The Benefits of a CEO Assessment Tool
As the highest-ranking executive in the company, the CEO has many important responsibilities. The CEO makes most major corporate decisions. In addition, the CEO manages the overall operations and company resources, manages risks, and serves as the primary liaison for the board of directors. CEOs are elected by the board and/or the shareholders and serve as the public face of the company. As the senior executive, the CEO’s position is central to abiding by the company’s mission.
The CEO’s performance is linked to organizational performance. Shareholders and stakeholders expect, and should receive, superior performance from the senior leadership. The overall economic volatility has created somewhat of a hypervigilance on the part of stakeholders in monitoring their interest in companies and organizations.
Boards of directors need an easy way of implementing and completing CEO evaluations and analyzing the results. The survey tool in the BoardEffect platform streamlines the process for board evaluations, makes the process easier and faster, and gives better, more accurate results.
Benefits of a CEO Assessment Tool
The BoardEffect assessment tool is the perfect tool for identifying and critiquing CEO performance to ensure leadership that’s strong and effective. The assessment tool is designed to provide a way to have continual monitoring and feedback over the CEO’s performance.
One of the best features of the CEO assessment tool is that it provides an easy way to be a little more collaborative with the CEO. The CEO can use the system to self-evaluate and set up a time frame for them to complete. Good quality assessments depend on getting input from the CEO during the assessment process.
The templates in the survey platform archive your surveys so that you can reuse them. The system is flexible enough to respond to necessary updates and changes.
Not every question for a CEO assessment should be “yes or no.” It’s also not usually helpful for questions to be all essay or all multiple choice. It usually takes a variety of question-and-answer formats to get the best possible evaluations.
Boards can ask any questions that they deem reasonable. Boards should be able to identify and describe areas where the CEO achieved goals or exceeded expectations. The questions should be designed to evaluate progress or developments in programs, management of administrative processes, and staff training and development. CEOs should be expected to ensure sound financial management and legal compliance. As a measure of character, CEOs should be expected to clearly model the core values of the organization and be highly rated on such things as persistence, decency, humility and integrity. Of course, they should also have a palpable commitment to the organization’s mission.
After the board and the CEO have completed their versions of the CEO assessment, the board or committee should draft a summary and review their findings with the CEO.
Next, the summaries should go to the board for evaluation and the board should moves to approve the evaluation.
In making an evaluation of whether the current director is equipped to continue leading the organization, the board needs to look not only at whether the CEO has met the needs of the organization previously, but whether the CEO has the proper skills, knowledge and ability to take the organization into the future. Will the existing CEO be able to continue helping the organization meet or exceed its future goals?
Part of the advantage of the BoardEffect assessment tool is that it provides multiple formats for analyzing the results. Being able to easily access results will help boards or their CEO evaluation committees find the answers they need to get better results for the next evaluation.
Convenience and Saving Time Are Cost-Savings Benefits
Convenience and saving time are factors that allow CEOs and others to use the flexibility to log in at their convenience and save their information and log out if they don’t have time to finish the assessment. They can return to the program at a later time and finish it up as time permits.
Once the board has approved the final evaluation and made a recommendation for the current director to stay or be replaced, they can circulate the final draft to all the board directors for the proper electronic signatures and approvals. Another advantage of doing the CEO evaluations using a digital platform is that users can complete their evaluations in a truly anonymous form. When using paper surveys, even if the surveys are anonymous, people can sometimes tell by the handwriting which surveys came from which individuals.
The CEO Assessment Tool Is Highly Secure
A board’s work is confidential. At times, it’s also sensitive or controversial. Organizational governance practices should be protected at the highest level possible. BoardEffect gives organizations the ability to be intentional with security measures by allowing them to manage their own settings and control the degree of access that meets their objectives. Product security meets the 2014 Cybersecurity Standard framework, which is the same security platform that trusted financial institutions use. BoardEffect also has technology in place to detect and protect against accidental or intentional data leaks and attacks.
Other Uses for Electronic Assessment Tools
Board will find many uses for electronic assessment tools, including assessing conflicts of interest, soliciting feedback on meetings, and creating self-assessment processes for the board, individual directors and committees.
With BoardEffect’s digital self-assessment tool, boards no longer have to dread conducting the annual CEO assessment. By adapting, adjusting and fine-tuning the previous year’s CEO assessment questions, CEO evaluations can be processed and completed within a reasonable and predictable time frame. The sooner this gets done, the sooner the board will be able to assess the current CEO’s fit and capability.
Self-assessments benefit the CEO by making sure that he or she is continually cognizant of the importance of their role to the success of the organization. Self-assessments also give boards the advantage of being able to identify weaknesses within senior leadership that have the potential for negative effects on the organization, even if the negative effect is lack of future growth. BoardEffect’s self-assessment tool provides for these two major benefits and features many other benefits, making it an efficient, effective governance tool.
