How Automation Changed the Assessment Approach at the East Europe Foundation Charity Organization.
Managing a large charitable organization is always a balance between ambitious goals, social mission, and complex realities. To maintain team energy and support its development, tools that make HR processes simple, transparent, and effective are essential.
East Europe Foundation decided to upgrade its 180/360 assessment system and fully automate key stages to make the process clear and convenient for every employee. HR Department Head Svitlana Kravchenko shared this experience and QS Integration team’s role.
For Reference
East Europe Foundation (EEF) is a Ukrainian charitable non-profit organization that traces its origins to 1992 when the team worked as part of the Eurasia Foundation.
Building on the knowledge and best practices of its founder, the International Charitable Organization East Europe Foundation was established in Ukraine in 2008.
Today, EEF is one of the civil sector leaders in Ukraine, having implemented over 100 programs in democracy and civil society development, e-governance, small and medium business support, social entrepreneurship, energy efficiency, and more.
How the Charitable Sector Differs from Business
The main difference is motivation.
In business, key objectives are tied to profit and KPIs. In the non-profit sector, positive impact and social change always come first. This shapes a different approach to management, leadership, and results recognition.
East Europe Foundation Charitable Organization Team
Big Mission and HR Team Challenges
In recent years, the Foundation has tripled in size – from 40 to over 120 employees. The growth in program quantity and complexity meant new challenges for the HR department.
“Our team consists of people who share the Foundation’s values and are genuinely motivated to change the country. This is our greatest advantage, but also a challenge. We need to work with such engagement carefully, considering program specifics while leaving room for development,” explains Svitlana Kravchenko.
Challenges that Grow with the Team
Charitable activities involve high emotional load: some projects require crisis response, others are implemented under short-term contracts due to funding specifics.
The Foundation’s team aimed to optimize internal processes to require less attention and stress while increasing efficiency and helping each employee develop while fulfilling the foundation’s mission – supporting the country’s development through beneficial projects.
“We constantly balance between flexibility, program specifics, and the need to maintain stable HR processes. And HR process automation helps us maintain this balance,” adds Svitlana.
Why it Was Time to Change the 180/360 Assessment
The previous assessment system didn’t match the organization’s scale and pace. Manual information collection and processing, difficulty in comparing results, lack of flexible reports, and low employee engagement made the process a mere formality.
“It was important for us that assessment become an effective tool for transparent communication and development, not just another procedure,” notes Svitlana.
Course toward HR Process Automation
Creating an effective tool internally would have meant spending too much time and resources. Therefore, the Foundation immediately began looking for an external partner.
The expectations from automation were clear: reduce HR department workload, ensure transparent and flexible reporting, increase team trust and employee engagement.
Why QS Integration
“We immediately found common ground,” recalls Svitlana. “The QS Integration team immersed themselves in our context and offered a flexible, modern, and adaptive solution. The combination of expertise, human communication, and support at every stage was decisive.”
According to Svitlana, the QS Integration team was prompt, precise, and always available. “Despite the challenging tasks, they genuinely strived to adapt the system to our needs and optimize processes. And we succeeded.”
How the 180/360 Assessment Process Was Upgraded
Within the collaboration, the process was relaunched in the Foundation’s existing ecosystem without additional costs:
- updated the competency model for specific team roles;
- configured survey templates in PeopleForce;
- organized automatic data transfer between systems via n8n and Power Automate;
- built reporting in Power BI with filters by teams and managers.
No standard solution existed for this: PeopleForce could only show individual employee assessments, without the ability to analyze by departments, teams, or managers. The request was to create a system with clear visualization for comprehensive analysis.
Data visualization in Power BI: all 360 assessments in one convenient dashboard
The QS Integration team proposed automation that “connected” PeopleForce and Power BI, giving the Foundation a complete picture of competencies and growth points. Now processes run without manual analytics and contractor involvement, and each assessment cycle saves time and resources.
What Changed after Automating the 180/360 Assessment
The first cycle with the updated system already showed results:
- minimized manual administration;
- controlled stages for HR and clear process for employees;
- access to quality analytics and visualized reports with filters;
- analytics by competencies and ability to quickly compare results.
Automation increased trust in the process, made dialogues between managers and subordinates more open and convenient, and feedback requests increased several times.
360 assessment results in PeopleForce with filters by teams and roles
The system enabled data analysis not only for individual employees but also for teams, departments, and even clusters, opening new horizons for corporate culture and HR process development.
Looking to the Future
The Foundation’s next step is automating the team growth process and implementing individual development plans, so assessment results directly influence the organization’s goals and actions.
“Don’t fear automation. Fear losing time and lacking quality analytics due to manual processes. This isn’t just buying a service, it’s a partnership that will meet your expectations,” concludes Svitlana Kravchenko.
In Conclusion
We thank Svitlana Kravchenko for the candid conversation and the opportunity to see how East Europe Foundation works from the inside. This case demonstrates how HR process automation and implementing the 180/360 assessment system can increase efficiency, transparency, and team engagement in the charitable sector.
We’re definitely not putting a period here, as there are many joint steps and solutions ahead that will help the Foundation’s team grow and implement ideas capable of changing the country.
