Self-assessment is a crucial tool for improvement and usually defined as a regular, systematic, and comprehensive review of an organization’s performance. The process aims at juxtaposing desirable efficiency to the actual situation and identifying the means of achieving the target. The self-assessment movement went through different stages starting 1951 and slowly evolving into establishing Deming prize, Malcolm Baldrige National Award, and the European Quality Award. The rewards acknowledge the international recognition of self-assessment as a crucial driver for business development.
Business Planning Process
The first step in business planning is engaging the management team, which includes positioning self-assessment as a strategic tool, emphasizing the focus on customers and business development, and gaining managers’ active participation. The second step is planning the assessment, involving distributing responsibilities and specifying the goals, cost, and timeframe. An excellent example of a self-assessment process is by organizing site visit simulations with the help of external parties. The method is beneficial for acquiring an outside view of the organization. The third step concludes the preparation phase by training all the stakeholders in the project team.
The fourth step begins the active stage by conducting the assessment. The primary input sources are questionnaires, workshops, desk reviews, and interviews. While questionnaires are beneficial for providing information from a large group of people, workshops enable smaller groups to discuss and realize the relative strengths and weaknesses of an issue. Desk reviews refer to sorting through existing documents, such as annual reports, balanced scorecards, and audit reports. Interviews are also vital for obtaining professional insights into how approaches work.
After the active stage, comes the information procession phase, which is crucial for interpreting the results received from the data collection. The fifth step is agreeing on the priorities for future development. The sixth step is developing an action plan, which describes the targets, timeframe, and success measures for improvements. The seventh stage is monitoring progress by integrating the action plan into the existing management process.
Case Study: Veridian Homes
Veridian is a company started in 2003 that dedicates itself to quality home building, community involvement, and environmental stewardship. It employs a hundred employees and builds 500 houses a year in Madison, WI, and the surrounding area.
The company treats self-assessment as an integral part of its strategic planning. The company uses the whole spectrum of assessment input sources to identify strategic and operational opportunities to improve and monitor the performance of the company using a balanced scorecard. Upper management gathers feedback from all the employees and customers lets the trained stakeholders interpret the results. The scheme has proven to be beneficial for the company’s development.
In 2006, the results of the assessment were tremendous and touched all the aspects of the company’s efficiency. Model homes sold cycle times reduced from 32 to 15 days while estimating time on model homes was reduced by 32%. Material variance went down by 20%-38% due to decreasing the material damage on site. At the same time, Veridian saved more than $200,000 through performance increase in paperwork processing and an introduction of specialized software. In short, the case study proves the importance of self-evaluation as both a strategic and tactical tool.
Conclusion
Self-assessment is a unique mechanism that can boost a company’s performance. However, the improvements are usually a result of a systematic approach rather than of singular interventions. The process of self-assessment should be recurring, and after the progress monitoring stage, it should turn to the first stage of engaging the management team.