Sample Site Visit Questions

Develop site visit questions using the issues identified on your SVIW. The questions asked
should be documented in the Strategy Details section. The purpose of each interview question is
to obtain relevant information needed to determine strengths or to identify opportunities.
(Notice underlined verbs used for the different levels interviewed.) The responses to these
questions, along with other observations made during the site visit, should allow you to close
your issues and develop your comments. The examples below include a sample lead question
and potential drill down questions to ask at various organization levels.

Category 1 Senior Leaders – How do you set organizational vision and values, and
Leadership performance expectations?
Managers – How do you participate in setting organizational vision, values,
and performance expectations? How do you communicate them to
employees?
Staff – What are the organization’s values and expectations? Describe how
that was communicated to you.
Category 2 Senior Leaders – Explain how you develop your strategic plan.
Strategic Managers – How do you participate in the strategic planning process?
Planning Staff – What action plans are used in your work area? What measures are used
to track the work you do?
Category 3 Senior Leaders – How do you identify and segment your customers?
Customer and Managers – Who are your customers, and what are their requirements? What
Market Focus do you monitor to ensure these requirements are met?
Staff – How do you receive information about customer requirements? What is
your role in meeting these requirements?
Category 4 Senior Leaders – How do you determine what data is selected and collected to
Measurement, track overall organizational performance?
Analysis, and Managers – How do you determine and set performance measures?
Knowledge Staff – What are your key measures? How were they set?
Management
Category 5 Senior Leaders – How do you determine employee satisfaction?
Workforce Managers – How do you determine the factors that affect the satisfaction of
Focus your employees? How do you measure employee satisfaction?
Staff - What are the most important factors of your job satisfaction? Have
senior leaders or managers ever asked you about that?
Category 6 Senior Leaders – How do you ensure the continuity of your services and
Process operations during an emergency?
Management Managers – How do you prepare employees for emergencies?
Staff – How do you know what to do during an emergency?

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 Category 7 – Results
Sample Lead Question
“Tell me a little about this chart (or table)?”
Potential Drill-Down Questions
“How is this result actually measured?”
“How are the data normalized?”
“What direction is good (favorable trend)?”
“Do you track or report these results by any type of subgroup or segments?” “How do
you do this?” “Can you provide me with the segmented results?”
Sample Lead Question (Current Performance and Trends)
“Tell me a little about your current performance and trend?”
Potential Drill-Down Questions
“The results show improving (or declining) performance – what’s driving it?”
How significant is this trend (or improvement) to your organization?”
“It appears you had some significant variance in performance – why?”
“Results show a significant positive (negative) spike in XX, can you tell me a little bit
about this?”
“Other results show 5-year trends but this result is only reported for 2 years, why?”
“This appears to be quarterly data but several data points are missing – why?”
Sample Lead Question (Comparisons)
“Why did you select this comparison?”
Potential Drill-Down Questions
“What do the comparison data represent?”
“Why is your performance in relation to the comparison important to your
organization?”
“I noticed there is no comparative data provided for this result. Do you compare your
performance in this area with any other organization or standard?” “How does your
performance compare with competitive performance?”
Sample Lead Question (Linkages)
“Why is this result important to your organization?”
Potential Drill-Down Questions
“How are these specific data used in day-to-day operations or to facilitate improvement?”
Sample Lead Question (Missing Data)
“I read in the application that XYZ was important to the organization. Do you track any
performance results related to this?”
Potential Drill-Down Questions
If yes, “may I have a copy of those results?”
If no, “how do assess performance related to XYZ and is this adequate to ensure meeting
XYZ requirements?”

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