Impact of coaching

An empirical longitudinal study into coachee well-being, engagement and job satisfaction following a coaching programme at work

This is a detailed report, available only to IES HR Network members. The research findings will be published more widely at a later date.

Whilst it may seem self evident that there would be a positive relationship between the receipt of coaching and individual employee psychological health and well-being, there is currently little evidence from the research to support this contention.

Aside from the need for empirical evidence to demonstrate the benefits of coaching, there is another, arguably more pressing, reason why the impact of coaching on psychological health should be assessed. The first principle of an intervention should be to ‘do no harm’. Without adequate evaluation, even practices with detrimental consequences can continue unchecked and be promoted by well-meaning providers.

This study aims to address this gap in the literature and explore whether coachees (leaders, professional and employees) experience any impact on their well-being following a coaching intervention at work and whether this impact is sustained over time.

The study is important to the coaching field because it is the first study to:

• look at coaching that is mostly resourced internally, within organisations using specially-trained managers/HR professionals
• include coaching non-managers and professionals as well as managers
• be carried out longitudinally; it covers three time points.