8 components to include in your HR / workplace award entries
Award wins in the HR and workplace market are the proof marketing teams strive for to show their brand authority, success and value.
But attaining award wins requires a well-rounded and expertly crafted entry - something that shows off the hard facts, clear outcomes and real difference your product or service makes to customers. For the ultimate award entry that stands out above the rest, here are 8 things we see as essential:
1. A clear story
What happened, what needed solving, what have you done to fix it? Ideally, the story will be quickly summarised and memorable. It’ll resonate and be remembered.
2. Insight from key players
For this, you’ll need to get both your high-level customers and their employees on board. Encourage them to share their contributions and show how the work has had an impact.
For the C-suite, product buyers and key decision-makers, how were they convinced to use the product or service? How did you communicate the necessity of the product to them? Were there any problems you had to resolve in this process?
For employees and wider teams, how did the product, service or initiative impact them? How exactly has it changed their working lives? How has it affected productivity, retention, absence, efficiency or any other relevant factor?
3. Challenges
No well-rounded story is complete without showing the challenges involved.
With this in mind, what challenges were your clients facing that required your support? Were there complications in implementing your initiatives? How did you overcome this? Illustrating how you helped the customer rise to these challenges, and succeed, is essential.
4. Innovation.
What have you done entirely new for your business, employees, or your market? Could your work and solution show others a way forward?
5. Evidence.
An award entry is not the place for fluffy, flowery words. This is about return on investment, return on value, impacts and data. It’s really important to measure, at the beginning and later. What impact did the project have on the business objectives, employees, the market?
When it comes to the financials, in particular, what were your objectives? What money was saved? How did the financial outcomes compare to the performance/people outcomes?
6. Time.
You’ll likely start with a skeleton of information and then each point can be researched further to show the full story, context and why it matters. Leaving it till the last minute won’t help if you need to dig deeper. And it’s likely you’ll need to dig much deeper.
7. To not jump in too early.
Judges get frustrated when a story hasn’t developed properly – when the results aren’t clear yet. Evaluate whether it’s more advantageous to wait for a different event programme or another year when you can show wider impacts to employees and the business.
For example, a useful facet in a good award entry is a client follow-up further down the line. Don’t just present the immediate results - how has the project impacted the long-term success of client initiatives? How is success planning to be measured in the years ahead?
8. A bit of fizz.
‘Best practice’ isn’t enough for award wins. The judges of any award programme will go through a lot of information, and the entries that shine will be the ones they’ll remember.
For further help gaining visibility and showing off your credibility in the HR and workplace space, get in touch.