EFQM Excellence Model and Label: How Does It Work?

It encourages the sharing of "qualified best practices" on an international scale to bring about constant improvements in all aspects of a company's performance, not just financial performance. In this way, the model helps organizations build a sustainable future for themselves and for all their stakeholders. A solid approach to progress, the model is structured around three main components: orientation (or vision), operations, and results. 

What is the EFQM model? Definition

EFQM stands for European Foundation for Quality Management, founded in 1988 at the instigation of European Commission President Jacques Delors, supported by a group of 14 European business leaders, including Serge Dassault (Dassault Aviation), Raymond Levy (Renault), and Francis Lorents (Bull).

Just over 30 years later, EFQM's "stakeholder capitalism" model provides a management framework for more than 50,000 companies and public sector organizations around the world to grow and prosper sustainably.

The AFNOR Group is the official partner of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in France for over twenty years and supports candidate companies and organizations in achieving excellence and carrying out their transformation projects. The EFQM model is constantly evolving and is moving to version 2025, which offers all organizations the option of self-assessment or calling on an external assessor, based on an approach that now uses seven criteria (compared to nine in the previous version, as some criteria have been grouped together):

1. Orientation: purpose, vision, and strategy
2. Focus: Organizational culture and leadership
3. Operations: stakeholder engagement (customers, staff, financial and institutional partners, society, suppliers)
4. Operations: creating sustainable value for customers
5. Operations: performance and transformation management
6. Results: stakeholder perceptions
7. Results: strategic and operational performance

The first two criteria relate to the robustness of strategic thinking: What is the organization's purpose, vision, and strategy? Are these orientations in line with the megatrends that impact the organization? Are the culture and leadership aligned with this vision?

Criteria 3, 4, and 5 measure the degree to which the strategy is deployed in the organization's practices and projects: how does the organization mobilize its key stakeholders, value creation processes, and resources to achieve its strategic objectives?

The last two outcome criteria address the relevance and excellence of the results achieved by the organization: what levels of performance are expected under the strategy? Are the perceived outcomes and performance indicators aligned and commensurate with the strategic ambitions?

The EFQM approach is based on a holistic view of the challenges facing an organization and megatrends.
Using EFQM allows you to approach your organization holistically, as an element that operates within a larger, changing ecosystem and must constantly adapt to it. Any organization that uses EFQM:

• recognizes that it is part of a larger ecosystem that can positively or negatively impact its progress, and that it is in its interest to engage with and learn from other organizations in its ecosystem.
• seizes the opportunity to position itself as a leader and source of inspiration for its sphere of influence, for the benefit of all.
• takes into account that it will face increasingly frequent and far-reaching changes and that it must prepare itself to anticipate, integrate, and respond appropriately to these changes.
   

The EFQM assessment of an organization is based on its ability to identify and adapt to the megatrends that are transforming the economy and society:

• Managing demographic and social diversity
• Integrating the acceleration of technology and digitalization
• Meeting employees' needs for meaning, autonomy, and fulfillment
• Anticipating the new jobs of tomorrow in the face of increased demand for skills and the impact of automation and AI
• Take into account the increasing number of increasingly demanding regulatory constraints
• Dealing with geopolitical uncertainty
• Adapting to the development of the collaborative economy and changing consumer habits
• Managing the scarcity of natural and financial resources
• Responding to environmental crises and climate change.

These nine megatrends are implicitly taken into account in the EFQM Excellence Model. Considering their impact is essential to ensuring the performance and sustainability of any organization. They can be used as a "guiding thread" during the assessment to analyze how they are taken into account in the organization's strategy, practices, and results.

The EFQM model is based on a simple logic: why? how? what?

By seeking to answer these three simple questions, an organization committed to excellence will be able to integrate the seven criteria of the EFQM assessment. To better understand how to apply the EFQM model, it is essential to ask why an organization wants to embark on this process. By answering this question, it clarifies its vision and strategic objectives.

Next comes the question of "how." This involves examining the means to be put in place to achieve one's objectives. The model offers a structured methodology that encourages self-assessment and continuous improvement. Thanks to this approach, organizations can identify best practices and concrete areas for improvement.

Finally, the "what" refers to the expected results. It is crucial to measure progress to ensure that the organization is moving in the right direction. By integrating these elements, EFQM helps to create a culture of excellence and innovation.

What is EFQM RADAR?

RADAR is a dynamic assessment framework and powerful management tool that provides a structured approach to questioning an organization's performance against the model's seven criteria. At the highest level, RADAR logic indicates that an organization must know:

• determine the desired outcomes within the framework of its strategy
• plan and develop an integrated set of structured approaches to achieve the required results now and in the future
• systematically deploy approaches to ensure their implementation
• evaluate and refine the approaches deployed by exercising continuous monitoring and analyzing the results obtained, and
• ongoing learning activities.
   

This scoring system allows for a detailed assessment of the organization's maturity in relation to all of the model's criteria. When it comes to maturity, in order to recognize and distinguish the best performers, there is no EFQM certification as such, but rather different levels of EFQM recognition (or "EFQM awards").