The purpose of this study was to determine the core competencies needed by state Baldrige examiners, to identify best practices in examiner training programs provided by state Baldrige organizations, and to identify best practices for teaching core competencies.

A Delphi panel ranked core competencies, best practices, and best practices for teaching core competencies using a Likert-style survey. Descriptive statistics and a formula for determining consensus quantified the results.

The key findings of this study were that the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence continue to provide the core competencies for which examiners need to be trained to effectively evaluate and score applications and provide meaningful feedback to applicants. The best practices for teaching core competencies, however, vary according to the needs of each state organization and the expertise and teaching styles of the trainers in the various state organizations. Coaching was the one best practice upon which the panel agreed as being applicable to teaching most of the core competencies. A template for training examiners using the best practices for teaching core competencies was the outcome of this study.

Recommendations include using this template to train examiners and using the actual teams, of which the examiners will be a part, for evaluating and scoring the applications from receipt of the application through the life of the application. It is recommended that the individual review of applications be eliminated. As examiners will work with the actual applications from the beginning of the process, it is recommended that the case study be eliminated as pre-work. It is also recommended that coaches work with the actual teams from the training session until the feedback report is written.