Award Criteria










		Seven Criteria
		Award Criteria Framework
		Marking Scheme
		Award Criteria in Detail
		Scoring Guidelines

The core values and concepts are embodied in seven Criteria Categories:

LEADERSHIP

Leadership addresses how your senior leaders guide and sustain your organization, setting organizational vision, values, and performance expectations. Attention is given to how your senior leaders communicate with employees, develop future leaders, and create an environment that encourages ethical behaviour and high performance. The Category also includes your organization's governance system, its legal and ethical responsibilities to the public and how your organization supports its community.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning addresses strategic and action planning, deployment of plans, how plans are changed if circumstances require a change and how accomplishments are measured and sustained. The Category stresses that long term organizational sustainability and your competitive environment are key strategic issues that need to be integral parts of your organization's overall planning.

CUSTOMER AND MARKET FOCUS

Customer and Market Focus addresses how your organization seeks to understand the voices of customers and of the marketplace with a focus on meeting customer's requirements, needs and expectations, delighting customers and building loyalty. The Category stresses relationships as an important part of an overall listening, learning, and performance excellence strategy. Your customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction results provide vital information for understanding your customers and the marketplace. In many cases, such results and trends provide the most meaningful information, not only on your customers’ views but also on their marketplace behaviors (e.g. repeat business and positive referrals) and how these views and behaviours may contribute to the sustainability of your organization in the marketplace.

MEASUREMENT, ANALYSIS, AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

The Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management Category is the main point within the Criteria for all key information about effectively measuring, analyzing and reviewing performance and managing organizational knowledge to drive improvement and organizational competitiveness. In the simplest terms, Category 4.0 is the "brain center" for the alignment of your organization's operations and its strategic objectives. Central to such use of data and information are their quality and availability. Furthermore, since information, analysis, and knowledge management might themselves be primary sources of competitive advantage and productivity growth, the Category also includes such strategic considerations.

WORKFORCE FOCUS

Workforce Focus addresses key workforce practices-those directed toward creating and maintaining a high-performance workplace and toward engaging your workforce to enable it and your organization to adapt to change and to succeed. The Category covers workforce engagement, development, and management in an integrated way, (i.e., aligned with your organization's strategic objectives and action plans). Your workforce focus includes your capability and capacity needs and your workforce support climate.

To reinforce the basic alignment of workforce management with overall strategy, the Criteria also cover human resource planning as part of overall planning in the Strategic Planning Category (Category 2).

PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Process Management is the focal point within the Criteria for all key work processes. Built into the Category are the central requirements for efficient and effective process management: effective design; a prevention orientation; linkage to customers, suppliers, partners, and collaborators and a focus on value creation for all key stakeholders; operational and financial performance; cycle time; emergency readiness and evaluation, continuous improvement, and organizational learning.

Agility, cost reduction, and cycle time reduction are increasingly important in all aspects of process management and organizational design. In simplest terms, "agility" refers to your ability to adapt quickly, flexibly, and effectively to changing requirements. Depending on the nature of your organization's strategy and markets, agility might mean rapid change from one product to another, rapid response to changing demands, or the ability to produce a wide range of customized services. Agility also increasingly involves decisions to outsource, agreements with key suppliers, and novel partnering arrangements. Flexibility might demand special strategies, such as implementing modular designs, sharing components, sharing manufacturing lines, and providing specialized training. Cost and cycle time reduction often involve Lean process management strategies. It is crucial to utilize key measures for tracking all aspects of your overall process management.

RESULTS

The Results Category provides a results focus that encompasses your objective evaluation and your customers' evaluation of your organization's products and services, your overall financial and market performance, your workforce results, your leadership system and social responsibility results, and results of all key processes and process improvement activities. Through this focus, the Criteria’s purposes-superior value of offerings as viewed by your customers and the marketplace; superior organizational performance as reflected in your operational, workforce, legal, ethical, and financial indicators; and organizational and personal learning-are maintained. Category 7.0 thus provides "real-time" information (measures of progress) for evaluation and improvement of processes, products, and services, in alignment with your overall organizational strategy. Item 4.1 calls for analysis and review of business results data and information to determine your overall organizational performance and to set priorities for improvement.

The framework connecting and integrating the Criteria Categories is given in the figure below.

BALDRIGE CRITERIA FOR PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK:

A Systems Perspective

From top to bottom, the framework has the following basic elements:

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE

Your Organizational Profile (top of figure) sets the context for the way your organization operates. Your environment, key working relationships, and strategic challenges serve as an overarching guide for your organizational performance management system.

SYSTEM OPERATIONS

The system operations are composed of the six Baldrige Categories in the center of the figure that define your operations, and the results you can achieve.

Leadership (Category 1.0), Strategic Planning (Category 2.0), and Customer and Market Focus (Category 3.0) represent the leadership triad. These Categories are placed together to emphasize the importance of a leadership focus on strategy and customers. Senior leaders set your organizational direction and seek future opportunities for your organization.

Workforce Focus (Category 5.0), Process Management (Category 6.0), and Business Results (Category 7.0) represent the results triad. Your organization’s workforce and key processes accomplish the work of the organization that yields your overall performance results.

All actions point toward Results - a composite of product and service, customer and market, financial, and internal operational performance results, including workforce, leadership, governance, and social responsibility results. The horizontal arrow in the center of the framework links the leadership triad to the results triad, a linkage critical to organizational success. Furthermore, the arrow indicates the central relationship between Leadership (Category 1.0) and Business Results (Category 7.0). The two-headed arrow indicates the importance of feedback in an effective performance management system.

SYSTEM FOUNDATION

Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management (Category 4.0) are critical to the effective management of your organization and to a fact-based, knowledge-driven system for improving performance and competitiveness. Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management serve as a foundation for the performance management system.

There are 18 items, each focusing on a major requirement. They are expected to be included in the Final Submission. Maximum point values that can be scored for each item are shown in the chart below.

Preface: Organizational Profile

P.1 Organizational Description
P.2 Organizational Challenges


2008 Categories/Items	Point Values


1.0	Leadership	120
1.1	Senior Leadership	70
1.2	Governance and Social Responsibilities	50

2.0	Strategic Planning	85
2.1	Strategy Development	40
2.2	Strategy Deployment	45

3.0	Customer and Market Focus	85
3.1	Customer and Market Knowledge	40
3.2	Customer Relationships and Satisfaction	45

4.0	Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management	90
4.1	Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance	45
4.2	Management of Information, Information Technology, and knowledge	45

5.0	Workforce Focus	85
5.1	Workforce Engagement	45
5.2	Workforce Environment	45

6.0	Process Management	85
6.1	Value Creation Processes	45
6.2	Support Processes and Operational Planning	40

7.0	Results	450
7.1	Product and Service Outcomes	100
7.2	Customer-Focused Outcomes	70
7.3	Financial and Market Outcomes	70
7.4	Workforce-Focused Outcomes	70
7.5	Process Effectiveness Outcomes	70
7.6	Leadership Outcomes	70
	TOTAL POINTS	1,000

Download Award Criteria in Detail (PDF Version)

Item Notes for Judging Criteria (PDF Version)

Glossary of Terms (PDF Version)

Items in Criteria Categories 1-6 are designated as "Process" Items, while criteria category 7 as "Result" Item. They are evaluated on four factors: Approach, Deployment, Learning, and Integration (A-D-L-I), with scoring based on a holistic view, not a checklist, of the organization's achievement level across all four factors.

Frequently, several questions are grouped under one number (eg. P1a[3]). These questions are related and do not require separate responses. These multiple questions serve as a guide in understanding the full meaning of the information being requested.

SCORE

PROCESS
(For Use With Categories 1–6)

RESULTS
(For Use With Category 7)

0% or 5%


	No SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to Item Requirement is evident; information is ANECDOTAL. (A)
	Little or no DEPLOYMENT of any SYSTEMATIC APPROACH is evident. (D)
	An improvement orientation is not evident; improvement is achieved through reacting to problems. (L)
	No organizational ALIGNMENT is evident; individual areas or work units operate independently. (I)


	There are no organizational PERFORMANCE RESULTS or poor RESULTS in areas reported.
	TREND data either are not reported or show mainly adverse TRENDS.
	Comparative information is not reported.
	RESULTS are not reported for any areas of importance to your organization’s KEY MISSION or business requirements.

10%, 15%,
20%, or 25%


	The beginning of a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to the BASIC REQUIREMENTS of the Item is evident. (A)
	The APPROACH is in the early stages of DEPLOYMENT in most areas or work units, inhibiting progress in achieving the BASIC REQUIREMENTS of the Item. (D)
	Early stages of a transition from reacting to problems to a general improvement orientation are evident. (L)
	The APPROACH is ALIGNED with other areas or work units largely through joint problem solving. (I)


	A few organizational PERFORMANCE RESULTS are reported; there are some improvements and/or early good PERFORMANCE LEVELS in a few areas.
	Little or no TREND data are reported, or many of the TRENDS shown are adverse.
	Little or no comparative information is reported.
	RESULTS are reported for a few areas of importance to your organization's KEY MISSION or business requirements.

30%, 35%,
40%, or 45%


	An EFFECTIVE, SYSTEMATIC APPROACH, responsive to the BASIC REQUIREMENTS of the Item, is evident. (A)
	The APPROACH is DEPLOYED, although some areas or work units are in early stages of DEPLOYMENT. (D)
	The beginning of a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to evaluation and improvement of KEY PROCESSES is evident. (L)
	The APPROACH is in early stages of ALIGNMENT with your basic organizational needs identified in response to the other Criteria Categories. (I)


	Improvements and/or good PERFORMANCE LEVELS are reported in many areas addressed in the Item requirements.
	Early stages of developing TRENDS are evident.
	Early stages of obtaining comparative information are evident.
	RESULTS are reported for many areas of importance to your organization's KEY MISSION or business requirements.

50%, 55%,
60%, or 65%


	An EFFECTIVE, SYSTEMATIC APPROACH, responsive to the OVERALL REQUIREMENTS of the Item, is evident. (A)
	The APPROACH is well DEPLOYED, although DEPLOYMENT may vary in some areas or work units. (D)
	A fact-based, SYSTEMATIC evaluation and improvement PROCESS and some organizational LEARNING are in place for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of KEY PROCESSES. (L)
	The APPROACH is ALIGNED with your organizational needs identified in response to the Organizational Profile and other Process Items. (I)


	Improvement TRENDS and/or good PERFORMANCE LEVELS are reported for most areas addressed in the Item requirements.
	No pattern of adverse TRENDS and no poor PERFORMANCE LEVELS are evident in areas of importance to your organization's KEY MISSION or business requirements.
	Some TRENDS and/or current PERFORMANCE LEVELS - evaluated against relevant comparisons and/or BENCHMARKS - show areas of good to very good relative PERFORMANCE.
	Organizational PERFORMANCE RESULTS address most KEY CUSTOMER, market, and PROCESS requirements.

70%, 75%,
80%, or 85%


	An EFFECTIVE, SYSTEMATIC APPROACH, responsive to the MULTIPLE REQUIREMENTS of the Item, is evident. (A)
	The APPROACH is well DEPLOYED, with no significant gaps. (D)
	Fact-based, SYSTEMATIC evaluation and improvement and organizational LEARNING are KEY management tools; there is clear evidence of refinement and INNOVATION as a result of organizational-level ANALYSIS and sharing. (L)
	The APPROACH is INTEGRATED with your organizational needs identified in response to the Organizational Profile and other Process Items. (I)


	Current PERFORMANCE are good to excellent in most areas of importance to the Item requirements.
	Most improvement TRENDS and/or current PERFORMANCE LEVELS have been sustained over time.
	Many to most reported TRENDS and/or current PERFORMANCE LEVELS - evaluated against relevant comparisons and/or BENCHMARKS - show areas of leadership and very good relative PERFORMANCE.
	Organizational PERFORMANCE RESULTS address most KEY CUSTOMER, market, PROCESS, and ACTION PLAN requirements.

90%, 95%, or 100%


	An EFFECTIVE, SYSTEMATIC APPROACH, fully responsive to the MULTIPLE REQUIREMENTS of the Item, is evident. (A)
	The APPROACH is fully DEPLOYED without significant weaknesses or gaps in any areas or work units. (D)
	Fact-based, SYSTEMATIC evaluation and improvement and organizational LEARNING are KEY organization-wide tools; refinement and INNOVATION, backed by ANALYSIS and sharing, are evident throughout the organization. (L)
	The APPROACH is well INTEGRATED with your organizational needs identified in response to the other Criteria Items. (I)


	Current PERFORMANCE LEVELS are excellent in most areas of importance to the Item requirements.
	Excellent improvement TRENDS and/or sustained excellent PERFORMANCE LEVELS are reported in most areas.
	Evidence of industry and BENCHMARK leadership is demonstrated in many areas.
	Organizational PERFORMANCE RESULTS fully address KEY CUSTOMER, market, PROCESS, and ACTION PLAN requirements.