed, everyone has to perform well. Lantra and IiP are now pleased to announce their Skills Alliance Agreement, set up to ensure that the many “micro-businesses” in the environmental and land-based sector can benefit from the IiP Standard. “Investors in people promotes continuous change, which is vital for all forward-looking organisations.”
Skills Alliance Agreement
The IiP Standard was developed in 1990 with the sole purpose of helping organisations
to improve performance and realise their business objectives, mainly through
the management and development of their people/employees. Due to the flexibility
of the framework upon which the Standard is based, it can be adapted to suit
any size of organisation and their individual requirements.
Although the Standard is already well established and proven, it lacks the recognition it deserves within the environmental and land-based sector. A common misconception associated is that the Standard is solely for large organisations or specific sectors, however it is equally applicable to small businesses.
The three year Skills Alliance Agreement has evolved from the existing relationship between Sector Skills Council Lantra and IiP. It aims to raise the profile of the Standard amongst micro businesses within the sector. In fact the Standard has already proved to be highly successful for a group of farmers from West Wales. The farms – all micro businesses – worked together to attain Investors in People status and gained a good employers’ award.
Northumberland National Park Authority
Lantra recognises that the costs involved can sometimes put-off potential achievers,
so they’re keen to get across the message that businesses can and should
group together to achieve the Standard. There are many benefits of a group approach
including: sharing best practice; the benefits of collective learning in particular
with regards to solving communications, management and other problems; and of
the course the main benefit of sharing costs.
The benefits of IiP have been reaped by the Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA), who were the first English national park to receive the accolade in 1998.
Steve Gray, Team Leader (Finance) and responsible for organising training and development at NNPA, said: “Investors in people promotes continuous change, which is vital for all forward-looking organisations.”
He continued: “IiP helped us to gain a better structure for the organisation as it provides a logical system for reviewing training. Everyone now knows how their job fits into both the organisation and their immediate team. We can now see where we can help each other and the impact that our role has on others and the business as a whole, which has made us all more focussed.”
The ‘plan, do, review’ method of IiP has meant that the staff are able to recognise their training needs with the assistance of regular appraisals. NNPA staff are then encouraged to attend relevant training courses.
Research will be undertaken as part of the agreement between Lantra and IiP to understand why there is currently a low level of uptake of the Standard, and to show businesses the benefits that it can bring. It doesn't matter what size or type of organisation you are, the Investors in People Standard is there to help you improve the way you work. IiP recognises that organisations use different means to achieve success through their people. It does not prescribe any one method but provides a framework to help you find the most suitable means for achieving success through your people. Using Investors in People has been shown to help decrease staff turnover as it motivates staff to recognise training needs for themselves as well as the needs of the business.
Dawn Henton
Communications Co-ordinator: Lantra, England
Investors in People