ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE, INC. (RMPEx)
Version 09-30-2011
Awards Policy
1.0
ALIGNMENT & INTEGRATION STATEMENT
It is the policy of Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence to grant performance awards to
deserving organizations based upon application feedback, scoring, consensus and judging
processes. The philosophy of the awards process is to encourage progress along the
performance excellence journey through assessment at the Foothills, Timberline, and Peak
awards.
2.0
PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to describe the guidelines used for awarding the appropriate
level of recognition to organizations applying for RMPEx awards. RMPEx judges will
make the final award decisions, with authority to apply the guidelines as appropriate to
promote the RMPEx mission and vision.
3.0
SCOPE
This RMPEx awards policy applies to all award applicants.
4.0
5.0
ACRONYMS & DEFINITIONS

Applicant:
Any organization that has submitted an application for the Foothills,
Timberline, or Peak Performance award.

RMPEx: Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence, Inc.

Category: a major subdivision of the RMPEx criteria

Item: a subdivision of the RMPEx category, focusing on a major requirement
(Foothills categories are not subdivided into Items.)

Overall Requirements: The term “overall requirements” refers to the topics, which
users of the Criteria need to address when responding to the central theme of a category
or item. Overall requirements address the most significant features of the requirements.
In the Criteria, the overall requirements of each category/Item are presented in one or
more introductory sentences printed in bold. See RMPEx criteria for clarification if
needed.
POLICY
5.1.
Foothills Award Applicants
5.1.1.
A Foothills applicant that achieves a total score (as determined by their
examination team) that is around 150 or higher may be considered for a
Foothills award. These applicants demonstrate, effective, systematic
approaches responsive to most overall requirements of the Foothills
Criteria categories.
© 2012 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence, Inc.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE, INC. (RMPEx)
Version 09-30-2011
Awards Policy
5.2.
5.1.2.
A Foothills award recipient will be free of significant instances of verified,
uncorrected social irresponsibility, such as ethics issues or environmental
damage incidents.
5.1.3.
A Foothills award may be granted to a Timberline applicant that meets the
requirements of 5.2.1 and 5.2.2, but fails to meet the requirements of 5.3.1
5.1.4.
A Foothills award may be granted to a Peak applicant that meets the
requirements of 5.2.1 and 5.2.2, but fails to meet the requirements of 5.4.1,
plus fails to meet the requirements of 5.3.1.
5.1.5.
A Foothills award will not be granted to any applicant who has received a
Foothills or higher award within the past 3 years.
Timberline Award Applicants
5.2.1.
5.3.
A Timberline Award applicant that achieves a total score (as determined by
their examination team) that is around 275 or higher may be considered for
a Timberline award. These applicants demonstrate many of the following
characteristics:

Effective, systematic approaches responsive to most overall
requirements of the Timberline Criteria Items,

Deployment may vary in some areas or work units.

Key processes benefit from fact-based evaluation and improvement,
and

Approaches are being aligned with organizational needs.
5.2.2.
A Timberline award recipient will be free of significant instances of
verified, uncorrected social irresponsibility, such as ethics issues or
environmental damage incidents.
5.2.3.
A Timberline award may be granted to a Peak applicant that meets the
requirements of 5.3.1, and 5.3.2 (as determined by the total score for
categories 1-6), but fails to meet the requirements of 5.4.1, 5.4.2, and/or
5.4.3.
5.2.4.
A Timberline award will not be granted to any applicant who has received
a Timberline or Peak award within the past 3 years.
Peak Performance Award
5.3.1.
A Peak award applicant that achieves a total score (as determined by their
examination team) that is around 500 or higher may be considered for a
Peak award. These applicants demonstrate most of the following
characteristics
© 2012 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence, Inc.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE, INC. (RMPEx)
Version 09-30-2011
Awards Policy
5.4.

Approaches are well deployed, but deployment may vary in some
areas or work units.

The organization demonstrates a fact-based, systematic evaluation and
improvement process, which has resulted in some organizational
learning that improved the effectiveness and efficiency of key
processes.

Approaches are aligned with organizational needs.

Results address many key customer/stakeholder, market, and process
requirements, and they demonstrate many areas of strength and/or
good performance against relevant comparisons. There are no patterns
of adverse trends or poor performance in areas of importance to the
organization’s key requirements.
to
the
overall
These organizational performance characteristics should be demonstrated
with uniformity, with no Process Item being evaluated as being in
beginning or early stages of development (as demonstrated by a score of
less than 30%)
5.3.3.
Peak award recipients will be role model organizations that can provide
examples other organizations would want to emulate
5.3.4.
A Peak award recipient will be free of significant instances of verified,
uncorrected social irresponsibility, such as ethics issues or environmental
damage incidents.
5.3.5.
A Peak award will not be granted to any applicant who has received a Peak
award within the past 3 years.
Applicant Recognition Options
The decision as to whether to be recognized at an award level lower than
the original application during the annual event, resides solely with the
applying organization.
APPROVAL

7.0
Effective, systematic approaches responsive
requirements of the Peak Criteria Items.
5.3.2.
5.4.1.
6.0

This document is reviewed and approved by the RMPEx Board of Directors.
CHANGE HISTORY
Version
Brief Description of Change
09-24-2003
04-27-2007
- Initial Release
- Define/document award criteria
© 2012 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence, Inc.
All rights reserved. This document shall not be reproduced without the express written consent RMPEx, Inc.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE, INC. (RMPEx)
Version 09-30-2011
Awards Policy
09-30-2011
- Updated the procedure to be consistent with the examination process, which asks
examiners to provide a single “best fit” score for each Item. Changed organization
name from Colorado Performance Excellence (CPEx) to Rocky Mountain
Performance Excellence (RMPEx)
© 2012 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence, Inc.
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