Acuity Coaching, an executive coaching supplier launched in September, aims to bring consistency to the fragmented global coaching market, after discovering that business coaches are charging on average 40% more when commissioned directly by executives than HR in their market research.
In a market estimated to be worth 150m in the UK and 1bn worldwide, the firm asserts that fair pricing and coaching quality are being compromised by over 50% of executives paying the penalty of bypassing HR to assign their own coaches.
The research has focussed on identifying what is actually happening in UK based multi-nationals with regard to the deployment and management of executive coaching. The report, expected to be published next month, will highlight the vast differences between users of coaching and identify examples of best practice.
By giving organisations access to best practice across the coaching lifecycle, Acuity Coaching aims to help HR to control the cost and quality of coaching and give businesses a traceable return on their investment on a global basis.
The firm uses executive search style techniques to recruit coaches for each organisation based on their requirements and intends to plug the gap in the expanding market for a specialist to source and manage global coaching panels.
Simon Coops, Acuity Coaching chief executive, formed the company to capitalise on the fact that the 1bn executive coaching industry has no major player - despite being several times bigger than other HR Services markets.
Coops, a former founder of Penna, a market leading human capital service company, which serviced high-profile clients including BT, has been an active player in the HR Services market since the 1980's.
Said Simon Coops: Coaching is like recruitment was in the eighties. Organisations are being approached by individual coaches charging up to 1500 per hour - with no means of telling the good from the bad. By introducing careful selection and a central tracking process, we are able to select the best fit coaching panels for each organisation and offer a tangible means of monitoring return on investment.
This will regulate charging and quality standards across the industry, as HR will be able to control coaching for the benefit of the organisation.
As a measure of its future success, Acuity Coaching has received 100% take-up from all the organisations it has approached in its first month of trading - including several Investment Banks who have asked them to build panels of coaches in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Acuity Coaching has a network of over 1500 executive coaches worldwide and specialises in sourcing and selecting global coaching panels. This constantly expanding network supports the delivery of business coaching solutions to provide the best fit for clients meeting varied geographical, corporate background and level requirements.
New executive coaching firm challenges 40% discrepancy in charges
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