What Is EFQM?
EFQM (originally standing for the European Foundation for Quality Management) refers to a widely recognized organizational excellence framework and model that helps organizations assess and improve their overall performance across leadership, strategy, people, processes, and results.
Structure of the EFQM Excellence Model
- Enablers — covering Leadership, Strategy, People, Partnerships & Resources, and Processes/Products/Services, representing what an organization does and how
- Results — covering Customer Results, People Results, Society Results, and Business/Key Results, representing what the organization actually achieves
Why EFQM Matters for HR
- The 'People' enabler and 'People Results' criteria directly assess how effectively an organization manages, develops, and engages its workforce — making HR a central contributor to EFQM assessment and improvement.
- Provides a structured, holistic framework for HR to demonstrate its strategic contribution beyond administrative tasks, linking people practices to broader business results.
- Organizations pursuing EFQM-based excellence certification or self-assessment use it to benchmark HR maturity against global best practice.
How Organizations Use EFQM
Many organizations use the EFQM model for internal self-assessment, identifying strengths and improvement areas across enablers and results, while some pursue formal EFQM recognition or certification as an external validation of organizational excellence.
EFQM: Frequently Asked Questions
Is EFQM commonly used by companies in India?
How is EFQM different from ISO 9000?
This glossary entry is for general information and reflects common HR practice in India at the time of writing. Statutory thresholds, rates and deadlines change — verify against the latest official notifications or consult a qualified legal or tax advisor before acting.