Organizational Review and Diagnosis

Charter school 1 was the subject of an overall organizational review when we prepared the strategic plan. However the consultants were asked to do a much more detailed audit of the human resources function in the organization. Like all small organizations that grow there is a time when the HR function can no longer be entrusted to an excellent administrative assistant and the CEO. Small but potentially scary issues have arisen with hiring, promotions and assignment of work that warranted a closer look at how well the current systems were working. The consultant assigned to this project had a long background as an HR specialist in a California educational system. Aside from a quick re-organization and immediate recommendations concerning certain practices we also recommended that it was time to hire a full time expert to manage this function.

A community arts center that had survived the ups and downs in funding and participation was losing the enthusiasm and the artists and the community who had supported it for almost 50 years. The consultants’ review revealed significant inefficiencies in policies, staffing, organization and strategy that were contributing to the progressive deterioration of this organization. Following our review and recommendations, we assisted in the reorganization, wrote new job descriptions, developed new staffing and management policies and recommended different approaches to fund raising.

A family support organization in southern California had recently hired a new CEO. Although it had an operating budget of $75 million to assist disadvantaged families and received a mix of federal funds for organizations such as Head start, the previous long-tenure CEO was not particularly interested in management systems or data. He relied on a very personalized management style and the policies and practices that were in place were very flexible and unpredictable. Our consultants conducted an operational review and recommended wide-ranging changes in the organization. Our consultants helped in the reorganization and developed a performance management system and wrote about 100 new job descriptions.