Independent External Board Evaluations Service

Both research and empirical evidence suggest that an effective board creates value. It is more likely to make the high-quality decisions which will help the organisation achieve its objectives, manage its risks, and safeguard its reputation. Effective boards – and successful organisations – build trust and confidence among funders, investors, employees, customers and all those who have a stake in the company’s on-going success.

Independent external board evaluations were first recommended by the UK Corporate Governance Code in 2010 as a mechanism for assessing board effectiveness more rigorously than the practice of internal board evaluations recommended up to that point. Since then, they have become increasingly accepted – in all sectors and, increasingly, around the world – as a powerful means by which a board can assess its performance, and establish whether it is operating to high standards of governance.

Current good practice suggests that a board should conduct an independent, externally-facilitated evaluation once every three years. An independent, external evaluation overcomes the challenge often faced by internal reviews of being constrained by organisational politics, and a lack of perspective of how other boards work. A good external facilitator will be able to challenge and reassure, identify areas of strengths and areas for development, bring wider experience to bear on what a good board looks like, and provide recommendations for strengthening the performance of the board.

The case for a board pursuing an evaluation rests on the following main principles:

• If the board is promoting a culture of performance throughout the rest of the organisation, and is holding management to account to deliver accordingly, it should be prepared to subject itself to the same performance and accountability dynamic
• ‘Everything begins and ends with the board’, so it is critical that the board seeks to optimise its performance
• Why would a board not want to get better at what it does?
• It delivers one of the critical roles of the board, which is to reassure itself that it is delivering assurance of the business

This thinking has led to independent, external board evaluations becoming one of the most important innovations in governance thinking and practice in the last ten years.

Although the practice of independent, external evaluations was first introduced into the corporate sector, the practice has become increasingly embraced by the public, third and not-for-profit sectors, where the need to optimise board performance is just as relevant and business-critical. Accordingly, this offering is aimed at all such bodies.

Service Activities:

• Board observation
• Committee observation (if appropriate and relevant)
• Face-to-face interviews with directors
• 360 peer review of/by directors
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Detailed feedback
• Recommendations for improving board performance
• Further facilitation as required

All work is conducted on a confidential and non-attributable basis.