Improving our service to you

Our goal is to meet your needs as closely as possible.  And because BoardsCount™ was a first, we want to learn about how we can improve it for the future.

So we prepared a survey asking a few sort questions that helped us understand:

• What you thought of the BoardsCount™ reports
• The impact the service has made so far
• How you could get more use from the service
• Your views for the future

All participants were emailed and invited to take part in the short online questionnaire.  The final date for completed online surveys was Wednesday, 31.12.08.

What did you tell us?

The three BoardsCount™ reports:

• Covered all the issues
• Were presented in a fairly accessible way
• Were very accurate
• Arrived on time
• 75% found Volume 1 – the Sector Overview Report very or quite useful
• All found Volume 3 – the Individual Scorecard Report useful,and most very useful
  

‘We found this very useful as an independent source of data to guide our board into areas they may previously have not considered e.g. self -assessment on board performance’ Survey participant

The impact of the reports:

• Half of participants have implemented changes on the basis of the reports, while others have either presented the report as it came to their board or have put it aside for now

Learning from BoardsCount™ 2009

• How to get higher take-up of the reports by participatingorganisations 
• While some find Volume Two – the Detailed Statistics Reportvery useful, many do not.
  

Going forward:

• Very few think there should be more detail
• A minority think it needs to be more concise but most do not
• Most feel a quick summary to see how their boards stands would be helpful
• Most feel the data collection process could be a bit easier
• Most feel that some external follow-up would be good
• In the future BoardsCount™ should facilitate
• Looking at progress over time
• Online data entry
• A wider spread of participants
• Consideration of questions that apply to specific sectors

‘If there was a clear summary of our organisation’s performance relative to the sector, similar organisations, and the Code of Good Governance, then that would make it easier for us to quickly present the results, discuss them and agree changes.’ Survey participant ‘External follow-up may be useful to help facilitate a shift in thinking and attitude to change.’ Survey participant ‘Keep the questions pretty much as they are, continue the strong link with the Code of Good Governance, make the results simpler to interpret, offer external follow up (e.g. traffic light system)’ Survey participant ‘It might be useful to allow pairs or small groups of organisations to get joint funding to improve governance whilst sharing costs.  It might also mean some organisations could mentor others...’ Survey participant

Our commitments going forward

We love getting feedback! It gives us both reinforcement about where we’re on track and where we’re not. So, we’re going to keep on doing the good stuff and we’re making some changes that address some of the suggestions made, not least:

• Reconsider the value of Volume 2 – the Detailed Statistics Report
• Make explicit our follow-up approach
• Offer easy to access summary charts of how you stand to help you focus on the priorities and to aid presentation to the board itself
• Show in an easy way how you compare to the Code of Good Governance
• Introduce online data entry to easy the burden of data collection

Ballot for a free place in BoardsCount™ 2009

The names of all organisations that completed the survey by the final date were entered into a ballot, drawn by NCVO’s Governance & Leadership Team staff. The prize was a free place on BoardsCount™ 2009. Congratulations go to Beacon Counselling who won a free place!