Organisational Assessment

We offer several techniques for measuring the health of organisations and mapping their effectivess.

Organisational engagement surveys. This form of survey measures the extent to which employees are satisfied, loyal and motivated. It covers factors such as characteristics of the employee themselves; how they perceive their job; their relationship with their manager and colleagues; their sense of being treated fairly, and their opinion of the organisation's processes, values, purpose and strategy. Such surveys cover a broad range of topics and draw on extensive research research in the field. We normally tailor each questionnaire to the client organisation's specific needs although we do offer a standard instrument as well.

Our reports highlight which issues are positive or negative, for fifferent groups in different parts of the organisation. We can also provide benchmark data for a range of questionnaire items to enable comparisons with external bodies.

Interpretation of the results enables you to draw up action plans to address the key issues raised. Typical symptoms of poor engagement are low productivity, high absenteeism, high turnover, low innovation. There are many levers that can be used to improve these problems. We work with your managers to draw up action plans and help ensure their implementation. Follow-up surveys should demonstrate measurable performance improvements.

Bespoke employee surveys. We can work with you to design a tailored questionnaire or use an existing tried and trusted questionnaire you may already use. We have also produced organisational effectiveness surveys (focussed more on performance and alignment with strategy), culture surveys (drilling deeper into the values, norms, beliefs and assumptions of the organization) and straightforward employee satisfaction surveys.

Pulse surveys. These track perceptions over time. They are particularly useful during times of change e.g. following mergers and acquisitions or major re-structuring.

Focus groups. These allow issues to be explored in more depth, in a richer and less formal format than a questionnaire.

Interviews with key stakeholders. These are intended to delve into the "deep structure" of the organisation.

Linkage analysis. Real value can be added to organizational surveys by establishing linkages between employee perceptions, and key business metrics. A classic example is the US retail store chain, Sears, in the 1990s, which established statistical linkages between employee satisfaction and profitability. Across their stores, on average, they found that for every 5 percentage point increase in employee satisfaction, there was a 1.3 percentage point increase in customer loyalty, which in turn mapped onto a 0.5% increase in revenue growth. By targetting business units with poor employee satisfaction levels, and changing management practices to enhance morale and thereby customer satisfaction, Sears attained significant improvements in revenue and profitability.
If you can provide us with output metrics such as profitability, sales, customer satisfaction or loyalty, employee turnover or attrition, we can add value to your employee survey by identifying linkages between people performance and tangible business outputs. [ Anthony J. Rucci, Steven P. Kirn and Richard T. Quinn, "The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears" Harvard Business Review 76, no. 1 (1998): p.90.]

HR analytics We can compare HR and business metrics to build predictive models that enable managers to identify points of greatest leverage for HR interventions; map human capital across the organisation and measure return on investment on HR programmes.

Exit Surveys We can poll leavers to help feed back into the system their reasons, so any problems can be addressed and future turnover reduced.
 
Developing competency frameworks. A competency framework is a useful starting point for measuring managerial and organisational performance.

Organisational Change and Development

Armed with knowledge of the state of play within an organisation, a clear statement of objectives and a clear "desired state", we can work with an organisation to make change happen, and embed it into new ways of operating.