Cost is higher for hiring coaches directly rather than going through human resources

Executives who hire coaches directly, rather than going through human resources, pay far too much for their services.

Executive coaching supplier Acuity Coaching claims business coaches charge 40% more when commissioned directly by executives than when they go through HR departments. Chief executive Simon Cootes said his firm asked executives and heads of learning and development or HR at about 80 companies how much they paid coaches.

"We found that coaches typically charge between £250 and £1,000 per hour. They tend to ask more from executives when they book directly, whereas they'll charge HR departments less. Executives don't know market rates and don't have any price benchmarks to make comparisons against.

"HR departments are smarter and know the standard rates."

Cootes said the highest rate he had come across was £50,000 for nine hours of coaching.

He carried out the face-to-face research from January to August before launching Acuity, which finds coaches for clients from a network of more than 1,500 executive coaches, plus those registered with the Association for Coaching and the International Coaching Federation.