ASSESSMENT

Once details are agreed about the design of the assessment, the assessment is scheduled.

There are four steps in a GoodCorporation assessment.

Set-up

GoodCorporation meets with the organisation to agree the assessment framework and the scope of work. For a smaller organisation this is typically an assessment of the whole organisation against the whole of the GoodCorporation Standard. In larger organisations, the scope of work may be limited to a number of divisions or countries. The assessment may also be expanded from the GoodCorporation Standard to cover specific issues of interest to the corporation.

Once the scope of work is agreed, a timetable is developed with the organisation’s project manager. This involves the selection of a sample of employees, customers, suppliers and so on for interview. Where a group is being polled for their views on a set of policies, an email survey would be set up at this stage and sent out.

The duration of the on-site work is primarily driven by the size of the organisation. Typically, this ranges from two days for the smallest organisations up to about three weeks for the division of a large corporation.

The project manager then has the task of organising the assessment visit.

On-site Work

GoodCorporation then returns to conduct the on-site assessment. The assessor starts with interviews of the key functional managers from HR, HSE, sales etc. to understand how practices are supposed to work. In a small organisation this could be completed in a few hours. In a large corporation this work might be spread over two days.

The assessor then reviews records, documents and system outputs which show how the policies of the organisation work on the ground.

The assessor then interviews the sample of stakeholders. These interviews are either face-to-face or by phone. Where a group has been surveyed by an on-line poll, the assessor will review the results of the poll at this point.


Analysis and Reporting     

The assessor then uses all the evidence gathered to evaluate how effectively the practices are working in reality. The assessor will write a short summary of the evidence and give a grade for each practice from ‘fail’ to ‘commendation’.

The assessor will then present the main findings to the management of the organisation to explain the findings and grades.

The assessor will then leave the site and write a more detailed report on the findings. In addition the assessor will develop the metrics and benchmarks to show the organisation how they compare to others.


Accreditation

For organisations seeking membership the report is sent to the Accreditation Council for approval. Once this approval is obtained (usually over a two week period) the organisation, if it has no ‘fail’ grades, can then receive its certificate and use the member logo.

Organisations that do not meet all the criteria for certification may propose actions to address the shortcomings and a timescale for remedial action. In these circumstances, GoodCorporation would agree what further steps would be required for certification, such as a submission of evidence or a follow-up visit.

To find out more about how we measure our clients performance, click here