Criteria for Performance Excellence

No matter the size or nature of your organization, the Criteria are a guide in your journey toward performance excellence. They can help your organization align resources; improve communication, productivity, and effectiveness; and achieve strategic goals.

The Criteria work as an integrated framework for managing an organization. They are simply a set of questions focusing on critical aspects of management that contribute to performance excellence:

• Leadership

• Strategic planning

• Customer focus

• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management

• Workforce focus

• Operations focus

• Results

The Criteria serve two main purposes:

• Identify Baldrige Award recipients to serve as role models for other organizations

• Help organizations assess their improvement efforts, diagnose their overall performance management system, and identify their strengths and opportunities for improvement

There are three versions of the Criteria for Performance Excellence: business/nonprofit, education, and health care. If you are looking for more information about using the Baldrige Criteria, go to  Baldrige FAQs: Using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

Additional Baldrige Criteria resources:

• Getting Started with the Baldrige Criteria: if you're ready to use the Baldrige Criteria, here's how you can get started and best achieve results
• Self-Assessing Your Organization: using the Baldrige Criteria to self-assess and move closer to performance excellence
• Self-Assessment Testimonials: learn how other organizations used the Baldrige Criteria to improve their companies' performance
• Are We Making Progress?: this questionnaire will help you assess your performance and focus your efforts to where you need it the most
  

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