Build company culture and boost morale with business awards
Benefits of a winning nomination strategy also include increased brand awareness and revenue
A quick stroll through LinkedIn is deeply unsettling if you're an employee. The Great Breakup. Quiet quitting. Return to office initiatives, a looming recession and mass layoffs. It's pretty clear that employee morale isn't "the best" right now. A recent Gallup poll showed only 21% of employees engaged at work and 33% of employees thrived in their overall well-being. But tight budgets leave even less for employee incentives and teambuilding events. Scrappy HR and marketing teams are leveraging business awards to build brand awareness, boost employee morale and build inclusive work cultures.
Why award nominations?
The mere act of nominating an employee for an award has far-reaching benefits, even if they don't win.
Business award nominations are a great way to:
Recognize your top performers in a personal and individualized way.
Provide an opportunity for the employee to share their story as a holistic human.
Encourage teams to celebrate their peers' successes.
Create content for internal and external storytelling and culture building.
There are also corporate incentives to building an award nomination strategy, including developing a reputation for a top company to work for, which helps with recruiting talent.
Smaller businesses may also see an uptick in revenue from an awards strategy. According to a study on U.S. businesses, small award-winning companies experienced a 63 percent increase in operating income and a 39 percent growth in sales compared to non-winners.
Where to start?
The best way to effectively leverage business awards and hopefully win is to develop a strategy.
Research opportunities. Look for awards In your region and industry. Take a look at what your competitors are winning. And remember to find awards that reflect your team's and business's differentiators. Do you have a great company culture? Are you a leader in the diversity, equity and inclusion space? Is your CIO a force? There are awards out there that celebrate all of these and more.
Set a budget. Awards often cost money to apply for or require a ticket purchase for the ceremony (it’s like networking but fun.) You'll also want to invest properly in PR and writing talent if you don't have the skill or capacity on your communications team.
Create a spreadsheet of the awards you'd like to go after. Highlight deadlines to apply.
Identify the employees you would like to nominate and get their approval. This due diligence is a great place to engage managers and other leaders.
Apply, track and save the content in one place.
Amplify your wins. Leverage the perks of winning with a PR strategy. Share with recruiters and stakeholders to highlight why your company is a great place to work.
Repackage your nomination narrative. Storytelling builds empathy and connection. Reuse the content for social media, internal employee profiles, HR web pages, and more.
A thoughtful business award strategy is an authentic and empathetic way to recognize your employees and build brand awareness, especially at a time when we all could use a reason to celebrate.
No time or skill to write? Storytelling, clarity and respectfulness are critical to crafting an empowering and successful nomination—consider hiring a freelance writer.
Email Alison to learn more about award strategy consulting and writing services.
