Coaching for Work Policies

A commitment to respect you, your teams and everything shared.

Professional Conduct at Large

As a coach, I:

  •  Conduct myself in accordance with the ICF Code of Ethics in all interactions, including coach training, coach mentoring and coach supervisory activities.
  • Commit to take the appropriate action with the coach, trainer, or coach mentor and/or will contact ICF to address any ethics violation or possible breach as soon as I become aware, whether it involves me or others.
  • Communicate and create awareness in others, including organizations, employees, sponsors, coaches and others, who might need to be informed of the responsibilities established by this Code.
  • Refrain from unlawful discrimination in occupational activities, including age, race, gender orientation, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or disability.
  • Make verbal and written statements that are true and accurate about what I offer as a coach, the coaching profession or ICF.
  • Accurately identify my coaching qualifications, expertise, experience, training, certifications and ICF Credentials.
  • Recognize and honor the efforts and contributions of others and only claim ownership of my own material. I understand that violating this standard may leave me subject to legal remedy by a third party.
  • Strive at all times to recognize my personal issues that may impair, conflict with or interfere with my coaching performance or my professional coaching relationships. I will promptly seek the relevant professional assistance and determine the action to be taken, including whether it is appropriate to suspend or terminate my coaching relationship(s) whenever the facts and circumstances necessitate.
  • Recognize that the Code of Ethics applies to my relationship with coaching clients, coachees, students, mentees and supervisees.
  • Conduct and report research with competence, honesty and within recognized scientific standards and applicable subject guidelines. My research will be carried out with the necessary consent and approval of those involved, and with an approach that will protect participants from any potential harm. All research efforts will be performed in a manner that complies with all the applicable laws of the country in which the research is conducted.
  • Maintain, store and dispose of any records, including electronic files and communications, created during my coaching engagements in a manner that promotes confidentiality, security and privacy and complies with any applicable laws and agreements.
  • Use ICF Member contact information (email addresses, telephone numbers, and so on) only in the manner and to the extent authorized by the ICF.

Conflicts of Interest

As a coach, I:

  • Seek to be conscious of any conflict or potential conflict of interest, openly disclose any such conflict and offer to remove myself when a conflict arises.
  • Clarify roles for internal coaches, set boundaries and review with stakeholders conflicts of interest that may emerge between coaching and other role functions.
  • Disclose to my client and the sponsor(s) all anticipated compensation from third parties that I may receive for referrals of clients or pay to receive clients.
  • Honor an equitable coach/client relationship, regardless of the form of compensation.

 

Professional Conduct with Clients:

As a coach, I:

  • Ethically speak what I know to be true to clients, prospective clients or sponsors about the potential value of the coaching process or of me as a coach.
  • Carefully explain and strive to ensure that, prior to or at the initial meeting, my coaching client and sponsor(s) understand the nature of coaching, the nature and limits of confidentiality, financial arrangements, and any other terms of the coaching agreement.
  • Have a clear coaching service agreement with my clients and sponsor(s) before beginning the coaching relationship and honor this agreement. The agreement shall include the roles, responsibilities and rights of all parties involved.
  • Hold responsibility for being aware of and setting clear, appropriate and culturally sensitive boundaries that govern interactions, physical or otherwise, I may have with my clients or sponsor(s).
  • Avoid any sexual or romantic relationship with current clients or sponsor(s) or students, mentees or supervisees. Further, I will be alert to the possibility of any potential sexual intimacy among the parties including my support staff and/or assistants and will take the appropriate action to address the issue or cancel the engagement in order to provide a safe environment overall.
  • Respect the client’s right to terminate the coaching relationship at any point during the process, subject to the provisions of the agreement. I shall remain alert to indications that there is a shift in the value received from the coaching relationship.
  • Encourage the client or sponsor to make a change if I believe the client or sponsor would be better served by another coach or by another resource and suggest my client seek the services of other professionals when deemed necessary or appropriate.

Confidentiality/Privacy:

As a coach, I:

  • Maintain the strictest levels of confidentiality with all client and sponsor information unless release is required by law.
  • Have a clear agreement about how coaching information will be exchanged among coach, client and sponsor.
  • Have a clear agreement when acting as a coach, coach mentor, coaching supervisor or trainer, with both client and sponsor, student, mentee, or supervisee about the conditions under which confidentiality may not be maintained (e.g., illegal activity, pursuant to valid court order or subpoena; imminent or likely risk of danger to self or to others; etc) and make sure both client and sponsor, student, mentee, or supervisee voluntarily and knowingly agree in writing to that limit of confidentiality. Where I reasonably believe that because one of the above circumstances is applicable, I may need to inform appropriate authorities. 2
  • Require all those who work with me in support of my clients to adhere to the ICF Code of Ethics, Number 26, Section 4, Confidentiality and Privacy Standards, and any other sections of the Code of Ethics that might be applicable.

Continuing Development:

As a coach, I:

  • Commit to the need for continued and ongoing development of my professional skills.

The ICF Pledge of Ethics

As an ICF coach, I acknowledge and agree to honor my ethical and legal obligations to my coaching clients and sponsors, colleagues, and to the public at large. I pledge to comply with the ICF Code of Ethics and to practice these standards with those whom I coach, teach, mentor or supervise. If I breach this Pledge of Ethics or any part of the ICF Code of Ethics, I agree that the ICF in its sole discretion may hold me accountable for so doing. I further agree that my accountability to the ICF for any breach may include sanctions, such as loss of my ICF Membership and/or my ICF Credentials. For more information on the Ethical Conduct Review Process including links to file a complaint, please click here.

Ethical and Professional Test Use Policy

Introduction

This policy aims at describing the tests will be selected, used and treated with a strong focus on ethical and professional standards. This document shall we updated as new opportunities and tools are made available to continuously improve these standards.

Test Selection

The tests administered on each project will be selected in detail in order to ensure fairness and ethics and that they do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, age or religion. The tests selected with be based on extensive research and only the latest versions will be used.

The results of the tests will be compared with normative data and, when applicable, the most relevant will be selected according to the project at hand. When the project consists of selection for a particular role or position, the test data will be use as a supplement to other data so the decision is not used solely based on the results of the administered test.

Test User Qualification

The administration, scoring and feedback of psychometric tests required a specific training and certification. To honor this, I will only use tests that I am qualified for and prepare in advance until I’m familiar and comfortable enough with the whole process and content.

The present qualification is provided by British Psychological Society (BPS) and the receipt/confirmation of qualification will be made available to the client, whenever requested or suggested.

Preparing Test Takes

The test takers will receive proper briefing and preparation beforehand. For that end:

  • Test takers will be told in advance about the nature of the assessment, why it is being used, the conditions under which it will take place and the nature of the feedback they are expected to receive. Their informed consent in taking part of the process will be obtained, If a test-taker declines to take the test they will not be coerced and their non-completion will not be viewed negatively in any decisions arising from the assessment process
  • When available, test-takers guides and practice exercises will be shared to help the test taker prepare in advance.All remaining materials will be kept secure and accessible only by the test users.
  • The recommended administration, scoring and interpretation instructions are to be followed at all times

Data Storage and Confidentiality

The data created shall remain confidential, only be used for the purposed of the specific project for which the test was administered and the results should be kept only for the required amount of time.
This means that:

  • Test takers will have the right to see any information about themselves that is held by the organisation
  • Test takers will be informed in writing as to who their test results will be disclosed to.  Access will be limited to those who need to know that information
  • Test takers will provide their informed consent over the disclosure of the data
  • Test administrator gather relevant background information on those taking the tests. Relevance is judged by the importance of the data in making accurate and meaningful interpretation of the data
  • Where test data is held and directly linked to an individual, the principles of the Data Protection Act (1984) will apply both for data stored online and offline.
  • Supplementary data is collected on all candidates for equal opportunities monitoring and from time to time research purposes. All data collected in this way will be stored without personal identifiers.

Fairness and Legal Requirements

All candidates will be informed about who will see their personality data, and/or reports written on the basis of these data. The candidate will have control over the disclosure of the data, ie the candidate’s personality data will only be revealed to others with the candidate’s prior informed consent. Where scores and other data from testing are stored, they will be accessible only by named persons who have been trained in the interpretation of the relevant tests. I will abide by the guidelines set out in the Data Protection Act. All candidates will be informed where and for how long the data will be stored. Scored and data from the testing will be destroyed between two to four years after the testing takes place.

Steps will be taken to ensure the selection conditions and test taking arrangements are adjusted to be suitable for those with disabilities, such that the procedures do not discriminate against the individual by differential impact through factors irrelevant to their ability to do the job. This includes active steps to find out the special needs of participants prior to their attendance at events related to the project at hand. These adjustments will follow standard procedures (such as Braille versions of the test, rooms with wheelchair access, etc) will be focused on bringing the whole process of the interaction between the person and the test into line with the experience of other candidates to ensure fairness between all candidates taking the test, regardless of their special needs.

Feedback

Feedback will be an integral part of the test-taker experience on all projects.

This includes:

  • Providing the feedback as soon as reasonably possible after the test is taken
  • The preferred format will be face to face; when that is not possible, a phone or video conference will be offered
  • Feedback will only be provided by me, and on tests I’m qualified and trained for
  • Feedback will include the relevance of the results and their relative value in the overall project and decisions, compared to other information being provided for the same effect. No decision relating to assessment for selection will be based on just one piece of information such as one ability test result.