A Look At ourBoard Evaluation Best Practice Principles 2024
These guiding principles have been designed to standardise best practice for Board evaluation. Created by four leading evaluators, including Clare Chalmers Limited, Boardroom Review, Independent Board Evaluation, and Lintstock, and in consultation with shareholders and regulators, they are intended to set professional standards for evaluators, regardless of methodology, and align expectations between clients, shareholders and regulators with regard to quality and integrity of process.
There are four guiding principles for evaluators, and three for clients, that will standardise the quality, credibility and legitimacy of the field, and have relevance across a number of different methodologies.
Four guiding principles for evaluators:
- Independence – the evaluator must be able to exercise independent and objective judgement. Existing commercial relationships, and other conflicts of interest, should be avoided, and/or disclosed and managed.
- Confidentiality – the evaluator must keep all information The only exception to this is the discovery of unlawful practices or regulatory demands.
- Competency – the evaluator will disclose the skills and competences of each individual involved in the evaluation and provide appropriate references. There must be alignment of expectation between the client and the evaluator with regard to quality, value and longevity of service.
- Follow-up – the evaluator will discuss progress on agreed outcomes with clients (to include the Chairman, SID and/or Board) within 6-12 months of the evaluation.
Three guiding principles for clients:
- Cooperation – there must be full cooperation between the client and the evaluator in order to ensure integrity of process. This will include transparency of, and appropriate access to, Board and Committee information, participants, and meetings.
- Transparency – all disclosures, including the Annual Report, must identify the evaluator (and any conflicts), the methodology (including the use of interviews and observation), final outcomes (with reference to accepted recommendations), and the approval process.
- Approval – the evaluator should agree and approve any formal disclosures, including the Annual Report, which describe the evaluation.
