Top 6 Reasons for a Company-wide Assessment

Why use a company-wide assessment? Business development expert, Jo Spurrier, answers the question for us in this week’s highly anticipated story. Jo outlines the top 6 reasons why a company-wide assessment is so invaluable for establishing an objective foundation for the macro and micro development within an organization. With Jo’s enlightening discussion and terrific insights the value – at every level – becomes crystal clear.

Top 6 Reasons for a Company-wide Assessment

By Jo Spurrier

Do we really need to include ‘everyone’ in our organization’s assessment? The answer is always the same: “yes, every person, every time!” Meaning, all employees’ perceptions and viewpoints are valuable and we know perceptions drive actions and behavior. Despite the challenges to include everyone in an assessment, the ‘Every person, every time’ mantra echoes what a dentist once shared about flossing — “Only floss the ones you want to keep!” Objective and rich data (along with a dose of goodwill) is gained by inviting each person to take the time to share their perspective.
Every Organization Benefits from Objective, Feedback-driven Data

1. Make better decisions through better data. Gain the needed competitive edge by making decisions derived from data versus reacting based upon experience. Seasoned leaders can often fall into the risky habit of leading by intuition. A good company-wide assessment should offer an unbiased, objective analysis of where companies and consultants should invest their time, training and individual assessments for leadership development, team-building, sales training, optimizing communication and employee selection.
2. Create an early warning system. Successful leaders have learned the value of asking for input before something goes wrong. They know not to wait until a process breaks down or an employee quits. The ability to be proactive is an essential element to leading a healthy team and profitable company.
3. Establish a benchmark. The ability to conduct periodic measurement in order to assess progress is fundamental for continuous improvement. Accurate data allows a company to measure the consequences of their decisions and actions. Periodic evaluation allows for leaders to strategically apply behavior modification; monitor, adjust and improve their teams’ performance based upon data.
4. Ensure optimal use of resources. The decision to identify, measure and address company issues can be a costly endeavor. Determine if your decisions, efforts and use of time have been on target and never again question the ROI of your resources!
5. Conduct in-depth analysis. Most company-wide assessments offer the ability to filter responses by pre- determined demographics. The capacity to view company concerns based upon gender, tenure, levels of leadership, departments/divisions creates tremendous insight and allows for top priorities to be addressed with laser precision.
6. Create a foundation of support. The incredible value earned from including each employee’s perceptions when gathering information about their company is hard to encompass. The positive echoes of inclusion are far reaching but include engagement, productivity, loyalty and a sense of ownership for the outcomes of action taken based upon their input.

Regardless of their application, early prevention measures play a key role in addressing potential hazards before they truly cause harm. All cars come with an early detection system, the indicator light. This small innocuous light never catches our attention — until it flashes red, warning us to pay attention and take action. Think back to a time when you took your car to the shop because an indicator light told you there was an issue. Did you ask the mechanic to focus only on the known problem, or did you expect them to also let you know of any other issues that may also be in your foreseeable future? A known concern provides the perfect opportunity to perform a vehicle-wide assessment to detect those other latent performance issues.
A company, much like a car, runs best when all components are working at peak performance. For the car, this means maximum fuel efficiency, greatest speed potentials, and a more accurate predictor of safe transportation. Companies are the same! When teams, departments, divisions and locations are working at peak performance, operations are most efficient, the pace of productivity is increased, and the company has a more accurate predictor of future success.
When a performance issue is indicated within a company, effective business leaders thoughtfully respond by taking action to gain a broader view. With this approach, a known concern becomes the vital trigger to review its direct and indirect impact on the entire organization.
Successful companies relate the value of a company-wide assessment to an annual tune-up for your car. It is how you take care of something you care about; an investment in your future. When pondering which employees to include on a company assessment, the answer remains simple: include each person — every time. What a company pays attention to will grow and expand. Adversely, what a company overlooks or ignores will likely experience avoidable costs and losses.  Strategically direct each of your employees focus by asking for their valued input.

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Jo Spurrier has 30-years experience as a leader in business development, coaching and corporate human resources. She’s worked for such notable organizations as, The Walt Disney Company and Winn Dixie, where she’s been the Director of Talent Management & Organizational Development. Jo is also one of the chief developers for the Assessments 24×7 ground-breaking NEW company-wide assessment, The Performance Gap Indicator.