Board evaluations can be thought of in two aspects:

• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Board overall
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of each individual on the Board

It is good practice to conduct a Board Evaluation which covers both aspects at least once a year.  This will help ensure that the Board is achieving its key tasks and is a way for you to see if the Board is on track or if it would be possible to change the Board to achieve better results.  It is worth doing this once a year as you may have personnel changes on the Board and this will affect not only the individual evaluations but also the collective evaluation of the Board as a whole unit.

Evaluation of the Board overall

The opinion of what should be evaluated in Board evaluations is diverse, and some of the areas for evaluation are listed below:

• Purpose (e.g. overview of business strategy and its development);
• Process (e.g. effectiveness of the board’s processes and reporting committees);
• People (e.g. board composition and succession planning processes). Others use alternative classifications such as
• Structure and Logistics (e.g. board objectives, remit and terms of reference);
• Interaction (e.g. relations with shareholders and stakeholders);
• Focus (e.g. corporate strategy, governance and risk management).

It is important to note that once you have done a Board evaluation you should identify and assign key actions as a result.  It is not enough to do a Board evaluation - you must take action as a result of it.  There are some examples in the downloads below of questions you may want to ask your Board when evaluating how effective the Board is.

Evaluation of individual Board members

In addition to the Board assesing how effective it is overall, it is also worth taking some time to evaluate the individual members of the Board.  This can be done through a skills audit and matrix which are detailed on other pages in this section.

It can also be done through informal one-to-one meetings that the Chair could have with each member of the Board.  Most organisations worry about this process feeling too formal for Board members but in reality each Board member deserves to hear some feedback about how they are contributing to the organisation at the same time as having a chance to feed in whether they feel they are being engaged with appropriately.  This process can be done over an informal coffee - the important thing is that feedback is given and individuals are able to respond and evaluate their own contributions.

Below are some examples of skills matrixes which can help organisations when they are evaluating both the collective and individual role of Boards and Board members.

Downloads:

360 Degree Questionnaire.pdf

Example questionaire to evaluate the work and recourses of board members.

A Simple Skills Audit.pdf

Template of a simple skills audit to evaluate the skills of our board and which skills that have to be added.

Board Matrix Template.docx

Easy to use template to conduct skills evaluation. Word format and ready to use.

New Perspectives on Board Evaluation.pdf

Report looking at new perspective that could be interesting in board evaluation.

Rounders England Board Skills Matrix 2010.doc

Examople of a board skills matrix from Rounders England.

Board perfomance and appraisal.pdf

Example of questions that should help boards evaluate its performance.

BSUK Individual Evaluation Form.pdf

Example of an evaluation form for individual board members fill fill in. From Baseball Softball UK

Evaluation of the work of the Board.pdf

Example: Evaluation template of the work of the board. From Baseball Softball UK

CCPR Overall Board Evaluation.pdf

Example: Board Evaluation questions used by CCPR