This is our second post in our series sharing tips and lessons learned from our IllumiLab team and members of our Community of Practice. In our last post, we encouraged organizations to consider whether their first internal evaluator should be a manager or leader. We also shared a few common scenarios for staffing those roles. In this post, we share some things to consider when deciding where this position should sit in your organization chart and who can support your evaluator best.
Charting a New Course
Whether your first internal evaluator is a leader or a manager, know that any staff person originating a new role is often carving out a place for themselves in existing processes, relationships, and in your organizational culture. They will need the support of peers and supervisors to open doors, validate and affirm their purpose and role in the organization, and encourage other teams and colleagues to integrate the evaluator into their work. Even if you hire a “self-starter” who “takes initiative” and can “work both independently and collaboratively,” as so many job descriptions say, organizational leaders still need to invest time, attention, and energy in setting up this new role and new work for success!
To Whom Should an Internal Evaluator Report?
Unless you hire an experienced and skilled evaluation leader and put them in a position in your organization where they have the authority and permission to lead and direct the work, you will need to consider carefully to whom your new hire(s) should report.
Where you put this position in your organization says something about how you understand the purpose of evaluation. Each choice has pros and cons.
Executive Director/CEO
When internal evaluators report to the most senior executive, it can send the message that the organization highly values this work and sees it as central to strategy implementation and mission success. We only recommend this arrangement if either a) you’ve hired a senior evaluation leader who is a subject matter expert and doesn’t need much guidance or support when it comes to the “what” and “how” of their work, or b) your executive is an adept evaluative thinker familiar enough with evaluation strategies to offer meaningful support and guidance to an evaluation manager.
Development
When we see internal evaluator positions reporting through the development department, it suggests that the organization sees evaluation primarily as an activity to satisfy funders and support fundraising efforts. We believe that organizations that evaluate primarily to satisfy funders often end up with evaluation that is less than meaningful and rather unmanageable, so we don’t recommend that approach. We think meaningful evaluation should be driven by the organization’s most pressing learning and improvement questions, not funder mandates.
Quality/Strategy/Compliance
When internal evaluators sit in or report through a strategy, quality improvement, or compliance department, they often function as internal consultants with lots of responsibility but little authority, lots of access and visibility but little influence or power. They have great independence and more objective and fresh eyes than if they were situated in a program department, but they often experience frustration when they don’t have the authority or influence to change programs or staff behavior. These positions can add the most value when they lead or coordinate interdepartmental teams focused on evaluation and/or continuous quality improvement.
Program
We love it when evaluation is not only the work of a dedicated evaluator position but is embedded in program operations and organizational culture. When an internal evaluator is embedded in a program, they have the opportunity to model and build capacity for evaluative thinking among staff on the front lines, which can unleash innovation and improvement. They also are more likely to learn the details and nuances of program design and implementation, which can only make them more effective in their evaluation. However, when embedded in a program, they risk losing some some of the objectivity and autonomy necessary to do evaluation well.
In addition to where the person sits and who they report to, consider how you can include them in organizational planning and decision-making. Internal evaluators often have valuable perspectives and a vantage point that others don’t. Their work touches so many aspects of the organization’s operations – programs, evaluation, grant-seeking, communications, IT, etc. – they can add unique and valuable insights to strategic planning, program design and planning, grant-seeking, and more.
The Bottom Line
Think carefully about not only what work needs to be executed but how that work will be lead, planned, and supported. For new positions and new efforts to succeed, they need to be integrated into existing culture, relationships, and processes in meaningful and sustainable ways. Don’t just hire an evaluator and expect them to succeed as a lone ranger, reporting to someone who knows little about or, worse yet, doesn’t like, evaluation. That’s a recipe for burnout, turnover, and perpetuating evaluation anxiety in your organization.
In our next post, we’ll share some of our tips and recommendations for hiring a candidate with the right skills for the job.