NC Awards for Excellence

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Benefits and Levels of Participation

Benefits of the NCAfE Program at your Business

Gaining a competitive edge is a goal of organizations that commit to the pursuit of excellence. A participant in NCAfE can expect to receive the following benefits:

• Gain understanding of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence
• Receive assessments from performance improvement professionals
• Improve the ability to self assess and analyze processes by identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement
• Receive the necessary education and training to bring the organization’s awareness of performance improvement principles and practices to a competitive level
• Accelerate the ability to improve products, services, internal processes and organizational capabilities
• Increase customer loyalty by showing commitment to performance excellence
• Obtain the opportunity to benchmark processes, systems, and approaches through visits to and presentations of other recipients
• Receive public recognition for efforts and achievements at a special recognition ceremony

Participation in NCAfE

The intent of NCAfE is to create a system for measuring progress and growth. In keeping with this philosophy, NCAfE is a four-level program that allows organizations to begin with a few items of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and progress toward the full criteria, which provides guidelines for assessment, training, and public recognition to organizations interested in continuously improving their performance.

The Involvement (Level 1) of the NCAfE process is collaborative and involves the organization in the assessment. Level 1 includes a half-day of training and support to understand and use the Baldrige criteria. During the one-day collaborative assessment, this assessment consists of jointly assessing the organization against specific criteria (four items of the Baldrige criteria in a group setting with senior leaders, process owners, process users, management, and examiners serving as facilitators. A list of strengths and prioritized opportunities for improvement is generated. In addition, the participant will receive a formal feedback report.

In the Commitment (Level 2), Advancement (Level 3) and Leadership (Level 4), the organization provides responses to the Baldrige criteria in an application, prepared in a narrative form to the level criteria items for which the organization is applying. Once the responses are submitted to NCAfE, they are assessed independently and collectively by a group of examiners and then clarified/verified at a site visit. A Review Board independent from NCAfE evaluates the recommendation of the examiners and determine the level of recognition for the organization. A formal feedback report is provided by NCAfE to indicate the organization’s strengths, opportunities for improvement, and item scoring.