What's an Assessment?

In an assessment, all staff and/or volunteers are provided the opportunity to sign up for a 90-minute 1:1 meeting with one of our assessors. Assessment participants are invited to share what they wish about their experiences of organizational  culture, leadership, operations and governance. We usually ask about a variety of specific workplace issues using a semi-structured interview format. Which areas are explored depends on the impetus for the assessment; common topics include diversity and inclusion norms, retention challenges, communication flows, team dynamics, operational efficiency matters, and gossip and its impacts.​In assessments, understanding participants’ perceptions of their working relationships and conditions is often as important as determining objective facts, since perceptions are often key to participants’ conclusions about the health of their workplace. ​​Once interviews are completed, we synthesize the data collected according to common themes. We then prepare a written report for the employer summarizing the information gathered.  The report is designed to share the data with as much specificity as possible without attributing specific statements, opinions or identifying facts to specific participants. This effort to maintain anonymity increases the likelihood that participants feel free to speak candidly during the interview without fear of retribution.