Since launching the On-line excellence calculator, just over a month ago, we have had over 50 organisations complete the ten steps to find out how they compare in the EFQM's Levels of Excellence recognition scheme.

We have also received some very constructive feedback from users, mainly asking us to provide more detailed output at the end of the process. We are looking at how we might do this and will incorporate these changes into future updates of the On-line Calculator.  As a self-assessment tool the calculator will of course give you an indication of your performance based on the details you enter, if you want to discuss in detail how the EFQM Excellence Model can help your business we will be happy to discuss this in more detail so please contact us.

Just to give you some headline results so far, the overall average for all types and sizes of organisation is just over the 400 point mark which means that many organisations feel they are able to achieve Recognised 4 Excellence.

Enablers - the things your organisation does show a higher performance than the actual results being achieved. We would suggest that this is because many of the causal links between the approaches adopted and the actual results achieved are not clearly defined. Often organisations are very good at coming up with new ways of doing things but don not really know what effect these changes and approaches are having on their overall results.

Interestingly, those organisations that have just got going, the 1-3 years old businesses have a lower opinion of their performance. This is of course a critical time for any new business and things can get very difficult, but it is in these years that the groundwork for future success is laid. The policy and strategy of the business may not be that clear to all involved in the organisation.

Three to five year old businesses can see things starting to change and performance improve and this group has one of the highest scoring opinions of itself. The EFQM Excellence Model shows that making improvements and changes to approaches is relatively easy, but it is the long term success over five years that needs to have a completely joined up policy and strategy, which is set by the leaders of the business who have developed clear processes and get the best our of their people. These are exactly the fundamental principles the EFQM Excellence Model promotes.

We will have more detail on the On-line excellence calculator in coming months.