The University of New Mexico’s Information Technologies was recently named as one of eight recipients for the prestigious Piñon Recognition, by Quality New Mexico, administrator of the New Mexico Performance Excellence Awards. Five other entities were named as Roadrunner Recognition recipients.
“I’m delighted to announce the 2013 New Mexico Performance Excellence Award Recipients,” said President/CEO Julia Gabaldon, Quality New Mexico. “These organizations have made a commitment to provide the best service/product to their customers and to be role model organizations in our state.”
The New Mexico Performance Excellence Awards Program recognizes New Mexico organizations at three levels: Piñon Recognition, Roadrunner Recognition and Zia Award. There were no Zia Award recipients this year.
The criteria address seven categories including: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer Focus; Workforce Focus; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Operations Focus; and Results.
At the Piñon Level, organizations demonstrate commitment and show evidence through their assessment and site visit that they are using systematic processes and data to strengthen overall operations and attain improved outcomes.
“All UNM students, faculty and staff depend on the ‘common-good’ voice, video and data applications and services managed by IT,” said IT Chief Information Officer Gil Gonzales. “Because IT is committed to continuous service improvement and customer satisfaction, we use industry-standard frameworks for managing IT projects and services, and we also measure ourselves against an external, non-IT, quality standard.”
The New Mexico Performance Excellence Awards, modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, provide applicants with feedback on their strengths and their opportunities for improvement. The feedback is based on the time-tested Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, which provides an assessment framework and criteria to gauge organizational performance.
“The Baldrige Criteria provides guidance for performance excellence,” Gonzales said. “This is the second Piñon recognition that IT has received since 2011. I want to thank our leadership and staff at IT for moving in the direction of reliability, availability and capacity to support the instructional, research, and administrative missions of our institution.”
All recognition recipients and members of the Board of Examiners will be recognized at a reception at the Governor’s Residence on Monday, Dec. 2. Formal recognition will occur at the 2014 Quality New Mexico Learning Summit & New Mexico Performance Excellence Awards Ceremony, April 16 & 17 at Isleta Resort.
Quality New Mexico’s mission is to drive performance excellence in New Mexico organizations by providing role models, tools, knowledge, learning experiences, and best practices. The non-profit, 501(c)3 provides the services of training, assessments, coaching, and public recognition to those who have achieved various levels of improvement on their excellence journey.
For information about Quality New Mexico or the 2014 Learning Summit, visit Quality New Mexico or contact (505) 944-2001.