Commited To Excellence 5

Committed to Excellence
Action Plan Template for

Improvement Projects
EFQM Levels of Excellence
A Guide for Applicants
© 2007 EFQM
It is the EFQM’s intent to encourage the widespread use of this material within companies and organisations. However, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or communicated in any form or by any means (be
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Version 2 - 2005 Page 1 of 33

Table of Contents
Section Item Page
1 Introduction 3
2 Outputs from Self Assessment 3
3 Improving Performance 3
3.1 Agreeing your prioritisation criteria 4
3.2 Prioritising your improvements 4
3.3 Planning your improvement activities 6
3.4 Implementing your improvements 8
4 Validation 9
4.1 Organising your site visit 9
4.2 Preparing for your site visit 9
4.3 Understanding what you can expect from your site visit 11
4.4 Organisations that are not successful 11
Annex 1 Validation Profile 13
Annex 2 Focusing your Improvement Activity 18
Annex 3 Sample Improvement Project Plan 24
Annex 4 Applicant Feedback Form 45

1. Introduction
These guidelines have been produced for organisations applying for the Committed to Excellence
scheme. Organisations have a choice of applying directly to the EFQM or one of its National Partner
Organisations (NPO) and this determines who will organise validation of the Improvement Project Plan.
As a European wide scheme, the standards required and process followed are identical, regardless of
whether applications are made to the EFQM or NPO.
During the first stage of the scheme you are required to complete a Self-Assessment using an EFQM or
one of its National Partner Organisations (NPO’s) endorsed assessment products. You may have also
received support by an experienced Facilitator trained by the EFQM or NPO during your Self-
Assessment.
These guidelines aim to provide you with practical help and guidance for Stage 2 of the Scheme,
validating your Improvement Project Plan. This requires independent validation that your Improvement
Project Plan has been deployed. This will normally take place between 6-9 months after your
assessment by a trained EFQM / NPO Validator during a site visit.
2. Outputs from Self-Assessment
You will need to develop your Improvement Project Plan based on the outcome of your Self-
Assessment. This must have been conducted using an EFQM or NPO endorsed assessment product
based on the nine criteria of the EFQM Excellence model.
Typically the outputs of a Self-Assessment will include:
• Strengths and Areas for Improvement against each of the 9 criterion of the EFQM Excellence
Model.
• An evaluation of what your organisation currently does in relation to each of the 9 criterion of the
EFQM Excellence Model.
These outputs provide the information you need to develop and implement your Improvement Project
Plan.
3. Improving Performance
The main steps involved in improving performance are:
• Agreeing the criteria against which you will prioritise your improvement opportunities
• Prioritising your improvements
• Planning your improvement activities
• Implementing your improvements

You may find it helpful for the team involved in the Self-Assessment to contribute to the development
of the Improvement Project Plan. This will ensure consistency of understanding between the team that
prioritised the improvement opportunities and the team that will implement the Improvement Project
Plan. It is important to recognise that most organisations are unlikely to have the resources available to
implement all the improvements identified as outputs from their Self-Assessment. Concentrating on the
‘vital few’ will enable you to focus on those factors with the highest impact on performance or
achievement of organisational goals, once deployed. This means you will need to prioritise the
improvements identified during your Stage 1Self-Assessment.
3.1 Agreeing your prioritisation criteria
Before you prioritise your improvement actions it is important to determine and understand what
criteria you will be using to do so. Applicants are always free to use whatever prioritisation
methodology they prefer. This method will need to be explained briefly in the Improvement project
template. One commonly used prioritisation tool (described below in 3.2 ‘Prioritising your Improvements’)
considers two dimensions - the impact the action will have on your performance or goals and your
organisation’s capability to implement it. Those actions with a significant early impact on organisational
goals or performance, which are quick and easy to implement are likely to have a higher priority than
those which are difficult to implement or are not likely to have an impact within the next 6 - 9 months.
3.2 Prioritising your improvements
Your prioritisation criteria should be documented as part of your Improvement Project Plan, see Annex
3, Sample Improvement Project Plan, part 2 and part 4 for a worked example. Once you have agreed on your
prioritisation criteria you can then proceed to prioritise your actions.
An example of a Prioritisation Process:
Step 1. Remove or combine any duplicate actions.
Step 2. Group any common themes to create one broader action, re-wording if appropriate.
Step 3. Use the prioritisation matrix to list all improvement initiatives in column A, see figure 1 below.
(Refer to Annex 3, parts 2 and 4 for a worked example. This can be adapted to take account of
your own prioritisation criteria if required)
Step 4. For each initiative, consider the ‘impact’ it will have on your goals or performance. Decide
whether you think this will be ‘high’, ‘medium’, or ‘low’, and allocate the appropriate number of
points (see figure 2) in column B of the prioritisation matrix.

Step 5. Then, for each action, consider the ‘capability’ you have as an organisation to implement it
within the next 6 - 9 months. Decide whether you think this will be ‘high’, ‘medium’, or ‘low’,
and allocate the appropriate number of points (see figure 3) in column C of the matrix.
Step 6. Calculate the score for each action by multiplying column B by column C, and insert the score
in column D (see figure 1).
Step 7. Finally, determine the ranking by simply re-ordering the actions by their score, i.e. the higher
the score, the higher the ranking. Insert the ranking in column E (see figure 1).
Step 8. Completing the prioritisation matrix will give you a much better understanding of which actions
to focus on. However, there is no substitute for common sense and the matrix should only be
used as a guide. Once you have completed your prioritisation matrix, take a step back and make
sure your ranking of the actions feels right, amending any as appropriate. Examples of other
factors to consider when doing this are:
• One action may build the foundations for others. Even though it may be particularly resource
hungry, if it can be implemented within the 6-9 month timeframe, it would make sense to do it
as an early action.
• An action may address such a fundamental performance gap that it needs to be addressed
before other, dependant actions are tackled.
• It may seem logical to implement some actions in parallel with others.
Step 9. Finally, decide how many actions you feel you can manage to deploy within the 6-9 month
timeframe. You must tackle a minimum of 3 improvement actions in order to be considered for
recognition. Clearly, more improvement actions can be undertaken depending on the size of the
task and resource available.
Figure 1 - Example of a completed Prioritisation Matrix
A B C D E
Action Impact Capability Score Ranking

Implement process improvements to 5 3 15 2
reduce customer-billing time by 2
weeks.
Introduce a staff suggestion scheme. 3 3 9 3
Establish a system to measure 5 5 25 1
customer satisfaction.

Figure 2 - Suggested Prioritisation Criteria for ‘Impact’
High Impact Medium Impact Low Impact

5 POINTS 3 POINTS 0 POINTS
Will have a significant impact on Will have some impact on at Is unlikely to have an impact on
one or more organisational goals least one organisational goal or any organisational goals or
or performance indicators in the performance indicator in the performance indicators in the
next 6-9 months. next 6-9 months. next 6-9 months.
Figure 3 - Suggested Prioritisation Criteria for ‘Capability’
High Capability Medium Capability Low Capability

5 POINTS 3 POINTS 0 POINTS
• Can be implemented within • Likely to be implemented • Unlikely to be achieved
6-9 months within 6-9 months within 6-9 months
• Uses relatively little resource • May require a reasonable • Will require a substantial
to achieve amount of resource to amount of resource to
• Within the organisation’s achieve achieve
control • Is within the organisation’s • Is dependent upon factors
control external to the organisation.
Once you have prioritised your actions and agreed the number you intend to deploy within the next 6-9
months, the next step is to develop your Improvement Project Plan. This will help you deploy and
monitor your actions; as well as provide the documentation required for Site-Visit validation.
3.3 Planning your improvement activities
A first draft of your Improvement Project Plan should be sent to the body to which you applied (EFQM
or NPO) immediately after your Self-Assessment to confirm that the standard is appropriate for the
scheme. Of particular interest will be the prioritisation criteria used, the relevance of the improvement
initiatives to your organisation and the expected impact on organisational performance. This is designed
to avoid Applicants spending 6-9 months deploying an Improvement Project Plan that is unlikely to meet
the required standard. For each Improvement Initiative, a description of the Approach, planned
Deployment, process for Assessment and Review and anticipated Results should be detailed. (Review
Annex 3, part 6, for a worked example). The first draft Improvement Project Plan should be detailed
although it is acknowledged that the sections about Deployment, Assessment and Review and Results
will be at an early stage. Approximately 4-6 weeks before the Site Visit, an updated and fully
documented Improvement Project Plan will be required.

The table below describes the sections required for each Improvement Initiative and provides guidance
on how to complete them.
Improvement Plan Explanation

Headings
A Title of Ensure that the title of the improvement action is clear and understandable for the
Improvement benefit of the Validator
Action
B Owner of the The person who has overall responsibility for ensuring that the action is deployed to the
action agreed standards and within the agreed timeframe.
C Date for full The date by which the action should be completed and fully deployed in line with the
deployment description provided under ‘Deployment’.
D Model The EFQM Excellence Model criteria that the action is helping to address, e.g. 3 People.
Criterion
impacted
E Current Status The current status of any action can be reported at any agreed review point:
Red: Deployment not on target

Amber: Not yet due to be started / in progress and deployment on target
Green: Completed.
The date of the review should be noted.
F Results Measures or indicators used to assess whether the improvement action has been
(Deployment deployed within time scales and to its full potential (what should it look like)
Measurement)
G Approach Description of the approach being taken to address the area for improvement The
reasons why this approach was selected as a priority and the expected benefit to the
organisation (e.g. explain the link to the business plan, the performance indicators or
results that are expected to improve or the stakeholders expected to benefit)
H Deployment A description of how the approach will be deployed, e.g.
• Who is responsible for implementation

• To which groups of people
• What areas of operation
• Key milestones
• What will full deployment look like
• The deployment measure to be used. Detail the measure, how often the data is to
be collected and the associated targets.
I Assessment How will progress be monitored to ensure that the plan is on track and if necessary,
and Review corrections can be made?

3.4 Implementing your Improvements
You will need to implement your actions as outlined in your Improvement Project Plan. Implementation
will require regular monitoring to ensure that expected results are achieved. Part 6 of the Improvement
Project Plan provides a framework to help do this.
E Current Status The current status of any action can be reported at any agreed review point:
Red: Deployment not on target

Amber: Not yet due to be started / in progress and deployment on target
Green: Completed.
The date of the review should be noted.
F Results Measures or indicators used to assess whether the improvement action has been
(Deployment deployed within time scales and to its full potential (what should it look like)
Measurement)
I Assessment How will progress be monitored to ensure that the plan is on track and if necessary,
and Review corrections can be made?
This guide does not attempt to address the complexities of introducing change into an organisation, but
the following list gives some guidance on areas to consider:
• Allocating overall responsibility for the Improvement Project Plan may make it easier to co-ordinate
activities and monitor progress.
• Validation requires you to specify the owner of each improvement action - it may be helpful for you
to define roles and responsibilities involved, e.g. reporting progress.
• To make sure your improvements are effective, you will need to have monitoring systems to check
the progress of their deployment, measure their impact, and take corrective action as appropriate.
Your Improvement Project Plan documentation provides a format to help you do this.
• You may wish to develop success criteria to help you determine whether your actions are having the
desired effect.
• Effective communication can help the organisation to build acceptance and ownership of changes -
you may wish to consider whether your communication process allows an appropriate level of input
to the development and implementation of the Improvement Project Plan and keeps appropriate
people informed of progress and changes.
• Depending on the scale and complexity of your actions, it may be worth considering some likely
alternative scenarios and developing contingency plans to deal with them.
• To gain the benefits of your improvements you will need to make sure they are sustainable beyond
the timeframe of the project plan, e.g. by integrating them into your normal operations.
There are likely to be people within your organisation who are used to implementing change. You could
use their experience to help you implement your Improvement Project Plan.

4. Validation
Validation will require you to demonstrate that you have implemented a minimum of 3 actions to a
prescribed standard. This will be confirmed by an independent trained EFQM or NPO Validator, using
the RADAR scoring matrix. The framework that will be used by the Validator is described in Annex 1.
You will receive a written report that will provide you with feedback on Strengths and Areas for
improvement. The report will confirm whether you have been successfully recognised as Committed to
Excellence.
Organisations that are successful will receive a certificate and logo confirming that they have been
recognised as Committed to Excellence, valid for two years. Certificates are dated and organisations
should consider whether they wish to apply for Commitment to Excellence again at some time in the
future or to progress towards Recognised for Excellence.
Organisations who are not successful will receive guidance on where they need to improve before re-
applying for Committed to Excellence.
4.1 Organising your site visit
Your site visit will only be carried out upon your request and this should be done with the body you
applied to (EFQM or your NPO) 6-9 months after you completed your Self-Assessment. You will
receive an independent visit from a trained EFQM or NPO Validator who will evaluate deployment of
your Improvement Project Plan.
4.2 Preparing for your site visit
Once you have contacted the EFQM or your NPO to express your interest in a site visit, you will be
allocated a trained Validator. Your Validator will contact you to agree the date for the Site Visit and let
you know what is required.
Your Validator will require the following information:-
• Your completed application form (the original application form that you completed when
applying for Committed to Excellence. This will be provided by the EFQM or NPO)
• Outputs from your Self or Assisted Assessment
• Your completed Improvement Project Plan (Refer to Annex 3 for a worked example) which
includes:-

Front page complete with your organisational information as follows:
Name of Organisation The name of the organisation applying for Committed

to Excellence. This is the name that will be on the
certificate if the organisation is successful.
Address Address where the site visit is to take place
Contact Person The Validator’s prime contact person within the
organisation
Telephone Number Telephone number of the contact person
Fax Number Fax number of the contact person
E-mail Address E-mail address of the contact person
Date of Self-Assessment Date the Self-Assessment took place
Part 1: Information about your Self Assessment

Part 2a:The outcome of your Self-Assessment – What Strengths were identified?
Part 2b:The outcome of your Self-Assessment – What Areas for Improvement were identified?
Part 3: Prioritising your areas for improvement - How will you determine the importance of an
improvement project?
Part 4: Impact and relevance of your improvement projects
Part 5: Planning of Improvement Projects
Part 6: Detailed description for each improvement action
Other areas that your Validator may suggest that you consider are:-
• Ensuring that members of your Top Team (or as many as possible) are available for the site
visit
• Arranging a cross section of employees to be available. They will be interviewed by your
Validator in group or one to one discussions to test the deployment of your Improvement
Project Plan. You should consider including volunteers who were involved in one or more of
the following areas:-
1. Your Self Assessment

2. Development of the Improvement Project Plan
3. Implementation of the Improvement Project Plan
4. Those who were affected by the deployment of the Improvement Project Plan
• Organising some examples of support documentation, e.g. communication briefs, progress

review meeting action points, etc.
• Organising meeting rooms and refreshments during the Site Visit.

4.3 Understanding what you can expect from your Site Visit
As explained above your Validator will contact you to help you understand what you need to do
to prepare for the visit and dispel any worries or concerns you may have. Your Validator will
send you an outline agenda for the day so that you will know what to expect. Below is an
example of a typical outline agenda:
Agenda Items
Introductions and meet top team
Overview of the process to-date and explain the purpose of the Site Visit
Define the success criteria for determining Committed to Excellence
Explanation of the Site Visit Process
Evidence and Data Collection - Structured Interviews based on the Improvement
Project Plan
Lunch
Deployment Testing - Document Review
Deployment Testing - Discussion with employees
Preparation of Feedback Report and Presentation
On Site Feedback
Next Steps and Close
At the end of the visit your Validator will provide you with feedback as to whether or not you have
been successful. This will provide you with details of the areas where you did well or where there was
room for improvement.
Successful organisations will receive a certificate confirming that they have been recognised as
Committed to Excellence. The Certificates are dated and are valid for two years and reflect the
commitment demonstrated by the organisation at the time of the site visit.
Many successful organisations will benefit from re-applying at some time in the future. A second
application can help to consolidate an understanding of organisational assessment and reinforce a culture
of continuous improvement. As the organisation gains experience it could consider applying for
Recognised for Excellence.
4.4 In case your organisations is not successful
Organisations that are not successful will receive guidance within their written report on where they
need to improve before re-applying for Committed to Excellence.
Applicants can request a new date for their Improvement Project Plan to be validated within 3 months
of the first Site Visit. They will be able to use the same Improvement Project Plan or substituted
Improvement Actions (as long as they were generated from the original Self-Assessment). Please contact
the EFQM or NPO to discuss this option. A fee for the Site Visit will be payable.

If this option is not appropriate, re-applications for Committed to Excellence will be accepted only if the
process begins with a new Self-Assessment. By this stage nearly one year will have elapsed since the first
Self-Assessment and it is important that a new process confirms that Improvement Actions are relevant.
It is recommended that an organisation, whether successful or not, should not go through more
than 3 cycles of Commitment to Excellence as the benefits and learning are likely to have been
maximised by this stage.

Annex 1 - Validation Profile
The Validation Profile below, shows for each of the RADAR elements, the standard each Applicant is
expected to demonstrate to be recognised as Committed to Excellence.
Each Improvement Initiative will be evaluated against this profile and it will be used to inform the structure of
the Site Visit. Validation requires that the applicant demonstrate that a minimum of two improvement
actions meets the required validation profile of 32 or more attributes out of 65. The standard for each
RADAR element must also be demonstrated. The third improvement action must at least demonstrate the
minimum profile for Approach and Deployment (20 out of 35 attributes). This acknowledges that the
timeframe for some improvement initiatives and the consequential benefits may only be evident beyond the
Site Visit. However, there should be sufficient evidence that the initiative is sound and relevant.
This will provide a common standard for all Applicants against which to assess their commitment to improve.
The profile is illustrative, in that the shaded areas indicate where an Applicant could be reasonably expected
to demonstrate the required level of evidence. The exact profile will vary from organisation to organisation
but what is a requirement is the overall performance for each RADAR element.
• For Approach, organisations must demonstrate a minimum performance level of 60%

• For Deployment, organisations must demonstrate a minimum performance level of 50%
• For Assessment and Review, organisations must demonstrate a minimum performance level of 40%
• For Results, organisations must demonstrate a minimum performance level of 40%
The logic of the framework is based on the fact that soundly based; relevant organisational
Approaches will have a positive impact on performance. Within the timeframe of an application
from undertaking a Self-Assessment to the date of Site Visit, there is likely to be a lag between
the impact of an Approach on Results. This is why the Radar element for Approach is weighted
more heavily than other areas.

Annex 1 - Validation Profile (used for each improvement project)
Improvement Action
No: _1_
Results Sources of Evidence No Some Evidence Clear Comp.
Evidence Evidence Evidence Evidence
Targets • Part 6, sections F of
Targets for deployment have the Action Plan
been achieved
The targets for effectiveness • Part 6, sections F of
have been achieved the Action Plan
The required profile for Results is 40% (4 or more attributes out of a possible 10)
Minimum profile for Results
achieved for initiative 1? Yes/No
Sources of Evidence No Some Evidence Clear Comp.

Approach
Sound • Parts 1 and 2 of the
Improvement activity clearly Action Plan
addresses an area identified
through self assessment
The rationale for selection • Part 3 of the Action
is clearly demonstrated by Plan
prioritisation against sound
criteria
Improvement actions are • Parts 6 of the Action
clearly and fully Plan x 3
documented in the required
format
The relevance of the • Original application
improvement action to the form which provides
organisation is clearly background
established information about the
organisation
• Part 3, of the Action
Plan
Integrated • Parts 3 and 4 of the
Improvement activity Action Plan
supports Business Goals,
business performance or
other organisational
approaches
The required profile for Approach is 60% (15 or more attributes out of a possible 25)

Minimum profile for Approach


Improvement Action No: _1_
Deployment Sources of Evidence No 25% of 50% of 75% of 100% of

evidence areas areas areas areas
Implemented • Part 5 of the Action Plan
The improvement action is • Part 6, section H of the
implemented in all target areas Action Plan
Deployment Sources of Evidence No Some Evidence Clear Comp.
Systematic • Part 5 of the Action Plan
The deployment plan has been • Part 6, section H of the
implemented in a structured way Action Plan
and any changes have been
documented
The required profile for Deployment is 50% (5 or more attributes out of a possible 10)
Minimum profile for Deployment
Sources of Evidence No Some Evidence Clear Comp.

Assessment and Review
Measurement • Part 6, sections F, H,
There is regular measurement of and J of the Action Plan
deployment of the improvement
action
There is regular measurement of • Part 6, sections F and J
effectiveness of the improvement of the Action Plan
action
Learning • Part 6, section J of the
Regular progress reviews are used to Action Plan
capture and understand learning
throughout deployment
Improvements • Part 6, section J of the
Corrective action (either to the Action Plan
approach or to deployment of the
approach) has been taken as a result
of learning gained from progress
reviews and this is fully documented.
The required profile for Assessment & Review is 40% (8 or more attributes out of a possible 20)
Minimum profile for Assessment & Review
mum Overall Profile Achieved (32 or more Minimum Overall Profile Not Achieved
attributes out of a maximum 65) insert number (31 attributes or less) insert number
If minimum overall profile not achieved is Minimum Profile

for Approach & Deployment Achieved? Yes/No

Annex 2 - Focusing your Improvement Activity
1. Introduction
Once you have completed your Self-Assessment, you should have identified a number of organisational
Strengths and Areas for Improvement. One approach for deciding which Areas for Improvement you
will tackle is to review those that achieved the highest rating for each of the 9 criteria you assessed.
From this list of 9 Areas for Improvement you can evaluate which 3, have the greatest impact on
organisational performance and are the easiest to implement. Equally, you can concentrate your efforts
on one criterion if you believe that this will generate a significant performance breakthrough. What is
important is that they are relevant for your organisation.
The decision about how many Areas for Improvement you will tackle, will be influenced by:
• How they have been prioritised in terms of impact on organisational performance (e.g. contribution
to key results, improvements in customer / employee / societal satisfaction, achievement of strategy
and objectives)
And
• The capability of the organisation to manage and implement the improvements. (The availability of
people to join the project teams and costs associated with the implementation of improvements)
Typically, no more than five or six Improvement Projects should be undertaken. Any more than this
risks the danger that your improvement programme will loose focus and become stretched for
resources. However, for the purposes of an application for Committed to Excellence, a minimum of 3
improvement actions must be presented.
Demonstrating the relevance of improvement actions to the organisation is a critical part of the
validation process for Committed to Excellence. The selection of your 3 Improvement Actions will be
based on an evaluation of impact and capability to implement. This is reflected in the structure of the
Improvement Project Plan you are required to complete and will be used by the Validator during site
visit.
The three improvement actions can address any of the 9 criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model, in any
permutation. They could all be focused on one criterion or spread across three criteria.
Your improvement actions will fall into at least one if not more of the following 4 categories:
1. Improving an existing Enabler

2. Developing a new Enabler
3. Improving an existing Result
4. Developing a new Result

The following tables have been developed for each of the 4 categories, it is not a mandatory
requirement that you use them, they are designed to help you to test and structure your ideas. The
table(s) you use will depend on how Areas for Improvement have been prioritised. Once you have
completed the appropriate tables you should document your improvement actions more fully in the
Improvement Project Plan template provided.
A worked example of an Improvement Project Plan has been prepared to help you to understand the
requirements of RADAR and to demonstrate the level of detail required. Please review this before
completing the Improvement Project Plan template.
2. Improving Existing Enablers
The table below can be used to indicate areas where you want to focus your improvement activity for
Enablers. This will be informed, by the score you allocated during the assessment for the RADAR
elements, Approach, Deployment, Assessment and Review and Results. E.g. if the approach exists but it
is not systematic or measures do not exist, then this will be the focus of improvement activity.

Example Enabler Enabler Enabler

Approach 1 Approach 2 Approach 3
Description of the Approach.
The business planning process has been
defined but the assessment indicated a
number of areas for improvement.
Sound
The planning process is sound, it
identifies stakeholder requirements and
is related to organisational objectives.
Integrated
Integrating the planning process with an
annual review of manpower
requirements could be improved and
would help to assess capability to deliver
the business plan.
Implemented
This is weak. Business Plan targets,
measures and objectives are not
cascaded to all employees.
Systematic
The approach for developing the
business plan is defined and structured.
Measurement
Quarterly and annual reviews are
planned to track actual versus planned
performance.
Learning
The planning process is reviewed and
improvements have been identified.
Improvements
• Integrate the business planning
process with an annual review of
manpower requirements.
• Align objectives with resources to
improve production volumes and
productivity
• Translate business plan requirements
into objectives and targets for all
employees.
• Increase employee understanding
and ownership of objectives and
targets measured by the Employee
Opinion Survey.

3. Developing New Enablers
In this category, your Self-Assessment has identified something that you should be doing that will have a
positive impact on organisational performance but no Approach currently exists. Development of new
enablers should be based around stakeholder needs; they should support strategy and address
organisational weaknesses. It is important that the organisation is clear about the benefits of the
Approach.
Example Enabler Enabler Enabler

Approach 1 Approach 2 Approach 3
Describe the Approach
There is no structured approach to collect
feedback from employees. An Employee
Survey will be developed and launched to
address this weakness.
What are the benefits for stakeholders?
This will provide an opportunity for
employees to influence organisational
policies.
How does it contribute to strategy?
The survey will identify satisfaction levels and
highlight priority areas for improvement.
What organisational weaknesses does
it address?
Lack of data to evaluate how well
organisational policies contribute to
employee retention and satisfaction.
What measures will you use to assess
deployment and to evaluate the impact
against goals?
• Number of employees receiving the
survey and providing feedback.
(Implementation and Measurement)
• Improvement initiatives launched in
response to employee feedback.
(Learning)
• Overall Satisfaction levels (Perception
results)
• Impact on organisational performance,
measured by retention rates leading to
reduced costs for recruitment, improved
return on training investment and
increase in productivity. (Performance
Results)

4. Improving Existing Results
The table below can be used to indicate areas where you want to focus your improvement activity for
Results. This will be informed, by the score you allocated during the assessment for trends, targets,
comparisons and causes. E.g. the result exists but targets have not been set or the causes or enabling
activities that contribute to the result need to be improved.
Example Results Results Results

Measure 1 Measure 2 Measure 3
Description of the Measure.
Customer complaint levels are tracked
and recorded but the data has not been
segmented by category of complaint or
by customer profile.
Trends / Scope
Complaint levels have increased over the
last 12 months
Targets
A target to reduce complaint levels has
been set but has not been met
Comparisons
No external comparisons are made.
Causes
The drivers of complaints are not clearly
understood.
Improvements
• Segment customer complaint data.
• Rank the data by the most frequent
type of complaint.
• Form a project team to analyse root
causes and develop a solution to
reverse complaint trends.
• Identify external organisations to
benchmark how they manage
Customer Complaints.
• Target a reduction in customer
defections.
• Increase the customer base.
• Increase average revenue generated
per customer.

5. Developing New Results
In this category, your Self-Assessment has identified a result that you should be tracking but no indicator
currently exists. Development of new results should be based around stakeholder needs; they should
support strategy and address organisational weaknesses. Establishing a new measure is only the start of
the process. It is important to think about how the information will be collected and what organisational
activities will influence performance against this result.
Example Results Results Results

Measure 1 Measure 2 Measure 3
Describe the Result
Introduce supplier performance
measures based on component reliability
and performance.
Why is this important to
stakeholders?
Supplier components are critical to
product performance and reliability.
They are the two key performance
indicators that influence a customer’s
decision to purchase the final product.
How does it contribute to strategy?
Product quality is directly related to
organisational image, sales volumes,
revenue and overall financial
contribution.
Improvements
• Introduce a process for supplier
selection and evaluation
• Introduce a quality review system
based on sampling supplier
components
• Organise a joint improvement team
with suppliers to improve
component quality.
• Target reduction in customer
complaint levels.
• Target increases in customer
perception of quality.
• Target improvements to reduce
production time.
• Target reductions in inventory
levels.
• Target improvements in cash flow.

Annex 3: Sample Improvement Project Template
The EFQM Levels of Excellence Scheme

‘Committed to Excellence’
ACTION PLAN TEMPLATE

FOR IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
Please refer to your Guide for Applicants for advice on how to complete this plan
© 2001- 2006 EFQM

It is the EFQM’s intent to encourage the widespread use of this material within companies and organisations. However, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or communicated in any form or by any means (be
this electronically, mechanically, through photocopy or recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission from the
copyright owner."

ORGANISATION
DETAILS
Name of Organisation
Address
Contact Person
Telephone Number
Fax Number
E-mail Address
Planned date for Validation

visit (usually 6 – 9 months after
formal application)
Please note:
Your Action Plan should:
• Be in English
• Have numbered pages
• Not exceed 15 pages (including this page)
• It should be typed and the font size must not be less than 10
• Retain the same structure of the tables and margins provided

Part 1: Information about your Self Assessment (SA)
Date of your Self-Assessment
Did you use an External Facilitator?

Yes D No
Method of Assessment Briefly describe the

• method used for your Self Assessment
• how the SA was conducted
• who participated at the SA exercise
We used the EFQM Determing Excellence

questionnaire. It was issued to selected people to
complete and then we had a meeting to agree our
strengths and areas for improvement.
What were the lessons learnt which

could help to improve your For our next assessment we intend to issue the
approach to SA. questionnaire to more of the organisation in
order to get a wider input.

Part 2: The outcome of your Self-Assessment – What Strengths and Areas for Improvement were identified?
List below 2 of the most relevant strengths and areas for improvements based on the EFQM Excellence Model criterion below.
Model Areas for Improvement

Criterion
Leadership 1.1 No medium or long term view developed about the Vision for the organisation
1.2 Management involvement with suppliers is ad-hoc
Policy and 2.1 Customer complaint data is unstructured and not used as a formal input to developing strategy or plans
Strategy 2.2 Business plan objectives and targets are not effectively communicated or cascaded to all employees
ENABLER
People 3.1 The manpower plan is not aligned with the business plan, resulting in a poor allocation of resources to support objectives
3.2 There is no employee survey or other formal means of capturing feedback against which to evaluate Human Resource policies
Partnerships 4.1 Ad-hoc selection or evaluation of suppliers and there is no defined approach to develop a win-win relationship
and Resources 4.2 No consistent approach to invoicing and lack of control over cash-flow
Processes 5.1 Poor definition and lack of understanding about the key processes that influence performance. Ownership of processes is weak and
responsibilities are vague
5.2 Product quality affected by variable component standards
Customer 6.1 Data is poorly segmented and there is no structured approach to analysing results.
Results 6.2 Customer defections have been increasing and revenue generated per customer is declining, faster than the industry average.
Complaints trends are rising and this could be due to worsening product quality
People Results 7.1 Employee turnover has been rising, resulting in increased recruitment costs and poor return on training investment. This has led to a
RESULTS
decline in productivity.
7.2
Society 8.1 No formal approach defined for re-cycling (paper, packaging, scrap materials)
Results
8.2 No evaluation or control of utilities, particularly electricity and water
Key 9.1 Cash-Flow management is variable
Performance 9.2 Market share is declining, probably due to poor product quality leading to increased customer defections.
Results
Part 3: Prioritising your areas for improvement - How will you determine the importance of an improvement
project?
You may use any method you are comfortable with to prioritise your Areas for Improvement. You are required to briefly describe
how you do it and the output it generates. The Applicant Guide provides you with ideas on how this can be done.
Briefly describe your prioritisation criteria and how you prioritised your Areas for Improvement:
The organisation operates in a niche market, providing high quality specialised components at a premium price for the automotive sector. Retention of the
existing customer base is critical for maintaining medium term revenue flows because it can take up to six months to bid for an win a tender for a new
contract.
The key factors that customers evaluate their suppliers against in a highly competitive market are product quality and on time-delivery.
To ensure a competitive position, the organisation is dependent on supplier performance, retention of a skilled workforce and a tight control of operating
costs.
Prioritisation of our improvement actions is based on the impact they have on the following objectives:
• Their contribution to improving Customer Satisfaction through enhanced product performance and on-time availability
• Achieving high tolerance levels and increased life expectancy of supplier components
• The ability to improve employee retention levels
• Increasing productivity and delivering cost control efficiencies
Selection of Improvement Actions is then determined based on an evaluation against:
• Costs, time and resource required for implementation in relation to the impact they have against the objectives listed above.
Outcome: A list of your Top 3 improvement projects.
Project 1 Title: Develop and Introduce an Employee Opinion Survey (EOS)
Project 2 Title:
Project 3 Title: Improve the invoicing process to reduce payment cycles from 40 days to 30 days
Part 4: Impact and relevance of your improvement projects
Projects How is it relevant to your organisation and how does What impact will it have on your Organisational How does it contribute to or support other
it serve your strategy? Goals, Performance Results or Business Plan? organisational Approaches?
Project Retention of a skilled and motivated workforce is key Analysis of EOS data will be used to evaluate existing Employee turnover creates inefficiencies due to
1 to the performance of the organisation. Employee HR policies and to identify gaps in approaches. As a the increased costs of recruitment and the
turnover has been rising and this has had an impact on result of modified and new HR approaches identified reduced impact of our investment in training.
our ability to retain knowledge, skills and experience. from the EOS, the target is to reduce employee Resolving this problem will reduce recruitment
Reversing this trend will have a positive impact on our turnover by 5% within 6 months. This is calculated to costs, improve the return on investment in
ability to achieve product quality and productivity reduce recruitment costs by 15k Euro and as a result training and contribute to improvements in
targets. The reasons for employee turnover are not save 5K Euro that would have been spent training new product quality and productivity.
fully understood and a systematic approach to capture recruits. Product Quality and Productivity are
employee feedback is required. This will help to expected to improve by 3% and 5% respectively as a
understand the impact of current HR policies and gaps result of retaining experienced employees. This is
in our approaches necessary to retain a motivated calculated by comparing employees with 1 or more
workforce. The EOS is a means to an end and an year’s experience with the typical performance of new
important and necessary mechanism to inform recruits.
decision-making
Project It is important that the organisation constantly invest The effect of reducing payment cycles from 40 to 30 The invoicing initiative is linked to the financial
3 in upgrading operations to improve component days is expected to generate a benefit of 50k Euro in a policies of the organisation concerning cash flow,
reliability. The impact on the profit and loss account of full year of operation. the terms for customer contracts and the
improving cash flow will generate funds for capital operating procedures of the finance department.
investment in operational equipment.
Part 5: Planning of Improvement Projects
A B C D E F
Project Key Milestones Project Owner Expected Project Owner Status
completion date
J F M A M J J A S O N D
1 Develop and Introduce an Employee Opinion HR Manager November 2001
Survey
I.
II.
III.
2 Establish a partnership framework for key Operations August 2001
suppliers and work together to agree how to Manager
improve component quality and stock
management
I.
II.
III.
3 Improve the invoicing process to reduce Finance Manager January 2001
payment cycles from 40 days to 30 days
I.
II.
III.
Status
Red = deployment not on target
Amber = not yet due to start/in progress and deployment on

target
Part 6: Improvement Project 1
A Title: Develop and Introduce an Employee Opinion Survey
B Owner of HR Manager C Date for Full November 2001

the Action: Deployment:
D Model 3: People
Criterion:
E Current Status as of (insert month Red z Amber z Green z

and year):
Project Description
F RESULTS The project plan defined 4 key dates when the survey should be issued.
What measures will you use to ensure the To date, two cycles have been completed in line with the plan.
improvement has been fully deployed?
What measures will you use to ensure the • 50% of all employees have received the survey.
improvement has been successful? • On the first cycle, 55% of employees completed the questionnaire
• On the second cycle, 65% of employees responded to the survey.
• Turnover has been reduced by 3% against a target in the first 6
months of 5%.
• Recruitment costs have been reduced by 9k Euro compared to the
target of 15k Euro.
• 4k Euro has been saved in training costs compared to the target of
5K Euro.
• Product Quality and Productivity have improved by the target rates
of 3% and 5% respectively as a result of retaining experienced
employees caused by revised and new HR policies.
G APPROACH
Describe the project and why it is necessary
• The outcome of the assessment highlighted an absence of formalised approaches to the way in which the
organisation manages employees in certain key areas. The management team recognised that a number of issues
such as sick leave, employee turnover and productivity needed to be addressed but that the basic data to
understand why these problems occurred did not exist.
• In a service industry, people are key and the need to address these problems was identified as a top priority.
However, without basic information, the management team was unclear about specific actions to resolve the
issues.
• The Employee Survey will help to understand then determine appropriate courses of action. The tangible benefits
and impact on performance of this initiative will ultimately be realised after the survey has been introduced.
• The survey highlights the importance the organisation places on understanding employee issues that directly affect
organisational performance.
Version 7 Page 26 of 33
Part 6: Improvement Project 1 (Continued)
H DEPLOYMENT
Describe
• How it will be implemented
• Where it will be implemented
• Who contributes to the implementation
• The Human Resource manager has the lead role for the improvement action and formed a team of 5
employees who all volunteered to help develop the survey.
• The initiative is based on ideas and material provided in Advice Booklet 3, People. The team reviewed the
topic areas in booklet 3, contributed their own ideas and produced a draft questionnaire. The draft
questionnaire was copied to all employees for comment. Suggestions were reviewed and changes made to
produce a final survey that will be issued to all employees over a 12-month period.
• Based on the resources available in the HR department and the need to analyse returns quickly, the team
agreed that the survey should be issued to 25% of employees every quarter. This will also provide a benefit in
terms of regular feedback that will highlight trends that would not be available if one large survey was issued.
To date, the questionnaire has been designed, produced and 2 surveys have been issued. This is in line with the
deployment plan. Full deployment of the initiative will be completed within the next 3 months (by November).
All employees will have then had the opportunity to complete the questionnaire.
• Based on the feedback from the first two surveys, the data highlighted training as a key driver of productivity
and a project team has been formed to work on this performance issue.
• The project team defined two types of measures for this improvement initiative. The first relates to the time
scales by when surveys should be issued and the response rate by employees and this was set at 50% of
employees for each survey issued. The second type of measure relates to the performance outcomes from
improving retention rates and they address recruitment costs, return on training investment, product quality
and productivity.
I ASSESSMENT AND REVIEW

• The project team met after the end of each
Describe how you will survey
• Monitor and record progress against plan • At the end of the first cycle, the team agreed to
• Identify and record learning points promote the survey to encourage employees to
• Monitor progress against measures listed in I – respond. This will be continued for the third
Result and fourth surveys.
• At the end of the second survey, the feedback
highlighted that the major cause of employee
turnover was due to a lack of personal
development and opportunities for multi-
skilling. As a result a new project team was
formed to address this feedback. The objective
is to introduce personal development plans for
all employees and this has been communicated.
Part 6: Improvement Project 3
A Title: Improve the invoicing process to reduce the payment cycle from 40 days to 30 days
B Owner of Finance Manager C Date for Full January 2001

the Action: Deployment:
D Model 4: Resources
Criterion:
E Current Status as of (insert month Red z Amber z Green z

and year):
Project Description
F RESULTS All Finance Personnel have been briefed to apply the 30 day
What measures will you use to ensure the payment policy for all new orders from the 1st February
improvement has been fully deployed?
What measures will you use to ensure the All customer contracts have been changed to reflect the 30
improvement has been successful? day policy
G APPROACH
Describe the project and why it is necessary
• The invoicing process is key to cash flow and the payments date after invoicing averages 40 days. Reducing this
to a calendar month would generate an extra 50k Euro over the course of a full financial year.
• This initiative was ranked as the third most important improvement initiative and will produce an early and
visible impact on the financial performance of the organisation
Part 6: Improvement Project 3 (Continued)
H DEPLOYMENT
Describe
• How it will be implemented
• Where it will be implemented
• Who contributes to the implementation
• The Finance Manager leads the initiative supported by the Finance Team.
• The policy was agreed at a Management meeting in January and it was decided to introduce the change from
the start of February.
• All finance personnel have been briefed to send a letter to customers if payment has not been received after
30 days from the date of the original invoice.
• All customers from the 1st February will be advised of the change in policy at the point of ordering services
• The invoicing policy applies to 100% of new orders received from the 1st February 2001
I ASSESSMENT AND REVIEW • The Finance Team plan to meet in 3 months to

review the policy
Describe how you will
• Monitor and record progress against plan
• Identify and record learning points
• Monitor progress against measures listed in I –
Result
Annex 5: Applicant Feedback about the Committed to Excellence Process
The goal of the EFQM is that its products and services contribute towards improving your
performance. As an organisation that has applied for Committed to Excellence we would value your
feedback, in order that we can identify strengths and areas for improvement.
All information will be treated in confidence and aggregated to provide trend data.
The majority of questions require you to tick one box per line.
Marking instructions: please be sure to fill in the response circles completely:

Correct mark: λ Incorrect mark: ⊕
1 Considering all your experience of the Committed to Excellence scheme, how satisfied
are you?
Very Satisfied Not at all Satisfied

l k j i h g f e d c
2 What is your overall image of EFQM as an organisation that acts with integrity?
Very High Image Very Low Image

l k j i h g f e d c
3 What were your expectations of the Committed to Excellence scheme before you
applied?
Very High Expectations Very Low Expectations

Learn how to l k j i h g f e d c
use a diagnostic
framework
Build experience l k j i h g f e d c
of improvement
Receive l k j i h g f e d c
independent
feedback
3rd Party l k j i h g f e d c
External
Recognition
Please turn to continue∑
4 To what degree do you consider that your application for Committed to Excellence has
met all of your expectations?
Much more than expected Much less than expected

l k j i h g f e d c
5 How satisfied are you with each of the below?

Ease of making l k j i h g f e d c
contact with
EFQM
Quality of Materials l k j i h g f e d c
The 9 criteria l k j i h g f e d c
Assessment
based on the
EFQM Model
The format of l k j i h g f e d c
your
Improvement
Project Plan
The Site Visit process l k j i h g f e d c
The Feedback Report l k j i h g f e d c
The Competency of l k j i h g f e d c
the Validator
6 How do you value the cost of applying for Committed to Excellence in relation to:

The amount of Internal l k j i h g f e d c
Work
Organisational l k j i h g f e d c
diagnosis through Self-
Assessment
The quality of the l k j i h g f e d c
Validator Feedback
Report
7 Based on your experience of Committed to Excellence, how likely is it that you would
extend the scheme to other organisational units or consider an application for a higher
level of recognition such as Recognised for Excellence?
Very Likely Very unlikely

l k j i h g f e d c
8 How likely is it that you would recommend Committed to Excellence to other

organisational units or external organisations?
Very Likely Very unlikely

l k j i h g f e d c
9 If you can imagine an ideal recognition scheme, how close to this ideal is Committed to
Excellence?
Very close Very far away
l k j i h g f e d c
10 What did you like most about Committed to Excellence?
11 What did you like least about Committed to Excellence?
12 Do you have any comments or suggestions for improvement? If so, please provide details
below?
Please turn to continue∑
13 Personal Details
Name:
Job Title:
Organisational Name:
Industry Sector:
Thank you for providing this feedback. Please return your completed form to the address below:
EFQM Telephone: +32-2 775 35 11

Brussels Representative Office
Avenue des Pléiades 11 Facsimile: +33-2 772 35 35
1200 Brussels
Belgium e-mail: levels@efqm.org

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Committed to Excellence

Action Plan Template for

EFQM Levels of Excellence

A Guide for Applicants

Version 2 - 2005 Page 1 of 33

Section Item Page

2 Outputs from Self Assessment 3

Annex 1 Validation Profile 13

Annex 2 Focusing your Improvement Activity 18

Annex 3 Sample Improvement Project Plan 24

Annex 4 Applicant Feedback Form 45

Version 2 - 2005 Page 2 of 33

2. Outputs from Self-Assessment

Typically the outputs of a Self-Assessment will include:

The main steps involved in improving performance are:

Version 2 - 2005 Page 3 of 33

3.1 Agreeing your prioritisation criteria

3.2 Prioritising your improvements

An example of a Prioritisation Process:

Step 1. Remove or combine any duplicate actions.

Version 2 - 2005 Page 4 of 33

Figure 1 - Example of a completed Prioritisation Matrix

Action Impact Capability Score Ranking

Version 2 - 2005 Page 5 of 33

Figure 2 - Suggested Prioritisation Criteria for ‘Impact’

High Impact Medium Impact Low Impact

Figure 3 - Suggested Prioritisation Criteria for ‘Capability’

High Capability Medium Capability Low Capability

3.3 Planning your improvement activities

Version 2 - 2005 Page 6 of 33

Improvement Plan Explanation

Red: Deployment not on target

The date of the review should be noted.

H Deployment A description of how the approach will be deployed, e.g.

• Who is responsible for implementation

Version 2 - 2005 Page 7 of 33

3.4 Implementing your Improvements

Red: Deployment not on target

The date of the review should be noted.

Version 2 - 2005 Page 8 of 33

4.1 Organising your site visit

4.2 Preparing for your site visit

Your Validator will require the following information:-

Version 2 - 2005 Page 9 of 33

Front page complete with your organisational information as follows:

Name of Organisation The name of the organisation applying for Committed

Part 1: Information about your Self Assessment

1. Your Self Assessment

• Organising some examples of support documentation, e.g. communication briefs, progress

Version 2 - 2005 Page 10 of 33

4.4 In case your organisations is not successful

Version 2 - 2005 Page 11 of 33

Version 2 - 2005 Page 12 of 33

Annex 1 - Validation Profile

• For Approach, organisations must demonstrate a minimum performance level of 60%

Version 2 - 2005 Page 13 of 33

Annex 1 - Validation Profile (used for each improvement project)

Sources of Evidence No Some Evidence Clear Comp.

Version 2 - 2005 Page 14 of 33

Minimum profile for Approach

Version 2 - 2005 Page 15 of 33

Improvement Action No: _1_

Deployment Sources of Evidence No 25% of 50% of 75% of 100% of