Committed to Excellence Assessment Applicant Guide 2015 www.qualityscotland.co.uk Quality Scotland, West End House, 28 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh EH3 7RN Tel: 0131 225 5765
The objective of this guide is to help you prepare for the EFQM Committed to Excellence -Assessment. Following the advice in this guide will help you present your organisation's achievements effectively and help maximise the value added by the feedback report you receive at the end of the process. What is Committed to Excellence- Assessment: Committed to Excellence- Assessment is a new level of recognition, which was launched by EFQM in 2014. The assessment is designed to bridge the gap between Committed to Excellence- Project Validation (formerly Committed to Excellence) and Recognised for Excellence. Instead of three improvement projects this scheme assesses the entire organisation against the EFQM Excellence Model. The assessment is strategically focused and during the site visit interviews will be conducted across five key themes. This makes the assessment more rigorous than Committed to Excellence- Project Validation but the focus on the five key themes gives it a lighter touch than Recognised for Excellence. It will give the organisation a clear picture as to how their approach to excellence and continuous improvement is being embedded at every level of the organisation. Are you ready for Committed to Excellence- Assessment: This level of recognition is perfect for organisations that have begun their excellence journey and are looking to understand their progress. However organisations at the beginning of their excellence journey can also apply if they feel they are able to demonstrate that they meet 4 of the 6 criteria below: Do You Have Yes No Strategic Plan: a document that describes the key objectives and supporting actions for your organisation's future activities Management Reporting: a system top management use to review the overall performance of your organisation. Customer Perception: a structured process to collect feedback from customers to gauge their level of satisfaction with your products and services. People Perception: a structured process to collect feedback from people to gauge their level of satisfaction and / or engagement. Process Management: the processes required to deliver your strategic goals have been defined & documented. Sustainability: a policy to ensure the future sustainability of your organisation's business model. 2
C2E- Assessment Process Overview The application process for C2E- Assessment is very simple. Organisations complete a submission, which contains an overview of your organisation and descriptions of your key approaches. A team of 2 Quality Scotland trained assessor will then conduct a oneday site visit of your organisation to validate what has been written in your submission. The day will take the form of interviews on five key themes followed by a focus group with a wider cross-section of staff. 3
Completing the Submission There two parts to the submission, which is designed to help the Assessors to understand your organisation. The organisation overview gives some basic information about your organisation, history, structure and strategy. The Enabler Map describes some of the key approaches you have developed and who is responsible for managing them on a day-to-day basis. This information should come from your chosen method of self-assessment. This should be sent to your Account Manager a minimum of two weeks before your validation The submission document only describes your Enablers, you will also need to ensure you have the relevant results available during the site visit. The Assessors will be looking to understand how performance has changed over time (up to 3 year trends for key results). Please remember that it is the responsibility of the applicant to demonstrate how effectively you meet the criteria, not on the Assessors to prove you do not. 4
Organising you site visit: The site visit should be organised through your Account Manager who will agree a date for the site visit. A team of two EFQM European Trained Assessors from Quality Scotland will visit and assess the organisation against the performance criteria for Committed to Excellence- Assessment. Preparing for your site visit: The site visit will consist of 5 interviews on 5 Key Themes and a Focus. It is up to the organisation to determine who are the most appropriate people to attend each of the interviews, but they should generally be the process owners identified in the Enabler Map part of the Submission. In the first Interview, Strategy and Business Results, the organisation is required to give a brief presentation explaining their organisation to set the context for the day. Strategy & Business Results Customer Management People Management Process Management Sustainability Focus Group Closing Meeting Evidence The interviews will provide the assessors with the opportunity to understand your organisation and gather information they need to complete the assessment. Have all the evidence which is identified in the Enabler Map available. Prepare evidence folders for each of the interviews. Evidence could include: Strategies, Policies, Output of Key process, Strategic Documents, Reports. 5
What to expect from your site visit On the day of the validation the assessors will conduct 6 sessions; 5 interviews on a separate key theme and a focus group at the end. More information on what will be covered in these sessions is detailed below. Strategy & Business Results This is a session with the Management Team to understand your strategy, why you have chosen this path and the key results you use to track performance against these objectives. During the discussions, you should explain: Who the organisation's key stakeholder groups are and the mechanisms for understanding their needs and expectations. How you understand your external operating environment, including relevant legislation, regulation and / or competition. How you develop the strategy, based on the needs and expectations of the different stakeholder groups. How you defined your strategic goals. How leaders implement your strategy throughout the organisation. How you track progress against the strategic goals you have set. The key results you have achieved against these strategic goals. Customer Management This session focuses mainly on how customer relationships and interfaces are managed. During the discussions, you should explain: Your Customer Strategy. How you define and segment current and potential customer groups. How you manage product and service development and delivery. How you manage customer relationships, including day to day contacts. The internal indicators you use for measuring progress against your customer strategy. How you measure customer perceptions. How this information is used to identify and drive process, product and service improvements. 6
People Management This session focuses on how you manage, develop and engage your people. During the discussions, you should explain: Your People Strategy. How you determine the skills and competences you need to achieve your strategy. How you set objectives and manage individual and / or team performance. How you develop individual skills and competences. The internal indicators you use for measuring progress against your people strategy. How you measure people perceptions. How you use this information to identify and drive improvement to people management processes. Process Management This interview focuses on how you identify and manage the processes that are key to delivering your strategy. During the discussions, you should explain: How you identify and document your key processes. How you define process ownership, roles and responsibilities. How you manage partners & suppliers. How you involve people in process improvement activities. An overview of the key process performance indicators you use. How you use this data to understand current performance levels and capabilities. How you use this data to identify and drive process improvements. Sustainability This interview focuses on your approach to sustainability, including environmental management and societal contribution. During the discussions, you should explain: An overview of your Sustainability Strategy. How you manage your impact on the environment. How you maximise your contribution to society. How you involve your people in sustainability. An overview of the internal indicators you use for measuring progress against your Sustainability Strategy. An overview of how you measure society perceptions. How you use this information to identify and drive improvements to your sustainability approaches. 7
Focus Group The objective of this interview is to gain a better understanding from "front-line" people of their experience of working in your organisation. The objective is to: Check the deployment of some of the key approaches discussed in previous interviews. Check the effectiveness of internal communications. Check alignment of personal, team and organisational objectives. Understand the organisational culture. Check the level of involvement in improvement activities. N.B. In organisations of less than 12 people, the Focus Group will be replaced with a final meeting with the Management Team to ensure the Assessors have all the information they need to complete their assessment. Closing Meeting During the closing meeting, the Assessors will share a summary of the key strengths and opportunities they have observed during their assessment. They are NOT able to give you the full feedback report or disclose the outcome at this stage. Feedback Following the Assessment Quality Scotland will send you a feedback report on your application. The feedback report will give you valuable insights into your organisation, using the EFQM Excellence Model as a reference point. It includes a An Executive Summary under each of the 5 Key Themes, which formed the interviews during the assessment. Detailed feedback of the organisation s strengths and areas of improvement against each of the 9 Criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model. A score to quantitatively measure your performance. The scoring reflects the standard methodology applied in all other EFQM Assessments. The maximum possible score is 1000 points. Scores by criteria are presented within a 10 point band e.g. 11 to 20. The Overall Score is presented as a 50 point range e.g. 201 to 250. 8
Recognition The level of recognition you receive will depend on the score achieved: To achieve EFQM Committed to Excellence 1 Star, you must score over 100 points but less than 200. To achieve EFQM Committed to Excellence 2 Star, you must score over 200 points. Successful organisations will receive: Certificate, dated and valid for 2 years Logos promoting the organisations achievement of C2E Invitation to the Scottish Awards for Business Excellence in June Next Steps Six months before the expiry of your certificate your Quality Scotland Account Manager will contact you and discuss your next steps. Many successful organisations benefit from re-applying for Committed to Excellence- Assessment because it helps to consolidate an understanding of organisational assessment and reinforce a culture of continuous improvement. If however the organisation scores over 300 points, you may wish to consider applying for EFQM Recognised for Excellence in future. This recognition schemes entails a more in depth assessment and gives a more detailed feedback report. Your Account manager will be able to provide you with more information on the Recognised for Excellence accreditation 9