Committees are an essential component of modern governance. Whether standing or ad-hoc, committees bring focus, expertise, and structure to the complex responsibilities board directors face.
Yet despite their importance, committees often face a range of challenges. How can organizations better empower their committees to overcome these challenges and achieve more for the institutions they serve?
In a recent webinar, Katlin Ludlow, Account Manager and Sarah McCormack, Senior Customer Success Manager at OnBoard, explored just that. The session covered:
- Why committees are vital to modern board success
- The common challenges board committees face
- How OnBoard’s purpose-built solutions can help boost efficiency and effectiveness within committees and across the entire board
Read on for some of the top takeaways from this informative, practical discussion.
Board Committees Matter More Than Ever
Today, boards of all sizes and industries create committees to make their work more effective and efficient. Committee work is where deep discussions happen, specialized skills come into play, and informed recommendations are developed before reaching the full board.
Some of the key benefits of board committees include:
- Expertise: Committees allow boards to leverage the skills and backgrounds of members for in-depth analysis and smarter decisions.
- Time management: Boards have a lot to cover. Delegating complex issues to smaller groups frees up full board meetings for broader, strategic conversations.
- In-depth oversight: Committees provide focused attention on key areas like finance, governance, and risk – often more effectively than the full board could.
- Fresh perspectives: Committees can include external experts who introduce specialized knowledge and fresh thinking into the boardroom.
“Overall, committees empower boards to function more strategically by distributing tasks, capitalizing on expertise, and fostering deeper dives into critical matters,” said Ludlow.
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Committees Range from Board to Board
There are two common types of committees: standing and ad-hoc. Standing committees are permanent fixtures that address ongoing issues within the organization. Ad-hoc committees are temporary to address a specific issue or task. Once the issue is addressed or the task is completed, the ad-hoc committee is dissolved.
The number and types of committees vary widely from board to board, largely based on financial governance maturity. Here’s a look at the 4 levels of financial governance maturity and the types of committees that are common for each.
Tier 1: Comprehensive Governance
This tier represents the highest standard of financial governance maturity. Governance is integrated, strategic, and deeply informed by specialized oversight. Committees that are common at this tier include:
- Board of Directors Supervisory Committee
- ALCO (Asset-Liability Committee)
- Loan Committee
- IT Steering Committee
- Risk Committee
Tier 2: Robust Oversight
Organizations at this tier have a strong governance structure emphasizing financial control. They demonstrate a solid understanding of balance sheet management and credit risk but may lack broader enterprise risk and IT oversight. Committees that are common at this level of maturity include:
- Board of Directors Supervisory Committee
- ALCO Committee
- Loan Committee
Tier 3: Foundational Controls
At this tier, boards are primarily focused on high-level supervision and general compliance. A Board of Directors Supervisory Committee is common at this stage.
Tier 4: Basic Governance
At this level of maturity, committees aren’t common.
Committees Face a Number of Challenges
There’s no doubt committees play an important role. But their work certainly isn’t easy. Committees often face a number of operational challenges, many of which fall into one of the following 4 categories.
1. Inefficient processes
All too often, committees still depend on time-consuming, tedious processes for things like:
- Note-taking
- Recording meeting minutes
- Managing votes and approvals
These inefficient processes weigh down committee members and take away time that could be used to engage in meaningful discussions and make impactful decisions.
2. Board engagement
The most effective committees are those with fully engaged directors. But often, that’s not the case. Many committees struggle to keep the lines of communication open and manage meeting dynamics so all directors are empowered to fully participate and contribute.
3. Lack of consistency
Each committee has different goals and motivations. In addition, different committees may use different tools and resources. This inconsistency introduces complexity. When every committee has different outputs, it can be difficult to see the full picture of the organization.
“Having groups using the same tools to drive to the same end vision … that’s a big deal,” said Ludlow.
4. Too many resources
Often, committees use a variety of tools and resources to do their work. For example, they might store files in a shared drive, communicate via Slack, and use other tools like SurveyMonkey and Docusign. Switching between these tools is time-consuming and makes it difficult for committee members to find what they need, when they need it.
OnBoard Helps Committees Increase Effectiveness and Efficiency
Clearly, board committees face many challenges. Good news! The OnBoard platform was built to help committees address these challenges and maximize impact.
“One of our goals at OnBoard is to minimize those complex dynamics and factors within your board and committee experience,” said Ludlow.
Ludlow walked through many of the OnBoard features that can help boards and committees increase efficiency, boost engagement, drive efficiency, and streamline resources.
Maximizing Process Efficiency
OnBoard has several features that help boost efficiency across committees and the board as a whole, including:
- Docusign integration: This is a brand new feature embedded directly within OnBoard, with no need for a separate login. It’s a seamless way to eliminate app-switching and boost efficiency across all committee actions. “This integration eliminates the manual workarounds,” said Ludlow. “The same features you have in Docusign are now going to be housed within your OnBoard instance with the Docusign integration feature.”
- Minutes AI: This feature uses AI to record meetings, provide transcripts, and automatically draft the first draft of meeting minutes in less than five minutes. Minutes are uniformly formatted, whether for board or committee meetings.
- Voting and approvals: Committees can save time with mobile-friendly voting tools that allow decisions to be made even outside of formal meetings.
Building Engagement Across Committees
OnBoard also has capabilities to boost engagement on committees, including:
- Collaborative agenda planning: Members can add comments and make suggestions directly to draft agendas. Admins retain control over permissions, ensuring the right balance of openness and security.
- Diversity and skills reporting: Provides visibility into committee composition with centralized data on background, demographics, and areas of expertise.
- Board assessments: Allows organizations to gather feedback and generate actionable insights to enhance committee and board performance.
Attaining Consistency and Clarity
Inconsistency is a common challenge for board committees. Committees can use OnBoard to reduce complexity and gain clarity. For example, organizations can standardize recurring committee meetings by duplicating agendas, members, and settings.
“This is a quick way to reproduce meetings you have regularly without having to recreate the agenda,” said Ludlow.
Providing a One-Stop-Shop for Resources
For many committees, resources are scattered. With OnBoard, organizations can store all documents in a secure, centralized location. Each committee can have different folders with customizable permissions. That means members can always access exactly what they need for committee work – no more and no less.
OnBoard also centralizes committee communication, task management, questionnaires, and many other features.
OnBoard Empowers Committees Across Industries
From finance and health care to nonprofits and education, committee structures may vary. But the need for cohesive tools is universal.
Boards that invest in smarter committee collaboration don’t just reduce administrative headaches. They make better decisions, faster. By leveraging tools like Docusign integration, Minutes AI, and diversity reporting, board professionals can lead with clarity, consistency, and confidence.
“We want to help you utilize OnBoard to its fullest potential,” concluded Ludlow.
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About The Author
- Adam Wire is a Content Marketing Manager at OnBoard who joined the company in 2021. A Ball State University graduate, Adam worked in various content marketing roles at Angi, USA Football, and Adult & Child Health following a 12-year career in newspapers. His favorite part of the job is problem-solving and helping teammates achieve their goals. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two dogs. He’s an avid sports fan and foodie who also enjoys lawn and yard work and running.
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