Organisational Health Check

An organisational health check is a process that evaluates a company's overall well-being and effectiveness. It examines areas like leadership, communication, employee engagement, and operational efficiency to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The goal is to ensure the organisation is functioning smoothly, meeting its goals, and fostering a positive work environment.

It is easy to assume our own house is in order but sometimes things slip through the cracks. When an organisation has been running for a while, the things that time was spent on when it was set up tend to be forgotten and as people move on, they take their institutional memory with them.

By carrying out an organisational health check every couple of years, you can spot the gaps or identify areas that you might need to work on.

A health check isn’t a pass or fail exercise but an opportunity for your organisation to take some time to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses.

If your organisation is well run and resilient, it means you are better able to support your community. You are clear on:

• what you are aiming to achieve,
• how you do it,
• how you know you are doing it,
• what to do if something goes wrong.

Generally, the process is carried out as a self-assessment questionnaire, scoring yourself against various headings.

Size depends on how big a task it is and how many people you involve.

It can just be a functional exercise covering your policies and procedures but can be wider reaching to include your strategy and how well you communicate it to people.

If you are looking at a wider review, methods can incorporate stakeholder engagement through interviews and focus groups.

Start the process of an organisational health check by undertaking a review of your vision and mission.

Vision – how the community (world) will be changed.

Mission – what is your organisation’s role in delivering the vision.

Find out how well you have communicated your vision and mission to your stakeholders, both internal and external.

This is an important starting point for any health check as it frames what you are trying to do and why.

Ask 10 people if they can tell you what the mission/purpose of your organisation is? The people need to be drawn from across your stakeholders and include representatives from your board/trustees, staff, users, and partners.

Hold a session with the board/trustees/committee to compare the actual mission/purpose with the responses you have had.

Ask yourselves:

• Is our mission still the right one?
• How clear is the mission to other people?
• How do we communicate our mission?

Once you are confident the mission is right you can use it as the touchstone for what you do.

Ask yourselves, does this deliver our mission?

There are lots of resources available online for carrying out an organisational health check. They are called a variety of different things, health check, organisational review, governance review, strategic planning.