Executive Assessment Framework (EAF)
A structured approach to evaluating organizational health, identifying underlying challenges, and developing evidence-informed recommendations.
What Is the Executive Assessment Framework?
From organizational insight to sustained improvement.
The EAF moves leaders from understanding what is happening inside the organization to acting on what matters most. Six interconnected assessment domains provide the organizational view. Seven connected stages turn evidence into priorities, implementation, and continuous improvement.
Learn More: how the pieces connect
The domains examine different areas of organizational life. The framework connects those findings to recommendations, implementation, measurement, and adaptation. Together, they provide a structured basis for deciding what should happen next.
Why the Framework Matters
Metrics reveal outcomes. Understanding the human dynamics behind them helps leaders choose a response.
SMA’s framework was developed to identify unseen factors and translate them into actionable organizational strategy. Leadership, culture, workload, communication, wellbeing, and change can shape one another.
Learn More: the value of a connected view
The six domains are assessed independently, then interpreted together, revealing patterns, pressure points, and priorities that would be easy to miss in isolation.
The Six Assessment Domains
Each lens answers a different executive question. Select a domain to explore its question and purpose.
DOMAIN 01Employee Wellbeing & Mental Health
How is work affecting our people—and their ability to thrive?
Understand how the work environment is affecting employees’ psychological wellbeing, energy, resilience, and ability to sustain performance.
DOMAIN 02Employee Experience & Culture
What is it actually like to work here?
Examine the day-to-day conditions that shape belonging, trust, collaboration, inclusion, and psychological safety.
DOMAIN 03Leadership & Communication Efficacy
How is leadership being experienced across the organization?
Assess how clearly leaders set direction, communicate decisions, provide feedback, build trust, and support their teams.
DOMAIN 04Workforce Performance & Organizational Health
Where are people conditions showing up in performance?
Connect workforce conditions to retention, engagement, absenteeism, productivity, safety, and broader organizational health.
DOMAIN 05Veteran Workforce Integration
Are veterans positioned to contribute, belong, and grow here?
Evaluate how effectively veterans are recruited, onboarded, understood, supported, developed, and retained after transition.
DOMAIN 06Organizational Readiness for Change
How prepared are we to move, adapt, and make change stick?
Determine whether leadership alignment, internal capacity, sponsorship, and workforce conditions can support and sustain change.
These descriptions summarize the approved EAF domain overview. The assessment examines organizational conditions; it is not an individual mental health evaluation.
How the Framework Informs Organizational Decisions
The assessment culminates in a focused set of decision tools designed to turn organizational evidence into priorities, action, and measurable progress.
Understand strengths, risks, and patterns
The Executive Findings Brief brings strengths, vulnerabilities, and cross-domain patterns into one leadership view. A Priority & Risk Map identifies what requires attention now, what can wait, and where issues intersect.
Learn More: turn findings into a practical response
Tailored Recommendations tie specific actions to the organization’s findings, operating context, and capacity. An Implementation Roadmap clarifies priorities, ownership, timing, dependencies, and practical next moves.
Learn More: evaluate whether change is working
A Measurement Framework defines indicators leaders can use to establish a baseline, monitor progress, evaluate impact, and adapt as conditions change.
Explore the Assessment Process
The approved seven-stage framework connects understanding with action. Open a stage to explore its role.
01Discover · Establish context
Clarify organizational priorities, concerns, stakeholders, and the questions the assessment must answer.
02Assess · Gather the evidence
Collect insight across leadership, workforce experience, organizational data, and relevant documentation.
03Analyze · Find the pattern
Integrate evidence to identify recurring conditions, root causes, risks, strengths, and points of leverage.
04Recommend · Set the priorities
Translate findings into a focused set of recommendations sequenced by importance, feasibility, and impact.
05Implement · Move into action
Support leaders in turning recommendations into practical initiatives, ownership, and execution.
06Measure · Evaluate progress
Track agreed indicators to understand what is improving, what is not, and where additional attention is needed.
07Adapt · Strengthen the response
Use new evidence and organizational learning to refine the approach as conditions and priorities evolve.
Ongoing measurement informs adaptation, allowing the strategy to evolve alongside the organization and sustain progress over time.
Every engagement begins with understanding.
Together, SMA and the organization establish the scope, stakeholders, priorities, and assessment approach appropriate for the engagement.
Start a conversation Return to Our Approach overview