EFQM: The Next Level

Next to customer results and employee results society results are an equally important factor in the EFQM Excellence Model. However looking at the average scores EFQM Excellence Award (EEA) applicants have received for society results the past years this is not evident. What does this mean? And how can we change that?

Looking out for society
In the EFQM Model 2013 the Fundamental Concept Creating a Sustainable Future (CSF) is defined as: ‘Excellent organizations have a positive impact on the world around them by enhancing their performance whilst simultaneously advancing the economic, environmental and social conditions within the communities they touch.'
How does this wonderful definition connect to reality? Do excellent organizations really have a positive impact on the world around them?

Relative versus reality
To answer these questions the feedback reports of 19 EFQM Excellence Award assessments (from 2010 to 2012) were reviewed. These reports were selected because of their 'high scores’ on society results (EFQM criteria 8). ‘High’ defined as scoring at least 60 points (of 100). Relatively speaking this is a lot as over the years society results on average have scored 'low' with only 45 points, where all the other criteria averaged scores between 58 and 62 points!

Role models
From the analysis of these 19 feedback reports only three really good examples regarding ‘society results’ could be identified: Red Eléctrica de España (Spain), Coca-Cola Ýçecek (Turkey) and Umicore Precious Metals Refining (Belgium). These role model organizations all have certified ISO9001, ISO14001 en OHSAS18001 management systems in place, but more importantly they survey the perceptions of society, have integrated sustainability into their strategy and publish a sustainability report.
But this also means that scoring relatively high on society results does not yet tell us much about how 'focused' the organization towards ‘society’ really is.

Attention
The purpose of implementing the EFQM Model is to achieve balanced results, because we believe that this the basis for continued organizational success. Although societal / sustainability issues are in the news every day these days, even the EEA-applicants to date do not seems to be able to attain the same level of results for society as for the other results criteria. A point of attention!

EFQM: The Next Level
This year the EFQM Model celebrates its 25th anniversary. Through the years the EFQM Model has been updated. Valuable and necessary updates have been done, but no structural changes were made. Maybe it is time for EFQM – The Next Level. Curious about that? More next week!