Organizational assessments are used to analyze a company’s vision and goals, determine the impacts of this transformation, assess their preparedness to handle the transformation, and establish the risks associated with the transformation.
There are two primary outputs from organizational assessments: Organizational Impact Assessment (OIA) and Organizational Risk Assessment (ORA). OIA serves to provide information on the current status of the organization’s structure. This output identifies the direct and indirect impacts that change will have on the workforce, in order to determine the active steps that need to be taken to accomplish the company’s mission. ORA provides a breakdown on the type and severity of transformation risks and issues, in order to determine potential mitigation solutions.
Why conduct an organizational assessment?
Organizational assessments are very beneficial to a company’s efficiency and ability to grow.
They can be useful in identifying an organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Through analyzing the organization’s performance, effective organizational assessments are able to optimize a company’s strategies and decision-making processes.
In addition to resolving current functionality issues, organizational assessments help with strategic decision-making that impact the future of the company. For example, companies going through change may need to make various decisions, such as:
- Structure changes (merge, update mission, etc.)
- Service changes (offer new services, expand on a few of the offerings, etc.)
- Financial decisions (new investors, fundraising ideas, etc.)
The main purpose of an organizational assessment is to identify specific needs of the organization, and make the necessary action plan to address these needs. Through an effective diagnosis, organizational assessments can then optimize a company’s performance.
Organizational assessment best practices
In 2011, the Center for Effective Philanthropy surveyed CEOs of American foundations and found that nearly 50% of respondents conducted organizational assessments, most notably to learn and improve their foundation’s future performance, to demonstrate accountability for their foundation’s use of resources and to understand the impact of their foundation’s work.
In order to best utilize an organizational assessment, your team should have the following traits:
- Organizational knowledge: Team members must recognize their responsibility and the goals of the company.
- Analysis skills: Everyone should understand the ins and outs of organizational assessments, as well as how to decipher data in order to optimize efforts.
- Effective communication: The team must effectively communicate the results of the assessment in an understandable way.
- Collaboration: Team members need to effectively apply the findings from the organizational assessment and work together in a time-sensitive manner.
Your vision for the future of your organization is different from its current reality. A thorough organizational assessment is necessary to compare your current reality with your vision, and determine effective steps to achieve your goals.