IBPC provides a Best Practice Certification Scheme with a maximum grading of 7-Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★. Practices that are graded 4-Star ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ and above are considered a best practice. The purpose of the scheme is to assist, encourage and recognize individuals, teams and organisations that are striving for excellence in their work. The scheme provides a mechanism by which organisations share and learn certified best practices from around the world.
Organisations can be assessed through this scheme in two ways:
a) Enter the International Best Practice Competition (IBPC) – held once a year. Applicants need to submit a 5-page entry form, deliver a 8-minute presentation and participate in a 10 minute Q&A meeting with the judges. In addition to practices being awarded a Star-Rating, overall winners of the competition are selected. Information and dates of the next competition are displayed on our homepage.
b) Direct Entry for IBPC Best Practice Certification – available all year round. Applicants need to submit a 10-page entry form, deliver a 20-minute presentation and participate in a 20 minute Q&A meeting with the judges. Practices are awarded a Star-Rating. This process provides more time for the judges to investigate the best practice and give more feedback to the applicant.
The experts assessing the best practices are predominantly from the Global Benchmarking Network – a network of institutions that are leading the promotion of benchmarking worldwide.
Direct Entry for IBPC Best Practice Certification
Application Form
To have a best practice certified, please complete the Best-Practice-Certification-Application-Form.
Fee
Certification Fee – US$825 for each practice assessed.
Benefits
- To help you to identify what you do well and thus enable individuals and teams to obtain recognition for their outstanding work.
- To create new levels of motivation and enthusiasm by encouraging staff to question work practices and whether they are at a best practice level.
- To obtain feedback on how your organisation’s practices can be improved and sustained.
- To develop a unified forward-thinking culture that has certified best practices for all key business processes.
- To enable you to submit many practices from within your organisation for assessment by independent experts.
- Certifying your best practices will strengthen your award submissions for Business Excellence Awards and other awards.
- Certifying your best practices and knowing your Star-Rating and acting on the certification feedback will enable you to improve your Star-Rating prior to participating in the International Best Practice Competition.
- To enable you to become a potential winner of the International Best Practice Competition’s – Pioneer in Excellence Prize – awarded to the organisation(s) that have had the most best practices assessed at 5-Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ or above within one year (31 December 2021 is the deadline for 2021).
- Promotion of your best practice on the Best Practice Improvement Resource (BPIR.com) and in social media to a global audience.
IBPC Best Practice Certification Levels
International Best Practice (Role Model, World-Class, Wow!) (7 Stars, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★)
International Best Practice (Outstanding) (6 Stars, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★)
International Best Practice (Excellence) (5 Stars, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★)
Local Best Practice (Excellence) (4 Stars, ★ ★ ★ ★)
Competence (Professional) (3 Stars, ★ ★ ★)
Progressing (Minor Deficiencies) (2 Star, ★ ★)
Deficient (Major Deficiencies) (1 Star, ★)
Certification Period
The Star-Rating awarded to a practice is valid for three years.
Assessment of Star-Rating
The Expert Panel’s assessment of a practice’s Star-Rating is final. If the applicant is unhappy with the Star-Rating given, the applicant is encouraged to act on the feedback provided and re-apply when ready. There is no restriction on the number of times an application for a practice may be submitted. However, a fee needs to be paid for each application.
Validity of the IBPC Best Practice Certification Scheme
The IBPC Best Practice Certification Scheme provides a simple, low-cost, and effective approach for identifying and sharing best practices. Its purpose is to encourage greater collaboration and learning between organisations globally and support individuals, teams, and organisations in improving their practices. The certification scheme is trust based following the principles of the Benchmarking Code of Conduct. It is expected that applicants provide accurate data and information as the process does not allow for rigorous investigative work to validate the data/information provided by the applicant. The Expert Panel assessing the applications specialize in the identification of best practices and have extensive benchmarking experience, providing confidence in the reliability of the assessment.
After the applications are assessed and a Star-Rating awarded, applicants will have their best practice showcased (in video and written format) on the BPIR.com. This will enable organisations to share and learn best practices from each other. You are encouraged to contact the individuals and organisations that have best practices to do your own investigative work on the value of the practice and whether it could be adapted to your own organisation. At the same time, we encourage you to share your own best practices with them – this is what benchmarking is all about – mutual learning.
The Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), developers of the scheme, are experts in business excellence and benchmarking. Dr Robin Mann, Head of COER and chairman of the Global Benchmarking Network, is the founder of the TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology and BPIR.com – both designed to help organisations to find and implement best practices.
Certification Process
| Step | Description | Responsibility |
| Step 1- Document Your Best Practice | Complete the Certificate Application Form | Applicant |
| Step 2 – Screening of Documented Best Practice | Initial screening of the application to ensure it meets the criteria. Feedback is provided to help the applicant strengthen the application prior to assessment by a Panel of Experts. An invoice for the Certification Fee will be issued. | Centre for Organisational Excellence Research |
| Step 3 – Resubmission of Documented Best Practice | The application is resubmitted based on the feedback provided. | Applicant |
| Step 4 – Pre-Recorded Presentation Submitted | A 20 minute pre-recorded presentation is submitted | Applicant |
| Step 5 – Pre-Assessment | The expert panel reviews the written submission and pre-recorded presentation and prepares for the Q&A meeting | Panel of Experts |
| Step 6 – Q&A Meeting | At this meeting the pre-recorded presentation will be played and this will be followed by a 20 minute Q&A session with the panel of experts. | Applicant/Panel of Experts |
| Step 7 – Best Practice Certification Feedback & Awarding of IBPC’s Best Practice Certificate | A feedback report and Star Rating is given. 4-Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ and above represents a Best Practice. | Centre for Organisational Excellence Research/Panel of Experts |
| Step 8 – Best Practice Promotion | All best practice applications/videos are hosted in the BPIR.com’s membership area in the spirit of best practice sharing (after permission is granted and any sensitive information removed). One free password to the BPIR.com for one year is provided. | Centre for Organisational Excellence Research |
Presentation Guidelines
1. Practice your presentation to ensure it lasts no longer than the specified time.
2. The following is a recommended outline for a Best Practice Competition presentation:
- Slide No.1 – Name of best practice, organization, country & name of presenter(s), position(s)
- Slide No.2/3 – Overview of the organization e.g. size, location, products and service
- Slide No.4 – What exactly is the best practice? Describe your best practice in one sentence. Describe the best practice clearly so that the scope/boundaries of the practice is clear (therefore what is included as part of the practice and what is excluded?).
- Slide No.5/6/7 – Level of deployment
- Slides No.8/9 – Level of innovation
- Slide No.10/11 – Results achieved
- Slide No.12/13 – Evidence it is a best practice (use of benchmarking/comparison of results/peer reviewed)
- Slide No.14 – Review/next steps planned
In terms of the number of slides the above is a guideline. Your main consideration is to stick within the time-line. The majority of your time should be spent on Level of deployment, Level of innovation, Results achieved, Evidence and Review as it is these areas that are assessed. However, prior to this, you need to ensure you explain clearly what is your best practice. Slides 1-3 should be brief – do not dwell on these.
3. Include photographs or videos in your presentation. Pictures are worth a thousand words.
4. During your presentation, talk clearly and smoothly. Clarity is of the essence.
5. Rehearse well even if you are an experienced presenter. Your audience is sophisticated, thus, reading from slides during a presentation is deemed unprofessional.
6. More than one person can deliver the presentation but in this case it is even more important to practice the presentation to ensure it does not exceed the specified time limit.
Rules for pre-recorded presentations
- Send your final pre-recorded presentation to certification@coer.org.nz using https://wetransfer.com or a google share folder so that it can be checked by our competition staff. All pre-recorded files should be in MP4 format.
- For pre-recorded presentations it is recommended that your presentation shows your slides and includes a small image of the presenter to give a human touch to the presentation. Most on-line meeting software such as Zoom offers this capability. Refer to the image shown as a good example.
- Embed any videos in your pre-recorded presentation.
- Pre-recorded presentations must comply with the time limit of 20 minutes.
IBPC Best Practice Certification Criteria
- Level of deployment – Was the best practice clearly explained? When was the practice designed and implemented? How was it designed and implemented? Is the practice used throughout the whole organization or just one part of the organization? Has it been deployed in all targeted areas? How well is it understood and applied by relevant personnel? How many staff and/or customers or suppliers does it affect?
- Innovation – What is innovative about the practice? Does the practice indicate a breakthrough in how the processes, products or services were designed, implemented, operated, or sustained? Is it a new practice, is it a practice that was gradually improved over time, or is it an idea or practice that was adapted from another organisation?
- Best Practice performance (Results) – Are results shown indicating performance before and after the introduction/improvement of the practice? Are both non-financial benefits (e.g., increased motivation or satisfaction, reduced staff turnover, greater productivity, less complaints) and financial benefits (e.g., $ saved, % increase in revenue) reported? Are the results directly related to the best practice (cause/effect)? Has trend data been shown that indicates improvement since the practice was implemented?
- Best Practice evidence – Has the practice been validated as a ‘good/best’ practice? For example, was it adapted from another organization through benchmarking, or have they compared the practice and its performance against benchmarks/industry norms? Or have they received any recognition or award for the practice, or do they believe it is a good/best practice based on customer/supplier or internal audit feedback or is it based on their experience?
- Review/next steps planned – How will the practice be sustained or evolve as necessary? Do they have a system for regularly reviewing the practice and its performance? What lessons have been learnt from implementing the practice? What future improvements are planned?
