At the same time we considered that in the CEBs, managers preferred to invest more in
human capital, consequently average share of HR costs in total costs and proportion
between the annual HR training budget and annual labour compensation fund in the
CEBs could be higher....................
At the second stage of our study we examined the differences between the
organizational features of HRD systems in companies from the experimental (the
CEBs) and control (the CWEBs) groups we surveyed. The questionnaire was sent by
e-mail to the HR department of the CEBs and CWEBs, then HR managers sent it to
their employees and asked them to complete it and send the responses electronically to
us. In each CEB 15 to 20 employees filled in questionnaire (n ¼ 289). In each CWEB 5 to
11 employees filled in questionnaire (n ¼ 905). Thus, the total number of companies,
which took part in the questionnaire survey was 113 (n ¼ 1,194). The distribution of
the companies by industry is provided in Table I.................
The questionnaire for the survey of employees in the companies from the
experimental and control groups was prepared on the basis of the well-known
European quality standard “Investors in People” (IiP)................
We found that IiP, developed and applied in the UK as a framework for the
assessment of the HRD systems in organisations, met our requirements. “IiP” is a
standard developed in the UK in the late 1980s to early 1990s for the purpose of
assisting organisations in developing more effective personnel management systems.
The most important feature of this approach is that it is based on the assumption that
training and development is at the centre of the effort to create effective HRD systems
(Investors in People). The standard was developed by the Confederation of British
Industry and the British Trade Union Congress. Later on, in 1991, the organisation
“IiP” dealing with the development and dissemination of this standard around the
world was launched.............
The assessment system of “IiP” was designed to improve the business performance
through system strategies of organisational management based on involving the
employees in decision-making and goal-setting. It should be noted that this standard
does not offer a rigid system of steps to follow: it is rather a foundation that helps every
company to create its unique method of achieving success with the help of its personnel
(Bell et al., 2001). It is both a tool of organisational change and a foundation for a
comprehensive employee development programme. The standard requires the creation
of the organisational business strategy through a new policy and a new HRD