Nonprofit Executive Director/CEO Evaluations – A Best Practice

On its website, www.councilofnonprofits.org, the National Council on Nonprofits highlights 5 Basic Good Governance Practices as follows:

5 Basic Good Governance Practices

1. Maintain minutes of all board meetings (and committee meetings for committees that are authorized to act on behalf of the board, such as an executive committee). (See IRS Form 990, Part VI, Section A, line 8)
2. Annually review a written policy and complete a questionnaire about conflicts of interest. (See IRS Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12) and document in minutes of board meetings when the policy is invoked.
3. Approve the executive director/CEO’s compensation and benefits, and document how the board determined that the compensation is appropriate, and not excessive. (See IRS Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 15)
4. Require the board to review a copy of the IRS Form 990 before it is filed. (See IRS Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 11) For smaller nonprofits that only file the Form 990-N, make sure the board knows about the annual filing requirement.
5. Disclose to the public the nonprofit’s three most recently filed annual returns with the IRS, as well as its application for tax-exemption and related correspondence and attachments.

Relative to #3, the Council states that a board of directors is responsible for hiring and establishing the compensation (salary and benefits) of the executive director/CEO by identifying compensation that is “reasonable and not excessive,” but that also is attractive enough to retain the best possible talent to lead the organization. The recommended process for determining the appropriate compensation is to conduct a review of what similarly-sized peer organizations, in the same geographic location, offer their senior leaders. Nonprofits filing IRS Form 990 must describe the process they use to approve executive compensation as part of the nonprofit’s responses on the annual return, IRS Form 990, Section VI, Part B, line 15.

 ___________________________________________________________________

At Tweed-Weber, we believe strongly that the overall performance of the nonprofit executive director/CEO should be evaluated by the board on an annual or biannual basis as a companion to the peer review. To that end, we have developed an evaluation tool and turnkey process that “leaves the driving to us.” We can help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Why do Employees Fear Workplace Engagement?

We have in our “interesting read file” a great article, The 3 Fears Employees Have About Engagement — and How to Confront Them. The article was written by Chris Powell of TLNT | Talent Management and HR. It was written so well that we wanted to share the main gist of it with all of you. Chris hit the right points about employee engagement, so we figured we wouldn’t reinvent the wheel. Here’s a bit of what Chris had to say.

______________________________________________________________

Employee engagement initiatives don’t have to be stressful. Too many times, we’ve seen organizations dragging their feet on engagement work. And we get it; change is hard, and a new engagement initiative can mean big changes in culture and operations at an organization. But, those changes result in very good things — like better retention, more satisfied employees, higher productivity, and a healthier bottom line.

In many cases, the source of stress is actually unfounded fears. Here are the most common fears we see at the companies we’ve worked with, along with some pointers on how to successfully manage them.

1. Fear of the unknown

If you’re considering an employee engagement initiative, it’s probably because you believe people are disengaged at your organization. You’re losing employees or productivity is down. But what if it’s even worse than you think it is? What if you survey employees and the results spell out exactly what they don’t like about working there?

For many leaders, contemplating those questions are a fast track to stress. They get frozen by fear of what they don’t know and what might be uncovered by an employee survey. And that simply compounds the problem, especially if any announcement about improving engagement was made to the employee population.

The reality: It’s impossible to manage engagement without knowing your baseline. It may be an eye-opener to see results from a survey, but you can’t change without it. You know you want to improve engagement at your organization, so keep in mind that knowing the specifics will help you manage it more effectively.

2. Fear of irrelevance

Some HR departments hold off on engagement initiatives because they may think that employee engagement is a passing fad or another box to check off. They may resist implementing a change because they think in the next year or two there will be another trend to chase after.

The reality: Employee engagement initiatives get proven results. When Gallup performed a meta-analysis on its Q12 measure, it found that engaged organizations perform better. It describes the relationship between engagement and performance as “substantial” and that this relationship is applicable across organizations.

Employee engagement represents an opportunity to coordinate employee attitudes and business goals for long-term success.

3. Fear of extra work

Once an organization commits to doing an employee engagement survey and gets the results, it faces a critical question: Who will do the work to improve engagement? Not doing anything is even worse than not surveying in the first place; it only gets employees’ hopes up that something might change, and when it doesn’t, they can be even more disengaged.

The reality: The results you get from your employee survey will provide a path you can follow to boost engagement, but remember that the path is made up of many small steps. It’s impossible to change engagement levels overnight, and there’s no reason to try to do so. Managers are often on the front line when it comes to instituting engagement efforts, so find ways to educate and empower them to take on engagement-boosting efforts as part of their work.

Thinking about your business objectives and the role employees play in achieving them can help ease some of the stress around engagement. An engagement initiative can help identify things managers need to know to drive performance and keep them in front of problems before they happen.

Employee engagement is not a switch you can turn on. It’s a series of small steps that the entire organization must take over time to achieve change. The process doesn’t have to be hard; it simply takes a commitment from people at all levels to make changes in the way the company operates internally.

__________________________________________________________

At Tweed-Weber, we make implementing an Employee Engagement Survey easy. We can help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Did you take the tour?

We are excited to share our new website with you! After months of designing and planning, we finally launched our new site in the beginning of August. Have you had a chance to tour it?

You may be asking yourself, “What is different with the new site, and why are we so excited to share it?” Well, for starters, it’s a whole new design. When we first started talking about what we wanted to do with the website, we all came to the conclusion that we wanted something clean, something professional, but at the same time fun – which is why we have a stock ticker on our homepage! We also wanted to showcase our different aspects of research, and also highlight Strategic Planning more.

Some of our new highlights to our new website are the Strategic Planning FAQs, our TWI Nonprofits Matter, TWI Bank, and Around Greater Reading. Let’s go into a little more detail about these different sections.

Strategic Planning/FAQs

What is strategic planning? Why does your company need it? What are the benefits? Our strategic planning page, along with our FAQs, goes into detail about why strategic planning is important to your business and answers the questions you may be asking yourself to decide if it is what your company needs.

TWI Nonprofits Matter

Our TWI Nonprofits Matter brand is dedicated to helping nonprofits achieve their mission and vision. In our TWI Nonprofits Matter brand, we offer Board Assessments and Executive Director Assessments to help nonprofits. Learn more about our processes, and read testimonials from nonprofits in the area about our great assessment services.

TWI Bank

Our TWI Bank brand is something new to us, and we are proud to offer services to banks. What does our TWI Bank brand offer? We offer board assessments for both banks and credit unions so they can gather perceptions from board members in an effort to meet regulatory standards and measuring board performance, compliance, and efficiency. Also, our TWI Bank Board Self-Assessments meets FDIC requirements –an added bonus!

Around Greater Reading

One of our newest pages, and something close to our hearts, is our Around Greater Reading page. We wanted to be able to share with readers our love for our community since we are Reading Proud. This page focuses on the latest happenings around our community, but also highlights our community service as a team. 

To view our new website, click here!

What's your objective?

Working in the consulting industry and preparing client’s strategic plans, I have come across numerous strategies and objectives a company wants to fulfill in that given fiscal year. Some clients may have three or four objectives, while others have ten or twelve or even more. But being able to achieve these objectives is the challenge for each company. “You can always tell how important a goal is by how much time and money a company invests in it,” says Kevin McConville and Jeff Durr, writers of Six Ways to Make Customer Programs Work.
 
This quote sums up the importance of setting objectives for a company, and their want and need to achieve them is based on the company itself and how much they invest – money and/or human resources – into each objective. We have to remember that the goals a company is setting is for the benefit of the company in either the long- or short-term, or both. According to McConville and Durr, there are six factors that play an important role in the success of companies’ objectives – belief, credibility, actionability, accountability, systems, and human capital. In order for a company to be successful in the implementation of the objectives, these six factors MUST be present.

Belief
We all have something that we believe in or have beliefs that we instill in ourselves and others, so how is it any different from the corporate world? Beliefs in the corporate world are instilled in employees from the top-down, and one must follow the company’s beliefs because it is their “golden rule” per se.

For example, if a company has poor customer service, but says “the customer always comes first,” and doesn’t instill this belief into its employees, then nothing will ever change. A company can create objective after objective for its company about its customer service issue, but they have to be willing to put in the effort to accomplish it.  

Credibility
Credibility is defined as the quality of being trusted and believed in and the quality of being convincing or believable. These two definitions are extremely important to a company because it is what drives a company to success. If a company isn’t credible in its processes, how does one believe in them to stick to their word?  

Actionability 
Lights, Camera, ACTION! This is even true in the business sector as well. With every objective or strategy that is put in place, the company needs to have the initial set up (lights), along with a plan in place for how it will work out (camera), and then ultimately make that plan come to life (action).
 
Accountability
To be held accountable means to accept responsibility or to account for one’s action, something most of us have been instilled with since birth. Imagine a world where people didn’t take responsibility for their actions, especially in the business world. How could businesses thrive? Most businesses thrive on being the number one in something – whether it is customer service, packaging, delivery, etc. – but being accountable for their main goal is something else entirely. In order to make a real change, it requires real change. How can you do this?
 
Imagine you are playing a basketball game, and each time your team has the ball, they do the same play each time, but without much success. After some time, you begin to realize, “This isn’t working for our team. Something needs to change.” And after some careful thought, the next play is different, and WHAM! a basket is scored. To make a real change, the behaviors or events have to change to create a new, better outcome. Just like in the basketball game, change is beneficial to anything in life, even in business.
 
Systems
A system, in essence, is what makes the world go round. Everything revolves around some sort of system, so it only makes sense for a program to work that a good, solid system should be in place – no matter what it is. Having a bad organization-wide system can inhibit growth and send a message that customers are everyone’s responsibility except leaderships, according to McConville and Durr. A good balance is needed between the top leadership and the workers. If top leadership doesn’t follow by the rules they mandate, how can they expect the workers to as well? Find a balance, and practice what one preaches. 

Human Capital
We all know that a person can’t really change. As hard as we may try to change them, they will always remain the same. The same holds true for those who interact with customers. If the person has an attitude problem, then the customer experience will be bad. No policies, procedures, or rules will change the outcome because, ultimately, it’s how a person is that makes the experience. McConville and Durr stated that based on their experience, companies that focus on natural talents and strengths do better. 

Teams with managers who received strengths feedback have 8.9% greater profitability and 12.5% greater productivity compared with teams with managers who received no strengths feedback.
Turnover rates were 14.9% lower among employees who received feedback on their strengths.

These six factors go hand-in-hand. If one is missing, the others will suffer. With the start of the New Year, it’s time to look at your company and see what is and what isn’t working, and to implement these six factors into your everyday, business life. To find out how we can help you achieve this goal and how we can help you KNOW MORE so you can DO MORE, contact Tweed-Weber, Inc. at toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

To read the whole article, click here: Six Ways to Make Customer Programs Work

About the author: Gretchen Koch has been with Tweed-Weber, Inc. since 2012 and serves as Operations Manager. She oversees office processes and provides quality control on all market research reports and strategic planning documents

Answers to Your Burning Questions

When doing customer surveys, some clients ask us NOT to include the question, “What do you believe is the top weakness/area for improvement of the organization – what’s not working well?” Some are afraid of waking a sleeping dog and would rather we let it rest a while longer. Why should you include this question in your customer survey?

Learning about what your customers feel are weaknesses of your organization is the main reason to do a customer perception survey. You should WANT to know what they think so you can go to work immediately on product and/or service improvements. The last thing you want to do is transfer any weaknesses or hiccups in a process to new customers as they come on board.

There is an added extra bonus to asking a direct question about organizational weaknesses – your customers appreciate being asked and feel like they matter enough for you to reach out to them for their feedback.

So, in a nutshell, what do we recommend? Ask the tough questions every chance you get, especially about weaknesses. Don’t shy away from it; embrace it! The honest responses you get will help you maintain an ongoing continuous improvement environment.

Just a quick hit Q&A in case you were wondering!  

If you would like to know more about conducting a Customer Perception Survey, give us a call. We can help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Answers to Your Burning Questions...

When doing online customer and/or employee surveys, our clients often ask, “How much time should we give for people to take the survey?” Our standard answer is two weeks, unless there is an unusual circumstance that requires a longer time frame.

When the survey first launches, you will get about 80 percent of your respondents completing the survey in the first week, and most of those folks will take it within the first few days. The second week is basically to send out reminders about the survey. There will be an instant flurry of responses the second week from people who intended on taking it, but just didn’t get around to it the first week. Keeping the survey open for more than two weeks will only extend the time period of the survey activity; it will not garner a notable batch of additional responses. In a nutshell, if someone wants to participate, they will do so within two weeks. After that, they lose interest.

Just a quick hit Q&A in case you were wondering!  

If you would like to know how effective your current online customer and/or survey process is, or if you’d like to be proactive in starting a new survey initiative, give us a call. We can help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Tweed-Weber Announces a Turnkey, Cost-Effective Library Board Self-Assessment

Reading, PA - Tweed-Weber, Inc., a research and strategic planning consulting firm that works with numerous libraries and library systems in Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce a turnkey process for library board evaluation. The Library Board Self-Assessment was developed to allow a board to assess:

• How the board operates structurally
• How the board operates behaviorally
• How the board performs its duties
• How well board members operate individually

The Library Board Self-Assessment is 100% confidential for board members and takes only 15-20 minutes to complete. In addition, virtually no staff or management effort from the library is required. Tweed-Weber does all the work with an all-inclusive, turnkey process that includes the assessment, online implementation, data analysis, and a final report.

The ONLY thing a library director or board chair needs to do is forward an email (prepared by Tweed-Weber) to board members asking them to complete the self-assessment. That's it. Tweed-Weber does the rest.

The Library Board Self-Assessment can be delivered in as little as two weeks from the time it is ordered, and once a base year is on record, it is benchmarkable in future years.

The Library Board Self-Assessment was designed specifically to enhance the performance of library boards as they work to transform their libraries into Libraries of the Future. 

For more information, contact Sharon Danks, Vice President, Tweed-Weber, Inc. through any of the following methods: via telephone at 1-800-999-6615, by email at sdanks@tweedweber.com, on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.), or on Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Women2Know Profile: Sharon Danks, Vice President, Tweed-Weber, Inc.

Sharon has been with Tweed-Weber for 23 years, and is profiled in the current Winter 2014 Edition of Women2Women Magazine, published quarterly by the Hoffmann Publishing Group, Reading PA, and released in January 2014. The original magazine profile can be found at www.berkswomen2women.com.

Women2Women, launched by the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry, encourages women to create connections, gain knowledge, open doors, and build strategic alliances. Their goal is to create more women leaders in Berks County by providing a forum where women from diverse backgrounds can learn, share ideas, and mentor each other.

The following are the questions asked of Sharon in the magazine’s Q&A interview style.

W2W: Why is your position unique to women in our community?

Sharon: At Tweed-Weber, we do strategic planning and market research (customer surveys, employee surveys, market assessments, nonprofit board of director assessments, etc.). Our mission is to help our clients build and implement strategies to gain and sustain competitive advantage in their markets throughout the world. I think doing this kind of consulting work is unique in Berks County. The market research side of our business, where I spend most of my time, is extremely interesting. We work with a wide range of for-profit and nonprofit organizations to help them identify what internal and/or external research will help them make important, strategic decisions with clarity and confidence. One day we are working with a human service organization, the next an engineering firm, the next a candy manufacturer, the next a library system, etc. The list goes on. Although our client base varies, the research process we use to obtain the information they need remains the same. Using the research data to help clients increase sales, grow a product line, better understand employee perceptions, engage nonprofit board members, and/or gain more visibility in their markets, is exciting and very rewarding.

W2W: Would you wish to acknowledge a mentor or friend who helped you aspire to this point in your life’s journey, and why?

Sharon: I can instantly name five mentors that have had a huge impact on me. Two are people I worked for over 25 years ago before Tweed-Weber; Lori Wood (Noll) and John Pachuilo. One is my current business partner at Tweed-Weber, Al Weber, and the other two are my parents, Tom and Adrienne Danks. Lori Wood instilled in me the desire to work and achieve the professional goals I set for myself. John Pachuilo instilled in me the importance of being committed and dedicated to your work, and Al Weber instilled in me the value, meaning, and integrity that must be the foundation for your work. My father taught me at a very early age that being a responsible person who contributes to the world around me will always result in something good. And my mother always taught me to stay true to myself and to know that God is the only one I need to impress; that way, I’ll never have a need for a big ego. There are so many other people in the Berks community I would consider mentors that I work with today (too many too mention), and I feel truly blessed to be gifted in my life with such wonderful people.

W2W: What do you do to set work & play boundaries?

Sharon: A lot of people talk about “having balance” today.  I think there is an unrealistic view of what defines a healthy work/life/play balance. I subscribe to what one of my mentors taught me years ago. It reshaped how I view my life. He believes a better way to think about it is through “integration.” How are you integrating, instead of balancing, everything you need to do and want in your life? For me, different aspects of my life take over and require more attention at different times, and I’m ok with that. Sometimes I need to work like a maniac, and other times my home life shouts a little louder and I need to answer the call. It’s much less stressful when you take the pressure off yourself to achieve a complete balancing act and, instead, stay flexible realizing that an always fluctuating integration of work and life actually IS balance. It just looks different sometimes. I think it makes for a happier life.

W2W: What’s your mission?

Sharon: Gratitude. My personal mission is to acknowledge and be grateful for, every day, the many blessings in my life. I try to remind myself often that what I may take for granted, someone else is praying for.

W2W: Is there a philosophy that you live by?

Sharon: My philosophy is a basic one – learning is never over. Every day is a chance to learn something new. I believe anyone, from newborn to 100, can impart great wisdom if you pay attention to them. I also believe strongly that animals are the best teachers of what humans need to learn most. 

W2W: What do you consider to be the main asset of women?

Sharon: On a personal level, I think the answer would differ depending on the personality, beliefs, and talents of each individual woman. On a professional level, I believe a few common assets would be confidence, empathy, humor, graciousness, and the ability to work collaboratively with others. 

W2W: What do you consider to be the main threat of women?

Sharon: I believe, man or woman, there is no greater threat than yourself. As the quote says, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on her own wings. If a person believes in himself/herself, opportunities can be endless.

W2W: What words of wisdom would you offer to other women?

Sharon: The greatest words of wisdom I can share is something my father used to tell me and my sister all the time growing up. He would talk to us about “the glass ceiling” and how to approach it. He said if we ever ran into barriers, we should always look at it as “a mirrored ceiling,” not glass, because it would require us to look back at ourselves to get beyond it. I have been very lucky in my life. There have only been a few times, early on in my career, that I felt the pressure of the “mirrored” ceiling, but I realized my father was right. Getting beyond an obstacle, for a women or man, is all about your attitude towards it and how you take personal ownership of it.  

 

If you would like to learn more about Tweed-Weber, feel free to call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). For more information about Women2Women, go to www.berkswomen2women.com.