Award Criteria

Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile provides a fundamental understanding of your organization and serves as the context for assessing your organization’s effectiveness through the award criteria. It is critical that the information requested in the profile criteria be shared in a clear, concise and focused fashion. The overall response to the profile is limited to four pages (8.5”x11” white paper, 12 pt. font).

Organizational Profile

1. Please detail the key characteristics of your organization. Your response must be limited to no more than two pages (8.5" x 11", 12 pt. font) and include the following information. (Note: items appearing in italics are new to criteria this year.)

The main programs/projects/services that you provide and how you deliver them to your customers
Your stated Purpose, Vision, Mission and Values
Your key Organizational Performance Indicators that are used to assess your success
Your Workforce profile, key groups/segments within your Workforce and their key requirements and expectations
The regulatory environment in which your organization operates
The applicable health and safety regulations with which you must comply
Your applicable accreditation, certification or registration requirements.
Any key “industry standards” (industry-wide codes of conduct, policy guidance, etc.) that apply to your organization.
Your organizational governance system, including the key reporting relationships among your Board, senior leaders, and parent organization, as appropriate
Your key relationships with major agency or foundation funding sources
Your key customer (users and potential users of your products/programs/services) and stakeholder groups.
Your key market segments/constituencies

2. Please detail your competitive environment as well as the key organizational and strategic challenges that you face. Your response must be limited to no more than two pages (8.5” x 11”, 12 pt. font) and include the following information. (Note: items appearing in italics are new to the criteria this year.)

The numbers and types of key competitors of your organization
The key factors that determine your success relative to competitors
The key sources of competitive and comparative data in your industry (this may be defined as charitable organizations, professional associations, etc.)
Any limitations that exist with respect to your ability to obtain competitive and comparative data in your industry
Your organization’s key strategic/business Advantages and Challenges (factors related to your main mission area or enterprise activity) and your Core Competencies
Your key operational challenges
Your key human resource challenges

ONESM Award Criteria

Please respond to the criteria questions in bold below. In doing so, make sure that you include responses to the numbered questions under each item (1.1, 1.2, etc.) and address the bulleted questions that follow in your overall response to each of the four categories—People, Principles, Process and Performance. The overall page limit for the responses to these four categories is 12 pages, not including the Organizational Profile.

It is suggested that you use a compact format to maximize the amount of information shared. You are encouraged to use flowcharts, tables and bullets to present information concisely. Results responses can be reported using graphs and tables accompanied by explanations of the results presented. Label the graphs and tables in order to assist the reader in interpreting the results information provided. (Note: items appearing in italics are new to the criteria this year.)

Category 1–People (150 points)

1.1 How do your senior leaders lead?

How do your leaders set the organization’s vision and values, and deploy these to all employees, volunteers, customers and stakeholders?
How do leaders encourage frank two-way communication throughout the organization?
How do senior leaders communicate key decisions?
How do your leaders personally promote an environment that fosters legal and ethical behavior?
How do your leaders create a sustainable organization? How do they create an environment that encourages organizational improvement, achievement of the organization’s mission and goals, and organizational and workforce learning?

1.2 How do you enable employees/volunteers to accomplish the work of the organization?

How do you ensure effective communication and skill sharing across your organization?
How does your feedback to employees support and encourage high performance work?
How does your compensation system support focus on customers and high performance?
How do you identify characteristics and skills needed by potential employees/volunteers?
How do you recruit and retain new employees and volunteers?

1.3 How do you contribute to employee/volunteer learning and motivate employees/volunteers?

How do you orient new employees and volunteers?
How do you transfer knowledge from departing or retiring employees and volunteers?
How do you evaluate training needs, and select and deliver training opportunities?
How do you motivate employees and volunteers to develop and utilize their full potential?

1.4 How do you contribute to employee/volunteer well-being and grow employee/volunteer satisfaction?

How do you ensure and improve workplace health and safety?
How do you determine the key factors affecting employee and volunteer satisfaction?
How do you support employees and volunteers via services, benefits and policies?
What methods do you use to determine employee/volunteer satisfaction and motivation?
How do you use assessment findings to identify areas to improve the work environment and support for employees and volunteers?

Category 2–Principles (200 points)

2.1 How do you develop and use customer and market knowledge?

How do you use the Voice of the Customer to determine your customer’s key needs, requirements and changing expectations?
How do you use information from customers, complaint data and customer loyalty information to improve programs/projects/services?
How do you review and improve your methods for listening to and learning from your customers and potential customers to ensure these methods are providing the information you need to understand customers’ changing needs and requirements?

2.2 How do your build relationships?

How do you build relationships to exceed customer expectations and gain positive referrals?
What are your key access mechanisms for customer to do business with or seek information from your organization? How do you determine contact requirements for each access mode? How do you make sure that your access mechanisms are meeting your customers’ needs and requirements for connecting with you?
How do you handle complaints from customers? How do you ensure prompt resolution and minimize customer dissatisfaction?

2.3 How do you strengthen customer satisfaction and loyalty?

How do you determine customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and loyalty? How do you make sure that you are capturing actionable data for use in exceeding customer expectations?
How do you use this data for making improvements?

2.4 How do you govern the organization?

How does your organization address the following in your governance system management accountability, fiscal accountability, independence in audits, good stewardship of public funds, and selections and disclosure policies for board members, as appropriate?
How do you evaluate and improve your governance system? How do you evaluate the collective and individual performance of your senior leaders and the collective and individual performance of the members of your governance board?

2.5 How do you address your organization’s social responsibility?

What are your key compliance processes and goals for achieving and surpassing regulatory and legal requirements overall?
How do you address legal and regulatory requirements and standards that govern fundraising and lobbying activities?
How does your organization promote and ensure ethical behavior in all activities?

Category 3–Process (200 points)

3.1 How do you develop your strategy?

How does your organization conduct its strategic planning? Who are the key participants?
How do you collect and analyze data pertaining to the following as part of your strategic planning process—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; shifts in technologies, markets, competition or regulatory requirements; long-term organizational stability and continuity in emergencies; and your ability to execute the plan?
What are your key strategic objectives and goals and your timetable to accomplish them?
How do your strategic objectives address the Strategic Challenges and Advantages identified in the Organizational Profile?

3.2 How do you deploy your strategy?

How do you develop and deploy action plans to achieve strategic objectives?
What are your key shorter and longer term action plans? How do you track progress toward achieving these shorter and longer term action plans?
What are your human resource plans based upon your strategic objectives and action plans?

3.3 How do you accomplish operational planning?

How do you determine the organizational resources (both non-financial and financial) necessary to execute your action plans?
How does your organization ensure that adequate financial resources are available to support operations?
How do you ensure that your workplace is prepared to respond to disasters and emergencies, and to ensure continuity of operations and recovery?

3.4 How do you measure, analyze and review organizational performance?

How do you select and collect data and information for tracking daily operations, organizational performance, and progress relative to strategic objectives?
How do you use these data and information to support organizational decision making?
How do you review organizational performance?
How do you use the findings from performance review to drive organizational and process level improvements? How do you engage your entire Workforce in this process?

3.5 How do you manage organizational information and knowledge?

How do make needed data available to employees, volunteers, customers, etc.?
How do you make sure that your data are reliable, accurate, timely and secure/confidential?
How do you ensure the identification, sharing and implementation of best practices?

3.6 How do you identify and manage your key work processes?

How does your organization determine its Core Competencies? How do they relate to creating value for your customers?
What are your key work processes for creating value for customers? How do these work processes contribute to creating organizational success and sustainability?
What are your key work processes that support the creation of value for your customers?
How do you measure the performance of your work processes?

Category 4–Performance (450 points)

People Results (100 points)

4.1 What are your human resource results?

What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of workforce well-being, satisfaction and dissatisfaction?
What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of workforce learning and development?

Principles Results (250 points)

4.2 What are your product/service performance results?

What are your current levels and trends in key measures of product/service performance that are important to your customers?
What are your current levels and trends in key measures of product/service performance that are important to your funding sources?
How do these results compare with performance of your competitors and other organizations providing similar products and services?

4.3 What are your customer-focused performance results?

What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction? How do these results compare with performance of your competitors and other organizations offering similar products and services?
What are your current levels and trends in measures and indicators of customer perception of value received, including customer loyalty, positive referral and other aspects of relationship building?

4.4 What are your financial and market results?

What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of financial return, economic value or budgetary performance?
What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of marketplace performance including market share, growth, new markets entered, etc.?

4.5 What are your governance results?

What are your results for measures or indicators of ethical behavior or stakeholder trust in your leaders and the governance of your organization?
What are your current findings and trends in measures of fiscal accountability, both internal and external?
What are your results for key measures of legal and regulatory compliance?

4.6 What are your key social responsibility results?

What are your results for measures or organizational citizenship in support of your key communities?

Process Results (100 points)

4.7 What are your key organizational effectiveness results?

What are your current levels and trends in measures or indicators of operational performance of your key work processes (both those processes that create value for customers and those processes that provide support to the creation of value to customers)?
What are your results for measures or indicators of accomplishment of your strategy and action plans?