One powerful approach that can help drive a company’s success is conducting an organizational assessment, which analyzes three key operational components — people, processes, and systems.
Through this assessment, your organization can gain valuable insights into its operations and identify areas for improvement. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from an organizational assessment within those three key components.
People
People — including employees, management, and leadership — are the driving force behind an organization's success. By understanding the challenges and opportunities related to topics like staffing levels, team structure, employee engagement, and beyond, your organization can better unlock the full potential of its workforce and drive sustainable success.
People areas assessed
Governance
Organizational structure
Leadership
Staffing levels
Workplace culture
Employee engagement
Governance
Governance refers to the processes, practices, and structures through which a governing body — often a board or council — oversees and guides an organization's operations, ensuring accountability, transparency, and alignment with its mission.
Organizational assessments review the effectiveness of the organization’s governing body in setting strategic direction, providing oversight, and holding management accountable while adhering to legal and ethical standards.
Organizational structure
Organizational structure defines the hierarchical arrangement of roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships within an organization, determining how tasks are divided, coordinated, and controlled.
Typically, an assessment of organizational structure includes a review of the following:
Span of control, or the number of employees that report directly to an individual manager
Centralization or decentralization of certain functions
Alignment of similar functions in the organizational chart
The organizational structure should both align with the organization's goals and facilitate effective communication and collaboration.
Leadership
Assessing leadership practices helps identify areas for improvement, such as the need for a unified voice, consistent prioritization, and accountability. Strong leadership is essential for guiding the organization towards its objectives and inspiring employees to perform at their best.
Staffing levels
Assessing staffing levels against current organizational needs, future goals, and industry best practices can help identify gaps, redundancies, and sole contributors. Understanding staffing needs and addressing any imbalances or skill gaps enhances productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction.
Workplace culture
Assessing workplace culture involves evaluating the values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape the organization's work environment. A positive and inclusive culture fosters innovation, collaboration, and employee satisfaction.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement plays a vital role in organizational performance. Assessing employee engagement helps identify areas where employees may feel disconnected, allowing your organization to implement strategies to improve morale, productivity, and job satisfaction.
By understanding the factors that contribute to engagement, your organization can work toward creating a more positive work environment that fosters growth and success.
Processes
Assessing processes helps your organization identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, clarify roles and responsibilities, and improve overall operational effectiveness.
Organizations that evaluate their processes are better prepared to achieve operational excellence, drive continuous improvement, and deliver value to stakeholders.
Process areas assessed
Planning and reporting
Policies and procedures
Workflows
Roles and responsibilities
Planning and reporting
Evaluating planning and reporting processes helps identify gaps, align objectives, and improve the overall strategic planning and reporting framework. Strong planning and reporting processes can help your organization stay focused, make more informed decisions, and track progress towards its desired outcomes.
Policies and procedures
Policies and procedures are essential to ensure your organization has clear guidelines and protocols in place to help guide its operations. A review of current policies and procedures can identify areas where policies may be outdated, inconsistent, or ineffective.
By streamlining and improving policies and procedures, your organization can enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and better promote compliance with regulations and industry standards.
Workflows
Workflow assessment examines how work is performed within your organization. By evaluating workflows, you can identify bottlenecks, redundancies, and areas for improvement. Streamlining workflows could lead to increased productivity, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction.
Roles and responsibilities
Evaluating employee roles and responsibilities helps identify overlaps, gaps, or misalignments that may hinder productivity and collaboration. When employees have clearly defined roles and understand their responsibilities, it can lead to increased productivity, better collaboration, reduced conflict, enhanced accountability, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Systems
Evaluating systems in an organizational assessment helps you identify areas for improvement with your technology infrastructure, determine if you have the necessary resources and facilities, and identify the tools your employees may need to succeed.
Systems areas assessed
IT systems
Infrastructure
Tools and assets
IT systems
By evaluating your technology infrastructure and software applications used within the organization, you can identify any outdated or inefficient systems that may hinder productivity and hamper your organization's ability to meet its objectives.
Opportunities for improvement might include implementing new technologies, upgrading existing systems, or integrating different systems to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Infrastructure
Evaluating the physical resources and facilities that support your organization's operations helps identify any deficiencies or areas for improvement in terms of equipment, facilities, and resources.
Assessing infrastructure helps your organization work toward having the necessary resources and facilities to support your activities and meet the needs of your employees and stakeholders.
Tools and assets
Evaluating the tools, software, and assets used by employees to perform their work helps identify gaps or inefficiencies in those areas to help improve efficiency.
What is the process for an organizational assessment?
An organizational assessment typically follows a structured five-step process to ensure a comprehensive evaluation.
Coordination. Develop a comprehensive project plan that outlines the scope of work, progress reporting, and quality assurance measures. This step ensures that the assessment is well-coordinated and aligns with the organization's goals.
Fact finding. Conduct an environmental scan of the organization through document review, interviews, and surveys of key stakeholders. This step helps gather relevant data and insights to inform the assessment process.
Analysis. Perform a gap analysis and analyze the collected data to identify challenges and formulate actionable recommendations.
Review. Prepare a draft report for review by leadership. This step ensures that the assessment findings and recommendations are thoroughly reviewed and validated.
Reporting. Produce the final report, including observations and recommendations, along with a prioritized implementation plan.
