The primary purpose of this initial step is to give the employment advisor or hiring manager a comprehensive, realistic perspective of the company’s business and organization structure. It seeks to gain a solid understanding of key facts that will likely be relevant to constructing a compelling position profile as well as identify selling points for potential candidates.
Key business information includes: product/service offerings, target markets, competitive situation, distribution strategy, funding/financial data and any other metrics that help build the case for the company as a desirable place to work.
In addition to business data, this assessment seeks to gain an understanding of the purpose and structure of the organization and its interrelationships. It’s essentially a modified SWOT analysis, but focused more on the strengths and weaknesses of the current leadership team.
If the company is considering hiring a new “C” level executive, this step would entail in-depth interviews with the CEO and current functional heads in order to gain their perspectives on the overall organization as well as suggestions regarding the scope/qualifications of the new position. Lower level positions would likely require fewer such interviews and focus more on department-level issues. However, regardless of level, the organization assessment should yield valuable information that enables the advisor/hiring manager to better define the duties and responsibilities of the proposed position. It may also help answer questions such as:
• Should we promote an internal candidate vs. hiring externally?
• Is it preferable at this time to hire an interim vs. a full-time CFO?
Another benefit is that it gives the advisor a good sense of the corporate and/or departmental culture in which the new person will be immersed. Corporate culture is an often misunderstood term, but awareness of it is critical to the success of any newly-hired employee, especially executives. Melvin Goodes, former CEO of Warner Lambert, had a succinct definition of culture, calling it “the coding of values and deeply held beliefs that mold an organization’s decision patterns, guide its actions and drive individual behavior.” In startup organizations, the values and beliefs of the founder(s) usually define the initial corporate culture. As companies grow, however, this culture can and usually does change due to the influence of new leaders.
Much of the corporate, departmental and cultural information gathered during the organization assessment stage can be invaluable to a new member of the executive team during his or her transition and onboarding.