2004 President's Quality Award Program
Criteria and Application Information

PRESIDENTIAL AWARD FOR MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE

The Office of Personnel Management proudly announces the 2004 President's Quality Award Program. In his management agenda, President George W. Bush has focused on several Governmentwide priorities for enhancing service to the American people. This award program focuses on those priorities and recognizes the accomplishments of organizations that further the Administration's objectives. Organizations will be recognized for their performance and results. They will serve as role models and benchmarks for other organizations to attain similar success - so together we will attain President Bush's vision of a Government that is citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-based.

AWARD CATEGORIES

• Agencies that are scored under the President's Management Agenda (PMA) Scorecard and meet the required baseline status score(s) can apply under all three categories. Agencies that are not scored under the PMA Scorecard can apply only for category one award.

GOVERNMENTWIDE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES

• The five Governmentwide Management Initiatives provide the touchstones for this program. They are:

• Strategic Management of Human Capital;

• Competitive Sourcing;

• Improved Financial Performance;

• Expanded Electronic Government; and

• Budget and Performance Integration.

BASELINE PMA STATUS SCORE(S) REQUIREMENTS

• An agency must meet the baseline PMA status score(s) requirements to apply for an award in any of the categories. Agencies that are not scored under the PMA scorecard can only apply for a category one award. The baseline requirements are:

CRITERIA FOR MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE

The criteria outlined below are aligned with, and are intended to support, the President's Management Agenda and the Executive Branch Management Scorecard. Award submissions from Federal agencies will be evaluated based on the criteria outlined below.

1. Describe the practice - it can be any one of a number of elements making up an agency's program under a Governmentwide initiative (see Category Two Award Criteria), and it can originate anywhere in the agency (field, headquarters, subcomponents, etc.).

2. Describe how the practice is innovative and exemplary and how it differs from what was done in the past.

3. Describe how the practice has been adopted, expanded, or adapted for use in other parts of the agency.

4. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results.

Strategic Management of Human Capital

1. Describe your human capital strategies and how they are linked to organizational mission, vision, core values, goals, and objectives.

2. Describe how you are using strategic workforce planning, HR flexibilities, technology, and other tools to recruit, retain, and reward employees.

3. Describe how you have developed your leadership and organization's culture to support a high-performing workforce that continuously improves its productivity.

4. Describe your efforts in identifying the "core competencies" of the organization and how you determined the most effective and efficient way to develop and maintain those core competencies (i.e., building in-house capacity or contract for services).

5. Describe how your human capital strategies and initiatives are supporting your agency's work on the other four Governmentwide management initiatives.

6. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results.

Competitive Sourcing

1. Describe how you identify activities for potential competitive sourcing.

2. Describe how you have promoted continuous improvement within the organization to ensure you have the most efficient organization.

3. Describe your timely compliance with the FAIR Act and efforts made to accurately list all commercial activities performed by your employees.

4. Describe how your senior leaders promote competition.

5. Describe how your competitive sourcing initiatives are supporting your agency's work on the other four Governmentwide initiatives.

6. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results.

Improved Financial Performance

1. Describe your efforts to improve timeliness, usefulness, reliability of, and access to financial management data such as operating expenses, budgets, cost data, erroneous payment rates, inventory, receivables, payables, etc., that support day-to-day operations.

2. Describe how your financial management systems have been designed/reengineered to ensure that decision-makers have accurate, timely, and useful information.

3. Describe how your financial management information is used to ensure your desired outcomes and affect performance.

4. Describe how your improved financial performance is supporting your agency's work on the other four Government-wide management initiatives.

5. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results.

Expanded Electronic Government

1. Describe your e-Government initiatives that enhance your mission efficiency (i.e., electronic applications, purchases, proposals, etc.) How have these initiatives provided your customers better access, improved customer service, and reduced program costs?

2. Describe your web enhancements that provide convenient customer-oriented access, and provide increased access for persons with disabilities.

3. Describe how your organization has realized productivity improvements by implementing customer relationship management, supply chain management, enterprise resource management, or knowledge management best practices.

4. Describe how your e-Government initiatives are supporting your agency's work on the other four Government-wide management initiatives.

5. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results.

Budget and Performance Integration

1. Describe your process for developing performance goals and output targets. How do you allocate resources in the context of past results?

2. Describe how your planning and budget staff work with program managers to create an integrated performance plan and budget. How do they monitor and evaluate program implementation?

3. Describe your process for ensuring that resources (staff and $) are aligned to support achievement of organizational goals.

4. Describe how your improved budget and performance integration is supporting your agency's work on the other four Government-wide management initiatives.

5. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your performance and financial results.

1. Describe how your management systems are integrated.

2. Describe how critical management information is made available to all levels of leadership and management within the agency.

3. Describe how this information has been and is being used in making critical management decisions.

4. Describe how your agency has developed a common management culture and language to address issues relating to the planning and execution of work.

5. Describe, as quantitatively as possible, your results. This should include before and after improvements in decision making, survey results relating to management culture, examples of more effective use of resources, etc.

EVALUATION GUIDELINES

As applicable, we will consider the following areas when evaluating your application:

• Results - specific measurements that document success

• Impact - on the success of your mission

• Deployment - the extent of implementation

• Integration - the degree to which your process is integrated with other PMA initiatives and internal management systems

• Transferability - the degree to which your process and results has been adopted by other Federal Government organizations

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The period of performance to be evaluated is from January 2001 to June 2004

APPLICATION INFORMATION

To qualify for the Award Program, an agency submission must meet the following conditions:

General Eligibility

• The submission must come from an agency that is part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

• In the case of an interagency project that affects a number of agencies, the submission must come from the agency with lead responsibility.

Baseline Conditions

• As previously described.

Future Eligibility of Previous Award Recipients

• Previous winners of the Presidential Award for Management Excellence may not apply again for 2 years, and only then if there has been significant change in terms of development and extension of the project. For example, the 2002 award winners may not apply again until award year 2005.

• Honorable mentions may apply again at any time.

Agency Nomination Limitations - Category One Award

• Applications are limited to a maximum of five applications per cabinet department and executive agency.

• The Department of Defense may submit a total of 20 applications for all their military departments and other Defense agencies.

Winning Applications - All Categories

• Will be made available on request to other agencies.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Applications must:

• be narrative responses that clearly respond to each item (bullet) under the category for which you are applying;
• discuss your approach and breadth of deployment;
• indicate if the project (or process) has been adopted by other organizations;
• have documented results;
• be submitted in four hard copies and in electronic format on disk or CD-ROM (submitted with the hard copies);
• be submitted on 8 ¨ö" x 11" paper, with 1-inch margins and in no less than 12-point type;
• be accompanied by a nomination form (if submitting an application under more than one category, complete a nomination form for each); and
• be accompanied by a completed "Organization Background" form no longer than two pages.

Responses are limited to:

• for Category One and Category Two - no more than 10 pages for each nomination plus a one page summary, the Nomination Form and Organization Background Form. No additional attachments or supporting documents exceeding the 10-page limit will be accepted. The page ordering for the submission should be: Nomination Form, Organizational Background Form, One page narrative summary, 10-page narrative.
• for Category Three - the page limit excluding the One page Narrative Summary, Nomination Form and Organization Background, is twenty pages. The page ordering should be Nomination Form, Organizational Background form, One page narrative Summary, 20 page narrative. No additional attachments or supporting documents exceeding the 20-page limit will be accepted.

Nomination forms must:

• be signed to certify accuracy of submission by the highest ranking official in the project organization; and
• be signed and submitted by the head of the agency or his or her designee.

SELECTION AND RECOGNITION PROCESS

• Initial application review: October - November 2004
• Notification of agencies being considered for awards: December 2004
• Awards ceremony: December 2004

SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE

• October 1, 2004 for all categories

PDF Version 3.74MB

Organization Background

Nomination Form

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