Why conduct
With the Global Financial Crisis and the increasing call for improved corporate governance and board accountability, right now is one of the most important times to carry out a world class Board Effectiveness Survey.
Boards can demonstrate their leadership and their commitment to good corporate governance and accountability to stakeholders by conducting an independent review of their effectiveness.
Most people understand the importance and benefits of a regular medical check up to identify any risks to their health and to determine whether their bodies are functioning to their optimal capacity.
In a similar way, Insync Surveys recommends the regular use of its Board Effectiveness Surveys to determine any risks to the “health” of the Board and the extent to which it is functioning to its optimal capacity.
Many countries now have stock exchange, prudential and other regulations that require organisations to conduct a regular board review.
It is important, however, that a review of a board’s effectiveness isn’t seen purely as a compliance or box ticking exercise, but rather one that can contribute to enhancing board performance.
The Board Effectiveness Survey benchmarks the effectiveness of boards against comparable organisations whether they are public, private, government or not-for-profit organisations.
The Board Effectiveness Survey has been designed to review the effectiveness of the board as a whole and not as a review of the effectiveness of individual directors.
The effectiveness of individual directors can be assessed using the separate Director-Peer Survey which is a valuable tool in a separate learning, development and improvement program for individual directors.
A board review can be done by using the Board Effectiveness Survey either separately or in conjunction with board member interviews and management, reviews of board charters, agendas, board papers, minutes and the like by experienced board specialists.
The comprehensive report that is prepared following completion of the survey is designed to measure the current extent of effectiveness and to highlight improvement initiatives.
Internal self administered surveys
Many boards that conduct a board survey use their own internal self administered survey to assess their effectiveness. Some of the limitations of using such surveys, however, include:
- they are rarely comprehensive in the issues they address
- the survey statements are often inappropriately worded and untested
- the survey process can be prone to bias and often lacks statistical rigour
- they do not promote candour as respondent anonymity isn’t protected
- without benchmarking or an appropriate gap analysis, the results are often incorrectly interpreted
