Organisational accreditation, workforce training and perceptions of performance

Abstract

The paper examines if the ‘Investors in People’ (IiP) organisational accreditation scheme promoted worker training and organisational performance in Britain using a panel of organisations. DID matching estimators relating to both employee- and employer-assessed training outcomes revealed that IiP status promoted workforce training, but only for private sector organisations. Conversely, losing the status was not found to have a significant training link. On organisational performance, the estimates revealed that gaining (losing) the status had a significant positive (negative) link with managers' perceptions of organisational performance in both sectors. Public sector organisations are reported to have a relative strength in workforce training, which appears to explain the lack of significant training link. The sector may thus require a different scheme to promote workforce training further.