In a study of 120 IiP-recognised businesses in the London area, respondents were asked to evaluate the long-term impact on the development of workforce skills and business performance.

Mike Fenton, head of research at Focus, said: "Many companies embrace the Investors in People standard with high expectations believing it will lead to improvements in the way the workforce is managed and raise the perception of customers and prospective employees. We wanted to see if this faith was justified."

Findings showed businesses using IiP were also looking for ways to manage organisational change, with 60 per cent of respondents having experienced significant change in the preceding three years.

IiP was seen to have a substantial impact in encouraging organisations to introduce and revise human resource processes and link training objectives to the overall business plan.

These changes consequently had an impact on the scale and role of training within organisations.

Nearly all those in the survey noted IiP had led to improved employee communication and improved working practices and systems. As a result, more than half had experienced increases in employee commitment.

Mr Fenton added: "IiP is about doing business better through the better management of people. This in turn can lead to higher staff motivation and enhanced customer satisfaction and business performance."