Hutt City Council wins Gold in performance excellence awards

24 November 2011

Hutt City Council wins Gold in New Zealand’s toughest and most prestigious performance excellence awards

The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation will present a Gold award to Hutt City Council at their annual gala luncheon on Thursday 24 November.

The awards, which are administered by the Foundation, are the only awards in New Zealand which are fully aligned to the internationally respected US Baldrige criteria. Foundation CEO, Mike Watson, says “Being awarded Gold puts the winner in very elite company. These awards are unique in that they are based on an international criteria and scoring system, and a rigorous four-stage assessment process”.

In receiving this award, Hutt City Council has become the first Territorial Local Authority in New Zealand to win at Gold level, and one of only 19 organisations nationally to receive either a silver or gold award since the Business Excellence Awards commenced in 1993.

The award places Hutt City Council in a leadership position within the Local Authority sector, and acknowledges the significant progress the organisation has made towards becoming truly world-class since their achievement of a Silver award back in 2006.

“This award recognises the energy and enthusiasm across our organisation for excellence in all we do and finding new, innovative ways to produce results for the people of the Hutt,” says Hutt City Council Chief Executive Tony Stallinger.

“Our vision is to create a better city every day by understanding our communities’ values, building strong partnerships and delivering fresh solutions. A lot of work has gone into elevating Hutt City Council from silver to gold and along the way we’ve achieved some fantastic results. We are especially pleased with achieving such high customer satisfaction levels while minimising rate increases. Receiving this award is confirmation we are on the track to achieve our vision. Our Mayor, councillors, staff and I are all proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Presented alongside the Business Excellence Awards will be the New Zealand Business Achievement Awards. These are an abridged version of the Business Excellence Awards evaluated on the same rigorous basis. Recognised in this category are Dispute Resolution Services Ltd and International Accreditation New Zealand.

“Part of the IANZ philosophy is continuous improvement. We can always do better, and the Business Excellence framework is helping us do just that. The feedback we have received has provided good guidance on where we should focus, and we will be striving to do even better next time” noted International Accreditation New Zealand’s Chief Executive Llew Richards.

“One of the items that came out during the review for this award was the need for improved communication at all levels – within the organisation, between management and the Board, and a need to improve communication with our customers. Changes have already been made in this regard, and a number of new initiatives are underway, which will both improve our performance, and deliver better value for our clients.”

Dispute Resolution Services Ltd CEO, Neil McKellar said "The NZBEF Award has underscored for us where our organisation operates really well, and the areas where it needs improvement - which is exactly what we were looking for. One of our core principles is innovation, and we believe that the NZBEF framework is a great business tool to see where we can be more innovative in the way that we approach our business. For us innovation and continuous improvement leads to better service for the consumers that use our services, and for our clients - the organisations that we run dispute resolution schemes for.

Our aim is to become a centre of excellence in dispute resolution. The NZBEF Achievement Award is a stepping-stone towards that. It is a measure of how well we are doing compared to best practice criteria, and gives us a guide as to where we are relative to other businesses, not just those within our industry.

Already we have benefitted hugely from the process by reflecting on what we do and how we do it. We are gaining real insight through the most objective external assessment we could hope for. And we are now prioritising our effort based on what we have learnt in pursuit of those things that matter most to our stakeholders."

The 2011 New Zealand Business Excellence Awards Gala Luncheon takes place at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 11.45 – 3.30 on Thursday 24 November 2011.

ENDS

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