Our approach stands out in the governance benchmarking sector for its combination of depth, affordability and real-world benchmarking insight. We offer comprehensive surveys and reporting that provide actionable insights into board performance.

Our surveys are designed to be:

Cost-effective: We deliver world-class surveys at prices significantly lower than many others in the market.

Validated: Our frameworks undergo rigorous checks to ensure reliability and usefulness.

Globally benchmarked: With one of the largest datasets in the world, we compare boards across multiple key governance effectiveness categories.

Supported by expert advice: Optional professional guidance from our network of governance advisors is available to help interpret and act on results.

Every engagement includes a dedicated project manager to support setup, administration and any questions during your survey period. Our team’s experience with hundreds of boards means we know what support you’ll need and when. Professional advice for chairs and boards is also available as an optional extra.

Insync Boards works with a global network of specialist governance advisors. These partners can help you choose the right survey approach, offer expert insights after the survey, facilitate discussion workshops, and help develop action plans based on the results.

Yes — we work with you to ensure terms like Chair, Board, Directors and CEO match the language and structure used in your organisation. This ensures clarity and relevance in all survey responses and reporting.

By default, your board is compared to other organisations of similar type and size. However, you can choose to benchmark against our entire global database if you prefer.

Our surveys are designed to suit a wide range of organisations without additional modifications. Most clients use them “as is” with only terminology tailored. If you need deeper customisation, please contact us or one of our Board Advisory Partners to discuss options and cost.

Insync Boards uses secure, cloud-based survey technology that doesn’t require software installation. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and the platform adheres to industry-leading security practices.

Currently, our surveys are available in English and Spanish. As we expand globally, additional languages will be added. Participants may write comments in their preferred language, which are reflected verbatim in reports.

Yes. Through our growing global network of governance advisors, we can provide support no matter where your organisation is located. English-language support is standard, with additional languages available from certain partners.

Surveys must be launched within 12 months of purchase to remain valid. Most clients schedule their survey launch within a month of payment.

Yes. Insync Boards offers a free single-user trial so you can experience our approach firsthand.
The trial is a shortened version of our validated, benchmarked Board Effectiveness Survey and takes around 4 minutes to complete. Once finished, you’ll receive a sample benchmarked report based on your responses, giving you a clear sense of the insights our full survey provides.

When completing the survey, we encourage you to think about a specific board to make the experience as realistic as possible. You don’t need to tell us which board you have in mind.

As soon as you submit the survey, your benchmarked report will be sent to you. The results reflect what that board’s report would look like if every director responded in the same way as you.

Including executives provides a more rounded and insightful view of board effectiveness. The benchmarked report compares the average perspectives of directors and executives, highlighting where views align — and where they differ.

Differences in perception can be particularly valuable. They may indicate areas where the board and executive team are not fully aligned, or where the board’s view of its own effectiveness is more positive than that of management.

Executive feedback also adds depth to the results. Their comments and insights help explain the data, surface practical improvement opportunities, and enrich the overall value of the benchmarked report.

Executive feedback is combined with director responses in the Director Effectiveness Report to ensure individual anonymity. When executives contribute thoughtful, well-informed comments, it adds depth and perspective to each director’s results. As response numbers increase, recurring themes become clearer, more balanced and more actionable.

The CEO Attribute Ranking component adds significant value by clarifying what matters most in CEO effectiveness and how well expectations are aligned.

It highlights where the board and executives are aligned on the attributes that are most important for the CEO to demonstrate—and where alignment is weak, indicating areas that may require discussion or recalibration.

By ranking attributes by importance, it also helps boards interpret performance results more accurately. Lower effectiveness in a highly ranked attribute is likely to signal a genuine concern, whereas lower effectiveness in a less critical attribute may be of lesser priority.

Importantly, this shared understanding of priority attributes strengthens CEO development and provides a clearer foundation for effective CEO succession planning.

Director ratings and comments are combined with executive responses in the CEO Effectiveness Report to ensure individual anonymity. Thoughtful, well-informed input from directors adds depth and balance to the feedback, strengthening the overall quality of the report. As participation increases, common themes become clearer, more reliable and more useful for board discussion and decision-making.

Director and executive ratings and comments are combined in the Strategy Effectiveness Report to ensure individual anonymity. Informed, constructive input from both groups adds depth and balance to the feedback, strengthening the overall quality of the report. As participation increases, recurring themes become clearer, more reliable and more useful for strategic discussion and decision-making.

Anonymity is fundamental to the integrity of the Insync Boards survey process.

Director responses are combined to produce a single average score for each survey item. While response distributions are shown in the report, individual ratings are never linked to a specific director.

Executive responses are also aggregated. Average executive results are only displayed when a minimum number of executives have participated, and response distributions are only shown where thresholds are met. This ensures individual executive responses cannot be identified.

Written comments from directors and executives are included verbatim but are reported together and are not attributed to individuals. Comments are only identifiable if a respondent chooses to include their name or self-identifies through their wording.

Insync Boards’ privacy policy strictly prevents us from:

• sharing individual survey responses with the organisation or any third party without explicit written consent; and

• providing organisation-level or board-level survey results to third parties without the organisation’s express approval.