Best Practice Certification

The purpose of the IBPC Best Practice Certification 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. Practices that are graded 4-Star ★ ★ ★ ★  and above are considered a best practice with 7-Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ indicating world-class.

Organisations can be assessed through this scheme in two ways:

  • Enter the International Best Practice Competition (IBPC) at https://www.bestpracticecompetition.com – held once a year. Applicants need to submit a 5-page entry form, deliver an 8-minute pre-recorded 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.  

     

  • Directly apply for IBPC Best Practice Certification – available all year round.  This process, as it is run outside of the competition and not defined by strict timelines, allows for a more comprehensive assessment of your best practice with greater feedback provided by the judges. Applicants submit a 15-page entry form and deliver a 15-minute pre-recorded presentation but this time the Q&A meeting with the judges is extended to up-to 40 minutes and you may provide additional information to support your best practice. In addition, the Centre for Organisational Excellence (COER) will actively help you to improve your written entry and pre-recorded presentation so that it is ready for the judges evaluation.  Practices are awarded a Star-Rating. 

APPLY FOR IBPC BEST PRACTICE CERTIFICATION – AVAILABLE ALL YEAR ROUND

Application Form

To have a best practice certified, please complete the IBPC-Best-Practice-Certification-Application-Form

Certification Fee

The fee is determined by the number of best practices to be assessed and the level of support requested from COER. Our support ranges from Basic to Premium.

Basic or Premium Support

COER can provide basic or premium support with respect to:

  • Guidance on submission writing and presentation.
  • Preparing teams for the Question-and-Answer session with the judges.
  • Benchmarking research by COER’s researchers to strengthen your application by providing evidence that the practice qualifies as a best practice and offering ideas for future improvement.

For more details or a customized quote, please contact us at certification@coer.org.nz.

Best Practice Certification Process

Benefits

  • Recognize Excellence: Identify and celebrate what your organization does well, enabling individuals and teams to gain recognition for their outstanding achievements.
  • Inspire Motivation: Foster new levels of enthusiasm by encouraging staff to critically evaluate work practices and strive for best practice standards.
  • Drive Continuous Improvement: Obtain valuable feedback on how your organization’s practices can be improved and sustained over time.
  • Build a Unified Culture: Develop a forward-thinking, cohesive culture with certified best practices across all key business processes.
  • Leverage Independent Assessment: Submit multiple practices from within your organization for evaluation by independent experts.
  • Enhance Award Submissions: Strengthen your applications for Business Excellence Awards and other prestigious accolades through certified best practices.
  • Achieve Global Recognition: Position your organization as a potential winner of the International Best Practice Competition’s Pioneer in Excellence Prize, awarded to organizations with the highest number of practices rated 4-Stars, 5-Stars, 6-Stars, or higher within a year.
  • Showcase Your Success: Promote your best practices globally through the Best Practice Improvement Resource (BPIR.com) and social media channels.

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 Best Practice Certification Scheme

The IBPC Best Practice Certification Scheme offers a simple and effective approach to identifying and sharing best practices. Its primary purpose is to foster greater collaboration and learning among organizations worldwide, supporting individuals, teams, and organizations in improving their practices. The certification scheme is trust-based and adheres to the principles of the Benchmarking Code of Conduct. Applicants are expected to provide accurate data and information, as the process does not involve rigorous investigative work to validate the submissions.

The Expert Panel responsible for assessing applications specializes in identifying best practices and possesses extensive benchmarking experience, ensuring confidence in the reliability of the assessments. Efforts are made to select experts who are familiar with the practices being evaluated.

Once applications are assessed and a Star Rating is awarded, the best practices are showcased on BPIR.com in both video and written formats. This platform enables organizations to share and learn from each other’s best practices. Applicants are encouraged to connect with the individuals and organizations behind these practices to conduct their own investigations into the value and adaptability of the practices for their own organizations. Likewise, we encourage you to share your own best practices in return. This spirit of mutual learning is at the heart of benchmarking.

Developers and Managers of the IBPC Best Practice Certification Scheme

The Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER) founded the scheme for the International Best Practice Competition (IBPC) and have now made it available outside of the competition due to demand.  COER are also the developers of the BPIR.com and TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology.

Guidelines for Pre-Recorded Presentation

  1. Practice your presentation to ensure it lasts no longer than 15 minutes.
  2. The following is a recommended outline for a Best Practice Certification presentation:
  • Name of best practice, organization, country & name of presenter(s), position(s)
  • Overview of the organization e.g. size, location, products and service
  • What exactly is the best practice?  Describe your best practice in one sentence. 
  • Next, describe your best practice in more detail so that the scope/boundaries of the practice are clear (therefore what is included as part of the practice and what is excluded?).
  • Level of deployment
  • Level of innovation
  • Results achieved
  • Evidence it is a best practice (use of benchmarking/comparison of results/peer reviewed)
  • Review/next steps planned
  1. In terms of the number of slides this is up to you.  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 explain clearly what is your best practice. Keep the overview of your organisation to a minimum.
  2. Include photographs or videos in your presentation. Pictures are worth a thousand words.
  3. During your presentation, talk clearly and smoothly. Clarity is of the essence.
  4. Rehearse well even if you are an experienced presenter. Your audience is sophisticated, thus, reading from slides during a presentation is deemed unprofessional.
  5. More than one person can deliver the presentation.
  6. Send your final pre-recorded presentation to certification@coer.org.nz  using https://wetransfer.com or a google share folder. All pre-recorded files should be in MP4 format.
  7. 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.
  8. Embed any videos in your pre-recorded presentation

 

IBPC Best Practice Certification Criteria

 

  • Clarity of the Best Practice – What is the best practice? Is the scope/boundary of the practice clear (therefore what is included as part of the practice and what is excluded)? Has the context of the been explained, therefore the challenge or opportunity the best practice is addressing?
  • Level of deployment – 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 has the practice and its performance been compared against benchmarks/industry norms? Has the practice received any recognition or award or been praised during external audit feedback or have customers/suppliers given favourable feedback on the practice in comparison to the practices of other organisations?
  • 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?