Self-Assessment

means taking a hard look at your organisation and scoring it against an ideal organisation or model - in our case, the European Business Excellence Model for Small and Medium sized Enterprises.

The results indicate the organisation's strengths and areas for improvement, and provide the basis for future strategy and improvement plans. This is also input for a self-assessment application document when applying for the Prize.

(Self-assessment) application document

must be drawn up in the form of a brochure (6 identical copies). In the application, you must present your organisation's achievements across a range of specific areas relating to each criterion of the Model.

Assessors base their judgement on the information in your self-assessment application document, so, they will be looking for clear, factual information

Assessors

are experts with knowledge and experience in the criteria being assessed, who make up an assessor team (3 to 5 assessors) for the assessment of a (self-assessment) application document.

Consensus meeting

is a meeting at which the assessors of a team present their opinions, observations and assessments, debate them and reach consensus about the score, which should reflect the view of the complete team.

Site visit

is made when the applicant has reached a pre-determined score. The purpose of the assessor team visit at the applicant's site is to verify or clarify areas where the application may have been unclear, to see at first hand the self-assessment procedure used and to sense the atmosphere prevailing within the applicant's places of work.

Applicant

is a company/organisation/institute/state authority/individual entrepreneur who submits with MIRS, in accordance with the procedure, an application form and application document for the Prize, on the basis of which the assessment process can start.

Feedback report

is a document sent to the applicant which contains descriptions and scores of the applicant's application with regard to individual criteria. Its greatest value lies in a list of areas which the assessor team has found as strengths and those found as areas for improvement. The feedback report shall not contain any recommendations or improvement methods.