Return on investment in people is a tough business. When will the integration trip pay off? What about ergonomic chairs or Christmas gifts? Fruit Thursdays? Sometimes it’s better to avoid the topic. Fortunately, coaching is easier.

Firstly, coaching is one of the best-studied forms of support. It is an area closely related to business, the concepts of which have never been stranger to the concepts of efficiency, purpose or measurement. Research on the effectiveness of coaching has been carried out by business organizations and universities. The first ROI model for coaching was published by Donald Kirkpatrick in 1959! The International Coaching Federation (ICF) has presented a series of studies showing that coaching typically generates a return on investment of $4 to $8 for every dollar invested.

Secondly, the benefits of coaching reported by companies are closely related to business metrics. Most often they include increased productivity, higher quality, better customer service and fewer complaints, better retention (especially for those who benefit from coaching), and profitability. All of this can be measured in the classic “before” and “after” approach.

Employees using coaching, in turn, declare improved relations with subordinates, superiors, colleagues and clients, better teamwork, greater job satisfaction and greater commitment. These are subjective judgments, but they can be linked to attitudes that translate into hard data. For example, an anonymous questionnaire asking “Are you considering changing jobs in the coming months” gives us an estimate of the level of employee retention in the future.

OK, but how do you convert this particular process into money?

It is often easy to link a coaching goal to financial performance. For example, if we are working on the effectiveness of a sales employee, their progress will translate directly into results. But sometimes it takes work to formulate goals so that they can be tied to finances.

Let’s start with a few coaching questions:

• What kind of result do you expect from coaching?
• What happens when this result is achieved?
• How much is it worth to the organization?
• What happens if you don’t fix the problem? How much will it cost the company?

If you don’t know the answers to these general questions, try to go into more detail about the situation. For example:

• How much will it cost you if the leader doesn’t handle the project and deliver it on time?
• How much does it cost to replace a person in your organization?
• How much will the next recruitment cost you if the leader you just hired resigns?
• What’s the difference between your sales team’s results now and the results you expect from coaching?
• How can your salary increase if you build skills that will allow you to get a promotion?
• How much can an organization grow if it develops internal leaders?

The above are only examples relating to the problems that an organization may face. At Coacherto, we work with clients to develop specific questions that reflect the value obtainable in a specific process.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the intangible benefits of coaching, which do not translate into money straight away. Limiting conflicts in teams, reducing stress, better relationships, greater comfort – these are the often the effects of coaching processes. How to measure them? Fortunately, analytical tools exist today that allow us to quantify this – and other such novelties:).