CAREERS NEWS | IN BRIEF
SPENDING ON STAFF IS UP 17 PER CENT
Employers spent 17 per cent more on entertainment for their staff during the height of the recession (2008-9), such as days out at Ascot and golf trips according to data obtained by UHY Hacker Young. The taxable value of non-business related entertainment provided to staff jumped from £120m to £140m in 2008-9. The figures cover strictly non-business entertainment – such as employers taking top sales staff skiing in Klosters, for example. Roy Maugham, Tax Partner, at UHY Hacker Young, says: “It’s surprising that the value of staff entertainment hit its highest level in three years while the recession was in full swing. That’s maybe because employers felt that staff morale needed a boost during the recession, or that events which were already planned went ahead and budgets were only cut the following year.”
MAJORITY SHOULD BE COACHED
Despite being aware of the benefits of coaching, only half of UK companies coach all of their staff, according to research by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM). The report shows that 80 per cent of companies use coaching as a staff development tool, with 95 per cent reporting benefits to the organisation, and 96 per cent seeing benefits to the individual being coached. But coaching is predominantly targeted at senior level employees, with 85 per cent of companies coaching senior managers and directors, compared to just 52 per cent providing coaching for non-management staff. Penny de Valk of the ILM says: “Coaching is the single most cost-effective development investment an organisation can make as this learning naturally spreads across the workplace. Yet our research suggests that a limited segment of the working population receives coaching.”