President's Quality Award

The President's Quality Award (PQA) is a US award . The program is directed by the Office of Executive and Management Development and is designed to recognize federal organizations that have documented effective management systems and approaches. Each year, the award criteria are renewed to reflect the best approaches developed within the public and private sectors to systematically improve organizational performance. Established in 1988, the program includes two awards: the Presidential Award for Quality and the Award for Quality Improvement. The PQA belongs to the area of Total Quality Management .

Awards

Presidential Award for Quality winner

The winners will demonstrate fully developed approaches to performance excellence that are well used within the organization. They have shown world class results and sustained performance improvements over several years.

Winner of the Award for Quality Improvement

The winners demonstrate early positive approaches to performance excellence that are used in most areas of the organization. They achieved early, preliminary positive results in key areas of their organization industry.

Purpose of the award program

General, the program:

recognizes federal government organizations that improve their overall performance and skills. The organizations show a continued evolution in providing high quality products and services , which results in more effective use of taxpayers' money;

Encourages the sharing of best management techniques, strategies and practices among all federal government agencies as well as with state and local governments and the private sector;

Provides models for organizations to pass on and evaluate the performance with constant benefit to the customer; and

provides a systematic, consistent approach to deal with change by providing a tool to plan assessments, analyzes, training and performance improvements.

Performance quality criteria of the PQA

The performance quality criteria are closely related to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria. Little changes were made to adapt to the government environment. This close connection with the MBNQA promotes a cooperative exchange of information between the public and private sectors. The same high standards of excellence are also set for government and business.

Changes to the criteria of the MBNQA

Change of terminology in order to adapt the document to the government environment.
An additional set of criteria for the federal government was added.
The scoring for several categories has been changed.

criteria

The criteria are divided into seven categories and rated with points:

category	Points
Management floor	125 points
strategic planning	95 points
Customer relationship	95 points
Information and analysis	95 points
Personnel reference	95 points
Process management	95 points
Operating profit	400 points

Scoring guidelines

Approach / implementation	Points	Results
No systematic approach, anecdotal information	0%	No or only bad results in the areas mentioned
Start a systematic approach that corresponds to the basic purpose of the category Large gaps in implementation, which limit the fulfillment of the basic purpose of the category Initial stage of a transition to a general orientation to improve error handling	10-20%	Little improvement and / or good initial success in some areas Results of many or most of the important areas of the core business and its requirements are not provided Favorable results are reported, but not those that are important for the core business and the performance requirement
An effective, systematic approach that matches the basic purpose of the category Approach is implemented in most of the key areas of the organization, some work areas or working groups are in the early stages of implementation Start a systematic approach to evaluate and improve the process of the listed category	30-40%	Improvements and / or initially good success in many areas that are important for the core business and its requirements Initial stage of developing trends and collecting comparative information Results of many or most of the important areas for the core business are provided
An effective, systematic approach that fits the overall purpose of the category Approach is implemented in all key areas of the organization, different work areas or working groups are at different levels in the implementation A factual, systematic evaluation and improvement process is available for the listed category Approach is tailored to the general organizational needs of the other categories	50-60%	Improvement trends and / or a good level of performance is provided for most important areas of the core business and its requirements No patterns of unfavorable trends and no poor level of performance in important areas of the core business and its requirements Some trends and / or the current performance level - evaluated with relevant comparisons and / or benchmarks - show areas with strengths and / or a good to very good performance level Business outcomes address most key customers, markets, processes, and action plan requirements
An effective, systematic approach that fits the overall purpose and some specific requirements of the category Approach is implemented throughout the organization without significant gaps A factual, systematic evaluation and improvement process as well as organizational learning / sharing are key management tools; clear signs of improved integration as a result of organization-wide analysis and participation Approach is well integrated in relation to the general organizational needs of the other categories	70-80%	Current performance is good to excellent in most important areas of the core business and its requirements Most improvement trends and / or performance levels are consistent Many or most of the trends and / or the performance level - evaluated with relevant comparisons and / or benchmarks - show areas with leadership potential and a very good performance level Business outcomes address most key customers, markets, processes, and action plan requirements
An effective, systematic approach that fully meets the requirements of the category The approach is fully implemented in all work areas and work groups without any major errors or weaknesses A very strong, factual, systematic evaluation and improvement process as well as global organizational learning / sharing are key management tools; good integration, supported by organization-wide analysis and participation Approach is fully integrated based on the needs of the other categories	90-100%	Current performance is excellent in most important areas of the core business and its requirements Excellent and consistent improvement trends and / or an excellent level of performance in most areas There are signs of management and scale management in many areas Business results address all key customers, markets, processes and action plan requirements

General conditions of participation

To participate in the awards program, organizations must meet the following conditions:

Be part of the executive branch of government;
have no fewer than 100 full-time government employees;
be autonomous with your own mandate; and
Offer products and / or services to customers outside of your own organization, or be an administrative or support organization for a cabinet ministry or executive .

Agency Limitation

Each cabinet ministry and executive office, depending on their size, can submit a maximum number of applications for the program:

up to 20,000 employees - 4 applications
up to 50,000 employees - 5 applications
from 50,000 employees - 6 applications

The Department of Defense can submit a maximum of 6 applications per military service (Army, Navy, and Air Force), and a total of 6 additional applications for other defense agencies.

The PQA outside the government environment

The President's Quality Award is intended to encourage companies to improve their performance internally by using the criteria. Many larger American companies now award their own "PQA", which is awarded internally and therefore not by the state. These companies include B. HP , Electro Soft, Inc. and UniGroup (or the subcontractors Mayflower and United Van Lines).

The President's Quality Award has brought about a significant reduction in costs through its aspiration to improve performance and find more effective ways to manage capital. This saved millions of dollars in taxpayers' money, which in turn could be used for other projects. It was also possible to develop effective computer models that were not only useful in the government.

By incorporating the criteria of the PQA, the quality is improved, which also leads to an increase in customer satisfaction, since fewer complaints and defects occur through higher quality work. Employee satisfaction also increases because less reworking is required. It follows that costs are reduced, as working time can be saved that would otherwise be spent correcting and reworking defects.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ PQA HP in-house magazine, p. 27, accessed on January 7, 2017.
^ PQA Electro Soft, Inc..Retrieved January 7, 2017.
^ PQA Mayflower , accessed January 7, 2017.
^ PQA United Van Lines , accessed January 7, 2017.

[1] PQA HP in-house magazine, p. 27, accessed on January 7, 2017.

[2] PQA Electro Soft, Inc..Retrieved January 7, 2017.

[3] PQA Mayflower , accessed January 7, 2017.

[4] PQA United Van Lines , accessed January 7, 2017.