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Join Fi Mercer, Dr Tegan Smith (CEO, OPAL Rheumatology), Adrian Wagner (IT Operations Manager, Governance Evaluator) & Ashley Blackburn (Data Analyst, Governance Evaluator) as they discuss why is data the crucial “other piece” for peace of mind, achieving the balance between intuitive and factual decision making and getting the right data.
Join Fi Mercer & Brendan Moore (General Manager, Member Services, Leading Age Services Australia) as they discuss how to use evaluation to assure Board excellence.
No longer a question of whether to evaluate, but how will you evaluate – Fi & Brendan explore the many elements required for a strong and engaging governance evaluation process for your whole Board and individual Directors.
Join Fi Mercer & Jo-Anne Moorfoot (Executive Director, Australian Centre for Healthcare Governance) as they discuss how to using induction to drive a culture of contribution.
An effective induction program sets directors up for success – Fi & Jo-Anne explore the many elements required to support new directors to feel engaged and confident to contribute faster to minimise your governance risks.
Join Fi Mercer & Lisa Mahood (Director, Reltuc Consulting) as they discuss how to using induction to drive a culture of contribution in Local Government.
An effective induction program sets directors up for success – Fi & Lisa explore the many elements required to support new councillors to feel engaged and confident to contribute faster to minimise your governance risks.
The Governance Evaluator 2019 Benchmark Report analysed evaluations from 92 boards comprising of 777 members across a range of sectors, with Risk Management and Compliance being identified as one of the top five risks for boards.
Boards noted their areas for capability building related to the following:
Directors stated that more training about Risk Management and gaining sector-specific knowledge and discussing the relevant associated risks were of high importance to them.
There has never been a more important time to focus on having the right systems, processes and behaviours in place for assuring boards and directors of their governance risks. The revised ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations state that boards are to monitor the adequacy of their organisation’s risk management strategy, for both financial and non–financial risks.
This includes ensuring risk strategies deal adequately with contemporary, emerging or unforeseen risks such as conduct risk, digital disruption, cybersecurity, privacy and data breaches, sustainability and climate change.
One of the key roles of the board is to monitor the adequacy of the entity's risk management framework and satisfy itself that the entity is operating with due regard to the risk appetite set by the board. This is to instil and continually reinforce a culture across the organisation of acting lawfully, ethically and responsibly.
Following are some effective strategies that Governance Evaluator has observed boards using to maintain their assurance for their governance risks:
Following the recent Royal Commissions and Prudential enquiries, ASX revised their Corporate Governance Principles Guidelines and have increased focus on the following aimed at supporting a strong culture and governance:
Governance Evaluator has seen high growth in board and director evaluation and development programs and through this role modelling they are strengthening their culture for quality improvement across the organisation. This has been even more successful in the board’s that then utilised both group and individual director development action plans.
Over 50% of Governance Evaluator clients who undertake annual Board Evaluation also commenced a Director Development and Skills Matrix review culminating in Individual Director Induction and Development Plans. This resulted in:
It is not possible as a director to simply become a subject expert in order to have the right capabilities for oversight of sector and organisation specific risks. Rather, Governance Evaluator clients who have developed these capabilities specifically in the organisation’s top risks have:
As over 60% of directors reported not feeling assured for their governance risks it is also important to discuss how organisations have improved their risk reporting to the boards. Focus on building the capabilities of Board Sub Committees for providing governance risk assurance has been successfully achieved through the following:
Boards have significantly improved their Board Agendas and Papers through reducing the volume of their reports and increasing the sophistication of their papers. A key element of this has been:
If you would like to talk to an expert for building your governance risk capabilities please book in for a free consultation with our governance expert, Fi Mercer.
The Governance Evaluator 2019 Benchmark Report has identified for the second year in a row Stakeholder Engagement as the number one risk for boards.
An analysis completed by Governance Evaluator looked at boards who have improved their performance year-on-year in this area and identified some of the key actions these boards had taken for addressing their gaps. Following is a summary of some of the actions taken that have resulted in these boards having greater confidence in their stakeholder engagement capabilities.
Following their board governance evaluation in 2018 and the identification of stakeholder engagement as a potential gap for their board, boards went on to dig deeper into their capabilities in this area, through:
Based on the outcomes of the assessment, these boards went on to create targeted Key Stakeholder Engagement Plans which addressed:
Some boards felt that going back to basics was necessary to ensure a clear understanding of the importance of stakeholder engagement to the organisation.
Stakeholders and communities served by an organisation should factor in the organisations strategic planning process.
We saw a range of initiatives from our boards throughout 2019 to build their capabilities for engaging, communicating and receiving feedback from their stakeholders.
We’ve seen boards introduce new metrics for measuring the effectiveness of their stakeholder engagement efforts. This includes metrics that go beyond the number of visits or meetings, including measuring the health of the relationships with stakeholders through:
This has given boards and executive teams insight into how stakeholders view the organisation, including the communication they receive and their trust in the organisation. It also gives the board some early warning signs of relationships that might not be as good as originally believed.
If you or your organisation are taking action to build your stakeholder engagement capabilities, we’d love to hear what you’re doing, contact us today and chat with one of or experts.
Governance Evaluator and The Australian Centre for Healthcare Governance (ACHG) are excited to announce a new initiative for building strong governance in the health sector.
Our newly formed partnership combines the proven approach of Governance Evaluator’s online suite of board evaluation solutions with the health sector and extensive governance consulting expertise of JoAnne Moorfoot Director of ACHG and her Team to provide VHA members with a comprehensive approach to board and director review and ongoing governance support services The partnership builds capacity for both Governance Evaluator and ACHG to ensure all VHA members have access to a consistent and proven range of solutions for improving their governance performance and ultimately driving quality outcomes for their consumers.
Governance Evaluator is the most straightforward and intelligent way to improve your board’s performance. The easy-to-use online system enables you to manage your governance program at your own pace whilst using a proven, systematic approach to improving governance performance. A suite of complementary, health sector-specific solutions, enable you to design a governance program to meet your specific needs.
Using Governance Evaluator for your annual governance and director development program ensures you build your capabilities using sector relevant evaluations, consistent trending of results and dynamic action plans which are responsive to your needs at any point in time. Our community enables you to benchmark your performance against your peers and other governing bodies with like responsibilities.
The ACHG approach and experience is unique, combining their working and ‘systems’ knowledge of governance and strategy in the Victorian health system to apply a practical methodology to work with organisations to diagnose systems issues, and facilitate problem solutions to develop governance system improvements.
Together Governance Evaluator and the ACHG expertly support boards and directors on their journey of continuous improvement; building a shared, consistent understanding of good governance and empowering leaders to improve organisational efficiency, productivity, service quality and culture.
ACHG not only provides expertise convening to support boards through their governance and director development programs, but, following on from the board evaluation ACHG can provide additional support to boards. They can provide ongoing development to build and enhance the skills of the board across a broad range of areas including Corporate and Clinical Governance, Legislative Compliance, Integrity Governance Training, Occupational Health and Safety, Strategic effectiveness for boards and Roles and Responsibility of Chairs.
If you would like to learn more about this exciting new initiative, please contact Governance Evaluator or the ACHG achg@healthcaregovernance.org.au
Picture yourself in bed, incapacitated and unable to communicate. Your greatest pleasure is a hot cup of coffee, but every day your coffee grows cold while you await the arrival of your carer. A board that hears the voice of the consumer can prevent this from happening.
Governance Evaluator’s 2018 Governance Capability Benchmark Report assessed governance capabilities across over 70 boards in the aged care, health, community and government sectors, with the Governance of Clinical Care module evaluating boards in relation to the new Aged Care Quality Standards.
It is no surprise that genuinely partnering with consumers, in particular hearing the voice of the consumer at the boardroom table, emerged as the key governance issue among aged care and health boards. The results show that only 39 per cent of aged care boards understand how to successfully hear the voice of the consumer at the boardroom table.
Aged care boards have a crucial role in achieving a person-centred aged care industry, for it is at board level that the consumer becomes genuinely embedded within the care framework.
In order to understand what dignity and choice really means to their consumers, boards must take steps to identify who their consumer is, what they want, and what obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Leading aged care organisations are currently implementing solutions at board level that enable the consumer experience to be respected and reflected in service delivery, for example:
An important component of this is gaining an understanding of the way their consumers lived and the things they loved before they entered their aged care service, and working to respect their individuality in care planning. This is how the board can be assured that the organisation understands the importance of a simple hot cup of coffee.
The capacity of behavioural data and artificial intelligence in providing a voice for the age services consumer is expanding at an astounding rate in Australia and internationally.
No longer the stuff of science fiction novels, artificial intelligence applications collect data to model predictable behaviours in an individual consumer as well as larger populations so that deviations from an expected behaviour can trigger appropriate responses.
Examples of these include devices that check inconsistencies in biometric data and smart sensors that detect and report on falls, through to human pose detection applications and companion robots that identify and keep track of important objects around the residence and help the consumer remember important tasks and events.
For an aged care service board, the collection and utilisation of this type of data, which can speak on behalf of the consumer if the consumer is unable to speak for themselves, provides assurance that their organisation is providing safe and quality care as well as providing true choice and dignity to the consumer. This information can also be used to assure boards that their consumer needs are being heard and attended to in a proactive caring way.
Next steps are for boards to develop more sophisticated skills around data analysis and how it can support their important oversight roles for consumers’ choices being respected, services having a culture of safety and quality, and their aged care businesses prospering.
Originally published in LASA Fusion Magazine Spring 2019.
A key factor for building high functioning boards that have the ability to lead successful organisations is for the board to have the right systems, processes and supports in place to empower a group of experts to become an expert group.
An effective induction is an essential process that enables directors to be ‘on boarded’ in a timelier fashion, allowing them to contribute their expertise better at the board room table, to feel more confident about their knowledge of the organisation and its risks, and ultimately to improve their ability to govern.
However, our research shows that boards across multiple industries consistently identify effective director induction as a critical gap in their governance processes. While effective induction is actually quite a straightforward process to achieve, many boards are missing the mark, with the result being directors who lack the understanding, expertise, engagement and confidence required to properly govern the organisation.
An effective induction process provides new directors with information about their role so that they quickly become useful, integrated and satisfied members of the board, and are able to contribute effectively.
It is important that the induction process is relevant to each director’s skillset, and is an engaging process. This is a shared responsibility for imparting and gaining knowledge about governance requirements as well as the organisation and its top risks.
A quality induction process should include a well thought out combination of:
Induction should commence in the recruitment stage, before election or appointment, to ensure that directors with the necessary strengths are appointed. The Governance Evaluator Director Development & Skills Matrix is invaluable at this stage in identifying the current skills, experience or cultural gaps on the board that will inform the recruitment process as well as explain the board’s priority areas to potential new directors.
The induction program itself should comprise a stepped process that includes actions before, during and after the first board meeting. New directors should start by completing the Director Development & Skills Matrix and their results should inform key elements of their induction plan prior to commencement on the board. For example, a director may be starting on the board of a healthcare organisation, but their Development & Skills Matrix results show that while they have high finance and legal skills and experience, they have low clinical governance and data analysis skills. This will therefore inform the most suitable director to be their mentor, as well as the educational resources on which they should focus.
Their individual induction action plan would therefore include standard organisation and sector components but also include individually tailored content to help them address their specific development needs to more quickly onboard and contribute. In addition, the process enables new directors to become more aware of their strengths, so they feel more confident to contribute in that area at the board room table.
Being realistic about the time it takes to become familiar with an organisation is important. An effective induction process may take up to 6 months for the initial actions and is important to be ongoing. It should also include regular check ins between the chair, mentor and the new director to ensure they feel welcome, comfortable and confident to contribute. Good practice is to have director induction and check in as a board meeting agenda item.
As outlined in figure 1, an effective induction process consists of often concurrent steps that seek to optimise:
Fig 1: An effective director induction process. Steps are often concurrent. Read on for more details about each step.
As you can see, an effective director induction process is based on understanding the new director’s skills and experience, and working within a health board culture with a commitment to contribution and continuous improvement. The benefits of achieving this from the outset are significant, in terms of director satisfaction, tenure and contribution right from their first board meeting, as well as the effective governance of the organisation.
The Governance Evaluator Director Development Program is the perfect place to begin, as it supports boards to achieve the key characteristics of effective governance, ensuring a consistent and high functioning level of the right skills, experience, and behaviours across all directors.
Our expert conveners support boards to optimise their induction process, and guide directors to build and maintain their Individual Director Development Plans.
Culture
*These steps should take place prior to attending the first board meeting.
Make a booking below to chat with our a governance expert and see how we can help you.
While board self-assessment is recognised by organisations including ASX, DHHS and AICD as an accessible, flexible and sound contributor for understanding and improving a board’s performance, the issue of subjectivity within a self-assessment is a long-standing point of discussion and debate.
While the issue of subjectivity within a self-assessment is a real consideration, there are methods a board can employ to reduce the influence of subjectivity from the outputs of a board self-assessment.
As illustrated below, the most important action a board can take to counter any subjectivity is to ensure the self-assessment is not the sole source of information, but rather is one of several key elements in the evaluation process.
These elements should include:
As well as the often-legislated requirement to ensure delivery of safe and quality services via a culture of continuous review & development, it is crucial for the morale and drive of the board members that the time they invest in undertaking a robust evaluation is rewarded via assurance that the evaluation will result in more effective governance of their organisation.
The first step to achieving this is for the evaluation process to be comprised of multiple elements (as described above).
Secondly, while the evaluation process is a vital snapshot in time, equally important are the discussions and actions that follow the evaluation. There are a variety of methods to translate the results of the evaluation to inform the group discussion:
Thirdly, with the priority areas identified, the board action plan must be built to convert the priorities to actions and then ultimately to results. The board action plan must include SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) actions set against each priority area that are assigned to a responsible person, and be tracked against deadlines. Regular review of the board action plan is vital to ensure that it remains current and actions are followed through across the remainder of the year.
Individual action plans must be built in concert with the board action plan, which are developed and used by members to resource and address any individual gaps in knowledge, experience or skills uncovered during the evaluation process. The importance of gathering and acting on this information is also recognised by ASIC in their most recent Governance Principles.
Next, the beginning of each new year provides an opportunity to challenge, and confirm or reset, the board’s current priorities by comparing performance to the average and best performers in their industry cohort via a board review of their Governance Capability Benchmark Report.
Finally, annual re-evaluation is a vital component of continuous improvement, as it highlights areas of development and new areas of focus for the next capability building cycle.
The very act of evaluating, discussing, choosing actions and being accountable for their implementation, then measuring both internally and externally, sets the culture of quality and continuous review and development from the top. As the Royal Commissions and prudential enquiries have determined, this type of culture is essential to effective governance and quality delivery of service.
Despite accreditation processes being embedded in health systems across more than 70 countries around the world, the actual value of accreditation to health care organisations is not well understood; and more work is needed to determine its value and how to measure it.
Accreditation is often viewed as a costly, time-consuming bureaucratic burden that adds little value in terms of patient care. Yet accreditation has also been found to be positively associated with high-quality care, high patient satisfaction and good outcomes. This means that accreditation processes could be used to develop and support a culture of safety and quality among health workers. Particularly when staff are aware of its purpose and are involved in the accreditation process.
Our latest health policy evidence brief from the Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, assesses the value of accreditation to health service organisations against the health care quadruple aims of:
Findings from the brief advocate for a research-based approach to developing a common narrative on what constitutes value, so that value relating to interventions such as accreditation can be more appropriately assessed.
A 2018 review by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) has resulted in revisions to the assessment process, the assessment team, use of data, regulatory oversight, communication of assessment outcomes, and resources and support for health services.
The changes will be phased in from January 2019, and it will be interesting to see a formal evaluation of the results further down the track.