Typically the word audit does not bring a smile to anyone’s face. It has been known to send a few knees knocking and people running for cover or searching frantically for any number of important clarifying documents. However, the audit we’re looking at today is not financial, but rather organizational. So you may be wondering, what exactly is an organizational audit?
Let us assure you, it isn’t a hunt for the expendable. Engaging in an organizational audit is an independent and objective activity that holds a lot of hidden value for the business. How? By helping you identify strengths, weaknesses, and ways to better achieve business goals.
An organizational audit is designed to add value and improve a business’ operations. Every successful business owner establishes their mission, vision, and values and strives to instill these beliefs in their staff. In turn, these factors should then guide organizational and employee processes, practices, and services.
When a business’s employees properly align with the established values of the company, these values translate into a happy, satisfied, and loyal customer base. With the results of an organizational audit, a business can renew its focus on real issues and strengthening other key areas.
Four hidden values gained from an organizational audit:
1. Refined Marketing Strategies
An organizational audit helps you see which marketing strategies are working and which are not. Good marketing increases awareness of who you are and what you have to offer. What are your specific marketing goals? Who is your target audience and is your marketing geared towards them? What sets you apart from others and how are making sure everyone knows it? Do you track how successful past and current marketing campaigns worked?
Taking a look at your actual marketing efforts will determine what sort of campaigns are successful. Effective marketing is essential for continued growth and success. An audit will help you engage and invest financially in the type of marketing that works best for you. As a result, you can lay to rest any practices that are outdated or ineffective.
2. Fruitful Staff Structure
An organizational audit will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your staff structure. It will help identify coverage gaps at administrative, managerial, and front-line levels. It can examine staff turnover and draw correlations with overall workplace morale. Then you can make determinations on staff training effectiveness and implement targeted improvements. A productive staff equates to a confident, happy staff. This will, in turn, be what your customers experience.
3. Financial Leverage
An organizational audit brings value because it reveals strategic levers within the financial aspects of your business. By examining the finances, an audit helps you create or add to an existing business model. Focus on an approach to a sustainable future in what can be a highly competitive market. Your financial model should address areas such as personnel allocations, general operating costs, and product or service development. Oh, and don’t forget varied revenue streams!
4. Clarify Brand Promises
An organizational audit will help clarify what you want to be known for as a business. You want your brand to stand as unique. An audit helps you identify the blank spaces in what your business says about itself through what it says and does. From there, develop a plan to establish or further strengthen your brand and your customers’ loyalty to it.
An organizational audit reveals the true treasure hidden within your organization. And if it’s not yet there to be found, it provides a map to follow in finding it (or a blueprint for building it). If you’ve never engaged in an organizational audit and don’t know how to start, then we’re the ones to call. Contact us today at TurningWest. We care about helping your team “mine for gold” when it comes to more resourceful ways of reaching its goals.
