BOARD RECRUITMENT

By Nick Kleinhelter, MBA, CPA - Manager

A board of directors ("board") is not only a legal requirement, but can be essential to helping your organization meet its goals and mission. The board's effectiveness in meeting these goals often begins with its ability to recognize the organization's needs, then to recruit individuals who bring solutions to or experience in meeting those needs. Recruiting the right board members can be one of the hardest assignment for an executive but is one of the most important. Much of this work is done months in advance of asking anyone to be part of the board. The cornerstone of recruiting is creating an intentional plan which defines the type of board members you need and outlines a recruitment and orientation process that is carefully matched to your organization's programs and resource needs.

The following steps can be used to create an intentional recruitment plan:

1. Before you recruit - Consider whether or not your organization is ready to recruit new board members. If your current board micromanages or if you are hoping that new board members will fix problems within your board, you are not ready to recruit.


2. Nominating process - Start by creating a recruitment profile to determine what skills and abilities you need in a board member. Then bring focus to your nominating process by using a matrix to highlight gaps in the skills and abilities as defined in the profile.


3. Recruiting process - Perform your due diligence, check references and consider the need for a formal background check, particularly if your organization works with children. A bad decision or someone who doesn't fit may be worse than no one at all.


4. Orientation - It is important to create an orientation for new board members, in which expectations are clearly outlined in the beginning. The orientation should break down the general activities needed from board members. Signing a code of conduct should also be included as part of the orientation process.


5. Evaluating board performance - While not often performed, the evaluation is an essential part of the process. Board positions are generally voluntary; however, it can still be helpful to create a job description in order to best evaluate performance.