Five Questions Board of Directors Should Ask at Their Next Board Meeting as a New Normal Dawns

As global operations return to business as usual, board members will be tasked with guiding their organizations to ensure that their operations are as successful as possible.

To that end, Weaver has compiled board member insights, with an overall goal of preparing boards across the nation to ask the right questions and develop robust plans of action in response to those key areas of concern.

The following five board member questions should serve as a guide for your next board meeting to help your organization stay agile and prepared to adapt to change.

1. How prepared are we to manage our workforce as reopening moves forward?

Conditions are likely to continue to change, and your organization must be agile enough to respond in kind. Asking questions about how you plan to balance remote and in-office work, community health and government initiatives, customer preferences, employee peace of mind and more will be critical to success. It may be beneficial to take a fresh look at pre-pandemic strategic initiatives to see if processes, technologies and objectives need to shift to achieve them in light of current conditions.

You need to identify reliable sources of data to keep you ahead of the curve, reassess workspace configurations, clearly define organizational attitudes and efforts, and more. It all comes down to a thorough assessment of how productive your workforce has been remotely, what changes could benefit from becoming permanent, the financial impact of those changes, and how you can best balance compliance with care.

2. Is our diversity and inclusiveness strategy working?

In addition to the reopening of society in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, national unrest as it relates to inequality and racial injustice has once again been brought to the surface. Moving forward, it’s critical to continue examining your diversity and inclusion strategy across all fronts to ensure you are providing an environment that truly supports these efforts and helps work toward lasting change, not words on paper.

3. What is our company culture, and what could be better?

Your company’s culture influences how employees interact with one another, customers, stakeholders, and more. Have you clearly defined what your company’s culture is? Even if you have, has it shifted? Could it play a larger, more beneficial role in advancing your overall operations? It seems like an intangible pursuit, but hard data surrounding unwritten norms, pride in work and more provided by culture assessments conducted by leaders can provide a better roadmap. It’s also critical that leaders are resilient and flexible enough to adopt changing roles in the wake of this period of uncertainty. Culture begins at the top.

4. Is our company “privacy prepared” for the growing field of privacy regulations in the U.S.?

Regulations and laws surrounding data privacy, the sale of consumer information and more are growing increasingly complex in the ever-more-digital world of modern enterprise. It’s critical to ensure your organization is aware of all such regulations that apply to your business, reporting standards, and more and that clear plans of action are in place to be prepared to meet these regulations. With an even greater emphasis on digital solutions and tools likely in the wake of the pandemic, this preparedness is more important than ever.

5. What trends are we seeing in terms of cybersecurity efforts and success?

The aforementioned digital shift, accelerated greatly by COVID-19, has also led to growing cybersecurity concerns. In fact, cyberattacks have increased three to five times over compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the “new normal” of more remote work and digital interconnectivity is certainly not going to ease those figures. It’s time to review incident response strategies, take additional steps to secure your organization’s collaboration tools, and make careful study and education regarding potential threats part of a regular routine.

It’s also time to consider the technological expertise and awareness of current capabilities among board members. A general overview is one thing, but ensuring your board members have the insights and expertise needed to evaluate what management is doing to enforce key changes is also necessary. Perhaps it’s time for this level of knowledge to become a core competency for membership.

Weaver offers information and insights to prepare for your next board meeting. We can help you ask the right questions and determine appropriate plans of action based on topics and trends as they unfold. Subscribe to our monthly insights for articles and information to help you review your organization’s operations and prepare for change in an uncertain world.

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