Sri Lankan National Productivity Awards prove popular in 2017

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​2017 is turning out to be a very big year for the Sri Lankan National Productivity Awards.

​Typically, 1,500 organisations apply for the awards each year. This marks the 24th year of running annual awards and over 3,000 applications are expected for 2017.

​The National Productivity Secretariat (NPS), within the Ministry of Public Administration and Management, is responsible for running the annual National Productivity Awards. The 2017 – 2018 Baldrige Excellence Framework is used as the award criteria.  Awards are received in one of three sectors;

1. Manufacturing and service sector - as small, medium and large categories
2. Public Sector -  dependent on size from Ministry, through Department to Local Authority and Micro categories
3. School Sector - by level from Advanced, Ordinary, Grade Five, and Private and International School category

The Awards objectives differ across the various sectors. By way of example, the objectives for the Manufacturing and Service Sector are;

• Create awareness of the benefits and concepts of enterprise level productivity
• Identify model organisations with high productivity performance
• Promote labour management cooperation
• Meet global challenges

With the doubling of applications expected in this year’s awards, the NPS is training over 350 judges. These judges have been drawn from all provinces across Sri Lanka and have been split into three separate streams. Each stream includes a mix of experience from first time judges to some with 10 years’ experience from across the different awards sectors and categories. 

Teams of eight were formed to enable the immediate application of learning about the framework to a case study organisation. Experience working in teams, listening to different individual views, arriving at consensus, and developing and sharing techniques that work effectively in assessing applicants were all key parts of the Judges training. 

​Team work assessing award case study application during Judging training 

An important part of the training, was the presentation of the team’s assessment of the case study organisation back to all those present. Each team presented the strengths, opportunities for improvement and scoring for the framework item along with their key learning.

Team presentation of item assessment findings from the Judges training  

It is important that the training of judges ensures consistency of outcomes of strengths, opportunities for improvement, and scoring band irrespective of which team is chosen. By assembling the 2017 judges together for this training, the NPS has been able to achieve the level of consistency or calibration required to provide good quality feedback to all award applicants, and maintain the integrity of the awards programme.

​My thanks go to the NPS for inviting me to Sri Lanka to run the 2017 Judges training. I commend the National Productivity Secretariat for its commitment to growing the National Productivity Awards programme. Sri Lanka will reap the benefits of this effort in the years to come.