National Quality Institute - NQI

The National Quality Institute (NQI) is an independent, non-profit organization whose vision is to create a new future for Canada, through the adoption of quality and healthy workplace principles in all sectors, both private and public. NQI's mission is to provide strategic focus and direction for achieving quality and healthy workplace excellence to Canadian organizations, enabling Canada to set the standards for unsurpassed quality throughout the world. Canada will be the benchmark against which quality is measured. NQI will achieve and sustain this through comprehensive awareness building, education, standards, registration, certification and recognition programs.

Eligibility Criteria

All of the National Quality Institute's products and services are available to organizations from both the private and public sectors. The Institute also offers these organizations an opportunity for national recognition through the Canada Awards for Excellence program.

Summary

NQI activities include the communication of best practices, through training and awareness modules linked to the Canadian Quality Criteria, a comprehensive framework for improvement that is used both for adjudication of the Canadian Quality Award (CAE category), for the Progressive Excellence Program (NQI-PEP) and for education and training in continuous improvement practices.

The Canadian Quality Criteria consists of six drivers, critical deployment actions for successful organizational improvement efforts and one section devoted to overall organization achievement through successful implementation:

• leadership;
• planning;
• customer focus;
• people focus;
• process management;
• supplier focus; and
• organizational performance.

The Canadian Healthy Workplace Criteria was developed in 1998 by the NQI in partnership with Health Canada and a team of health professionals. It addresses a broad-based approach to health and wellness in the workplace. The criteria bring together environmental, physical, mental, safety and social issues into a strategic model that helps organizations set goals and manage their wellness programs.

The Canada Awards for Excellence program is a National recognition process for those organizations who have made significant achievements, and the NQI conducts communications to ensure that such Canadian success stories are spread around Canada and the world. Trophy recipient video modules are available to help reinforce the quality message in your own organization, under the title "Canadian Success Stories". Categories include: Quality (and small business), Healthy Workplace (and small organizations) and Education.

The Progressive Excellence Program (NQI-PEP) assists organizations on their quality and healthy workplace journeys where organizations could be certified at each of 4 levels. There are also progressive programs in Quality, Healthy Workplace, Tourism and in Education (kindergarten to grade 12).

The NQI developed and operates Canada's National certification program for ISO 9000 auditors, a service that adds value to the Canadian ISO community and certifies Environmental auditors as well.

Publications

The Canada Awards for Excellence Self-Assessment - A workbook designed to assist organizations in completing a self-assessment of overall organizational performance, using the Canadian Quality Criteria. The self-assessment process consists of seven steps; each step is fully outlined in the workbook, which includes worksheets for comments and analysis. Self assessments workbooks are available for all categories: quality, healthy workplace, small business, tourism and education.

Online survey instruments - an electronic online decision-making tool used by corporations to assess their operations against the CAE criteria and to identify areas of improvement. Products include self-asessments, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.

*Note: "non-profit" also known as nonprofit organizations, non profit organizations, not-for-profit organizations, voluntary organizations and volunteer organizations.

Quebec Contact(s):
See National Contact.

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National Contact(s):
Ms. Kathryn Cestnick
Vice President & Interim COO
National Quality Institute
2275 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Suite 307
Toronto, Ontario  M8V 3Y3
Telephone: 1-800-263-9648 ext./poste 240
Fax: 416-251-9131
Toll-free (information): 1-800-263-9648 ext./poste 240
E-mail: cestnick.kathryn@nqi.ca
Web site: http://www.nqi.ca/