Correos rewards the entrepreneurial spirit among its workers.

The prizes for the best innovation proposals were awarded, as well as those for the Literary Correspondence and Photography competitions

CORREOS REWARDS THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT AMONG ITS WORKERS

• Awarding of the "Excellent offices" prize and the ‘Hermes’ prize for the best sorting offices.
• CORREOS is the first European postal operator to receive the "EFQM Seal of Excellence” for its branch network

Madrid, 30 January 2007.- The chairman of CORREOS, José Damián Santiago, and directors of the postal service presented the “Excellent Office”, “Hermes” and “Postal Innovation” prizes in a ceremony held during the "Recognition of the Entrepreneurial Spirit in CORREOS Day", which was took place yesterday at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

During the same event, the network of over 2,000 post offices received the "EFQM Seal of Excellence" at "European Quality" level. CORREOS' post office branch network is the first network belonging to a public postal operator to receive such prestigious recognition for the quality of the service it provides.
Through these awards, CORREOS recognises the contribution of its employees to continuous quality improvement in the postal service and excellence in the management of post offices and sorting offices. In addition, the awards promote an organisational culture that encourages innovative initiatives and creativity among employees, in order to continue advancing along the path to excellence and operational efficiency.

AWARDS FOR THE BEST POST OFFICES AND SORTING OFFICES

With its "Excellent Office" award, CORREOS wishes to recognise the key role of the people who work in the more than 2,000 post offices throughout the country towards increasing, on a day to day basis and through their work and their proposals for improvements, the quality of service provided to clients and the public.

To be considered an "Excellent Office", the post office has to be among those that achieve the highest scores in the "300 Club" – a club made up of the branches that score over 300 points in the AUDINTER quality indicator, which evaluates management in accordance with the EFQM Business Excellence model. In this sixth edition, the top awards went to Villarreal Branch 1(Castellon), Leganes Branch 2 (Madrid) and the Albolote branch (Granada).

CORREOS also awards the “Hermes” prize for excellence in the management of Distribution Units (sorting offices for ordinary mail – UR, or special or urgent services – USE). This year these prizes went to UR 1 Valladolid, UR 8 Seville, UR Ponferrada (Leon), UR Carlet (Valencia), USE 1 Zaragoza and USE 1 Santiago de Compostela (La Coruña), which received the highest scores for management efficiency and continuous improvement, according to a self-evaluation model similar to the one used in branches.

AWARDS FOR POSTAL INNOVATION

The prizes for the 1st Postal Innovation Competition, which was held in 2006, were also awarded. The aim of the competition is to promote the development of innovative initiatives by employees and to involve them in the process of modernisation and massive incorporation of the information and knowledge technologies into the services and products provided by the post office. During this first competition, the employees of CORREOS presented 104 projects and proposals for innovation and improvements in all areas of the company. These included processes in post office branches and sorting offices, IT applications, new products and services, and improvements in the uniform and equipment of postal workers, amongst others.

An employee from the Malaga Main Branch was awarded the major prize, 8,000 euros, for the design of a help program for pre-invoicing delivery notes. In addition, two employees from the Santander Sorting Office were awarded a prize of 3,000 euros for their proposal for a new product designed to provide more dynamic management of publicorreo advertising deliveries. Finally, 15 prizes worth 1,000 euros each were awarded to other finalists for their projects, as recognition of their innovative content.

EXCELLENCE IN THE POST OFFICE NETWORK

To round off a day dedicated to recognising quality and creativity in CORREOS, the director of the Branches Division, German Dominguez, received the "EFQM Seal of Excellence" at "European Quality" level, which was presented by Ignacio Ruiz, Director of the Excellence in Management Club (Club de la Excelencia en la Gestión – CEG), which represents EFQM in Spain.

This Seal confirms the path that CORREOS' offices have already embarked on towards excellence, as the network achieved ISO 9001-2000 standard certification in 2005 for its delivery services and several of its large branches have been awarded certificates under the UNE-EN-ISO 9001 and UNE-EN-ISO 14001 standards.

PRIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE

Prizes for Photography and Literary Correspondence were also awarded to the employees in the ninth edition of these awards. This year there was a special prize for the most significant work paying tribute to the 250th anniversary of the appointment of the first postmen. 420 photographs and 180 letters were entered in the competition, and the prizes were awarded to employees from Seville, Madrid and Tarragona.