The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, SCCI, represented by the Sharjah Excellence Award Office, organized recentlyan online workshop entitled ‘the global assessment principles adopted by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)”.

The workshop comes as part of the training programs organized by the secretariat of the Sharjah Excellence Award before the new edition of the Award, which is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah.

Moderated by Dr. Issa Salim Al-Qaydi, the workshop was attended by Nada Al Hajri, General Coordinator of the Sharjah Excellence Award and 40 assessors form the public institutions in Sharjah, as well as other assessors from inside and outside the country and representatives of the companies willing to take part in the Award.

The workshop touched on the methods of conducting the assessment process, especially in light of COVID-19 pandemic, while underlining the importance of adding a special item to know to what extent the private sector enterprises are committed to the preventive and precautionary measures.

In addition, the workshop highlighted the most important principles for effective and successful assessment, the most important global excellence models and institutional assessment phases, and the characteristics of the successful assessor, such as the full awareness of EFQM excellence model, collective work, professionalism, communication, interviews, analysis, report writing, presentation, and most importantly to study well the nature of the organizations to be assessed.

Business excellence

Nada Al Hajri underlined that the SCCI is always keen to organize several training programs and workshops for those concerned with the Award, including the arbitrators, assessors, and representatives of the participating companies.

This comes as part of the SCCI’s strenuous efforts to enhance awareness about the Award as an integrated system for development, improvement, and excellence.

She added: “Such workshops aim to reflect the importance of Sharjah Excellence Award in supporting the sustainable economic development and to reinforce the competitiveness of the private sector companies. This would help consolidate the Award’s reputation and status as one of the most significant economic initiatives aimed at creating an appropriate investment climate for the UAE and Gulf business community and to empower them to employ values of quality, leadership, and innovation in improving their performance and enhancing the growth of their commercial and industrial businesses.”

“The workshop would help boost the capabilities of the participants to evaluate the companies’ strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities for improvement as per the excellence criteria. The participants also got acquainted with the criteria for the awards management according to the “Radar Methodology” and how to create an internal assessment and to provide meaningful analyses for the enterprises. This is an important step forward to raises awareness of the workgroups, especially the supervisors, about the various categories of the Award,” Al Hajri explained.

Achieving performance sustainability

Dr. Issa Salim Al-Qaydi provided a full outline of the EFQM excellence model, including the full awareness of the nature of the organization to be assessed and the development of strategies that meet that the expectations of those entities, as well as how to achieve future sustainable performance, according to the outcomes to be achieved and their effective management.

He also cleared up the methods of forming assessment teams and keys to successful assessment, based on the understanding of the institution and the importance of engaging the administrative team throughout the assessment process, in addition to providing a comprehensive analysis of the visions of the organizations, their impressions, and achievements, besides delivering a constructive and actionable assessment.

Al-Qaydi also provided an overview of the main phases of the excellence awards for the participating institutions, the assessors, and the award office. The participants also learned more about how to write professional and simple assessment reports that should reflect the understanding of the institution to be assessed. Also, the report should be a catalyst for any organization to help it build the future and motivate its growth and development.

In order to make the economic enterprises qualified to participate in the Sharjah Excellence Award, the SCCI prepares and implements diverse programs and systems that are consistent with the nature of those institutions and cater to their needs and the capabilities of their workers.

Sharjah Excellence Award is launched by the SCCI in recognition of the businesses’ achievements and competency, whether in Sharjah or Gulf.