Unlocking Growth: The Power of Organizational Assessments

Organizational assessments are a critical tool for organizations to evaluate, identify, and create action plans for growth.  Diagnostics of this nature provide invaluable data that allow organizations to address the barriers to growth quickly and effectively. Regularly evaluating the multiple dimensions of your business is key to being able to move through the unavoidable Stages of Development and take the actions that will make meaningful differences in your company’s trajectory. It is not uncommon for businesses to have limited knowledge of what the problems are due to lack of diagnostics, leading to false assumptions that can lead founders down the wrong path.

This article isn’t about the broad landscape of assessments. Instead, it focuses on one specific assessment, examining its unique value and how it can be leveraged to build a great company. You can get started with this organizational assessment today using our Org Fitness Review.

What Are Organizational Assessments?

There are several types of organizational assessments, each designed to provide insight into different aspects of a company. Some help us pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, others assess where we are in our Stages of Development, and others serve specialized purposes. Each offers valuable perspectives for different use cases. Organizational assessments are part of a systematic process used to evaluate an organization’s overall health, effectiveness, and alignment with its strategic goals. These comprehensive evaluations encompass various dimensions of the organization, including its structure, culture, processes, and performance metrics. The ultimate goal of organizational assessments is to provide leaders with actionable insights that can enhance organizational resilience, boost performance, and foster continuous improvement.

Key Components of an Organizational Assessment

Performance Evaluation

Assessments often begin with a thorough appraisal of the organization's performance. This may involve analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs), productivity metrics, and financial outcomes. By focusing on the right KPIs and having the right systems in place — through weekly meetings, quarterly planning, and other regular touchpoints — you’ll stay aligned with the leading indicators and continuously refine your approach.

Cultural Assessment

Understanding the organization's culture is vital. This involves assessing employee attitudes, values, and behaviors that shape the workplace environment. Tools such as employee surveys, focus groups, and interviews can provide insights into employee satisfaction, engagement, and alignment with the organization’s mission and values.

Capabilities Analysis

A critical aspect of organizational assessment is evaluating the skills and capabilities of the workforce. This includes assessing talent management processes, training programs, and succession planning. Organizations must identify any skills gaps that could hinder their performance and determine strategies to address them.

Structural Review

Organizational structure plays a significant role in how effectively a business operates. An assessment may review reporting lines, team dynamics, hierarchies, and decision-making processes. Identifying inefficiencies in structure can help streamline operations and improve communication.

Process Evaluation

Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational processes is another crucial component. This involves scrutinizing workflows, operational protocols, and service delivery mechanisms to identify bottlenecks or redundancies. Optimizing these processes can lead to significant cost savings and improved service quality.

Benefits of an Organizational Assessment

As an organization continues to grow, team members should take the opportunity to evaluate what is and isn't working. Assessments help you analyze the current state of the organization while identifying key areas where things can be improved.

• Enhanced Decision-Making: Organizational assessments provide leadership with reliable data and insights, enabling informed decisions that align with the organization's strategic goals and priorities.
• Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses: Through systematic evaluation, organizations can pinpoint their strengths to leverage for growth and recognize weaknesses that need to be addressed for overall improvement.
• Improved Performance and Efficiency: By uncovering gaps and inefficiencies in processes and systems, assessments help streamline operations, leading to enhanced productivity and cost-effectiveness.
• Increased Employee Engagement and Morale: Engaging employees in the assessment process fosters a culture of inclusion and communication, leading to higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and reduced turnover rates.
• Proactive Problem-Solving: Regular assessments allow organizations to detect potential issues before they escalate, enabling proactive measures to mitigate risks and avoid crises.
• Facilitation of Continuous Improvement: Assessments promote a culture of continuous improvement by identifying opportunities for innovation and encouraging ongoing evaluation of practices and processes.
• Alignment of Strategic Goals: Conducting assessments helps ensure that the organization's operations and initiatives are aligned with its mission, vision, and strategic objectives, fostering a cohesive approach to achieving success.

When Should You Conduct Ninety's Org Fitness Review?

To help track improvement across your departments, we recommend your teams take our organizational assessment on a quarterly or biannual basis. This will help you understand your progress and keep the 9 Core Competencies top of mind during times of growth and change.

5 Steps for Conducting Your Organizational Assessment

We’ve developed a proven process for implementing an organizational assessment and creating actionable plans based on the results.

Step 1: Have Your Senior Leadership Team Take the Assessment

Ask your SLT to complete the assessment 1–2 weeks before your annual or quarterly planning begins so they have the dedicated time to sit down and think about their responses. Smaller companies can have every team member take the assessment to get the full picture.

Step 2: Choose a Facilitator to Run the Session

It’s easier to stay focused if you have a dedicated facilitator for the session. Choose a team member to be responsible for leading this portion of the meeting and guiding the discussion. They can prepare a list of key talking points and ensure the working session discusses every one.

Step 3: Discuss Results During Your Annual Planning Meeting

Pull up the survey results on Day 1 of your Quarterly Planning Meeting or Annual Planning Meeting. As you move through each Competency in the report, discuss low scores and even discrepancies between scores in order to uncover issues, potential goals, or Rocks.

Step 4: Develop Goals from Assessment Weaknesses

Target areas to improve over the next quarter or year. Through conversation and the new issues, goals, and Rocks created, you can start to chip away at the critical areas that your teams need to work on improving over the next quarter and year. For example, if your processes are confusing or undocumented, create a Rock for each department to build out their major processes in Ninety’s Process tool.

Don’t forget to consider your business maturity! For example, if you're just starting out, don’t jump right into process documentation. Tackle more foundational elements like vision first. We discuss this in the Stages of Development Brief if you want to read more.

Ruthlessly prioritize and leave any long-term issues on the list. You can't fix everything, so choose 1-2 issues to tackle at a time and leave the rest for future quarters.

Step 5: Build the Habit and Schedule a Task for Leaders to Take the Assessment Again

Schedule your SLT to take the assessment again at the next Quarterly Planning Meeting or Annual Planning Meeting, since quarterly or biannual assessments help to create alignment. Track improvements and make continual plans to enhance. This is easier when you have a dedicated team member responsible for quarterly planning prep work and logistics. Consider who this could be on your team to have them own this process.

What to Do After Your Organizational Assessment