By: David Jones, President and CEO of EnableComp
Last week, EnableComp proudly received its second Commitment Award from the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE). Since its inception 25 years ago, TNCPE has provided over 1,400 organizations – from healthcare, service, education, manufacturing, non-profit, and small business – with assessments and feedback using the Baldrige Framework. The Malcom Baldrige Award is our only national quality award.
EnableComp’s quest for organizational excellence started five years ago, when I was confronted with two simple questions. The first was, “Is your company (it can be a functional area, department, or team) doing a good job?” My answer was yes. The next question was a wake-up call, “How do you know?” It’s back to the adage, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” That’s when we discovered the Baldrige Framework and our journey for organizational excellence began. By the way, it’s a journey that never ends – you never arrive at your destination because you can always improve no matter how good you are.
I’m a process person at heart. I believe there is a best way to do things so the Baldrige Framework makes sense to me. As you can see from the diagram below, the Baldrige “hockey puck” as it’s loving referred to, the framework focuses on seven key areas common to all organizations.
I will confess, I’ve become a Baldrige geek. It just a makes sense to me and it provides a roadmap every organization that wants to improve can follow. I believe it should it taught in every business school in America. EnableComp will continue our Baldrige journey and our goal is to be awarded with the TNCPE Excellence Award one day. In 25 years, only 24 organizations out of 1,400 have reached that milestone. For us, it’s not about winning the award and being recognized as one of the best companies in the state and nation; it’s about being better as an organization today than we were yesterday.
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The Official Press Release:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – EnableComp has earned the Commitment Award in the annual Excellence in Tennessee recognition program administered by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE). TNCPE is Tennessee’s only statewide quality program and is patterned on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the national standard for recognizing organizational excellence and performance through innovation, improvement, and visionary leadership. EnableComp accepted the award at the 25th Annual Excellence in Tennessee Awards Banquet on February 21, 2018, at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs.
“It’s an honor for EnableComp to again be recognized as a quality award recipient by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence,” said David F. Jones, President and CEO of EnableComp. “Receiving this award is nice and our team appreciates it. However, for us the real reward is working every day as an organization to improve and get better. We remain committed to organizational excellence and we look forward to continuing our Baldrige journey.”
EnableComp provides workers’ compensation revenue cycle solutions to more than 600 hospitals in 38 states.
Through an annual evaluation and assessment process, TNCPE recognizes high-performing organizations that demonstrate continuous improvement and a commitment to excellence. This year, TNCPE has named 31 organizations as 2017 Award winners that represent outstanding achievement in the following industry sectors: health care, small business manufacturing, service, education, government, and nonprofit.
“Organizations that pursue a TNCPE award have a special drive,” Gov. Bill Haslam said. “EnableComp’s commitment to improvement will reach deep into our community, making a significant contribution to the state’s economy, and the well-being of its citizens.”
Organizations apply to the TNCPE program at one of four levels. As the levels increase, so does the depth and complexity of the application, which is based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework™. Since the program was founded in 1993, only 24 organizations have attained the excellence designation; the state’s highest award.
One will receive the Excellence Award this year; five organizations will be honored with the Achievement Award; 24 organizations will receive a Commitment Award; and one will receive Interest Recognition.
Commitment Awards are presented to organizations that are beginning to demonstrate serious commitment to, and implementation of, performance improvement principles. They have demonstrated progress by identifying and putting in place a measurement system to capture data and analyze results, and some key process improvements, which are directly attributable to a fact-based improvement process.
“The TNCPE Awards program helps organizations look at the big picture and continuously strive to implement the best practices in their industry or sector,” said TNCPE president Katie Rawls. “But it’s not easy – if it were, every organization in the state would be participating. Our 2017 award winners are truly passionate about performance excellence and have chosen TNCPE and the Baldrige framework to help them become the best they can be.”
A full list of winners can be found on the TNCPE website – www.tncpe.org
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Established in 1993 as a public-private partnership, the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence strives to promote economic development and drive organizational excellence by helping companies and organizations grow more competitive in today’s global marketplace through affordable, in-depth assessments. A statewide nonprofit, TNCPE is grounded in the Baldrige Excellence Framework—a holistic framework used by organizations across multiple industries to improve their performance and achieve sustainable results. More than 1,400 organizations have participated in and benefited from the TNCPE program. Five Tennessee businesses—Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Pal’s Sudden Service, Eastman Chemical Company, and Federal Express—have been honored with both the prestigious Baldrige National Quality Award and the TNCPE Excellence Award.
For more information about the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (www.tncpe.org), contact Katie Rawls, president and CEO at katie.rawls@tncpe.org.
For more information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige.
For more information on EnableComp, contact Ally Conner at aconner@enablecomp.com.