Motivating your staff to reach for the stars

Entering business awards takes both tactical and strategic thinking, and if you’re serious about your entry, it should be incorporated into your overall performance management strategy. Gathering examples and data to support your entry has to be a responsibility shared by the company as a whole, or at the very least, the department most closely aligned to your next submission subject.

We all want our employees to be proactive and enthusiastic, and that’s really the beauty of awards – winning or being shortlisted for them encourages this behaviour, while incentivising them to aim towards an award also does the same. It’s a win/win situation.

First of all, you need to clearly communicate to all management and staff which awards you’re thinking of entering, so they have an end goal to keep them focused. Knowing that they could play an instrumental part in achieving that accolade will help them to hone in on opportunities, and work extra hard to create great case studies and gather evidence.

Everyone wants to be a winner

Whether it’s within one key department or business-wide, a bit of healthy competition never hurts. Running a ‘leader board’ or some kind of visual reference to chart targets or successes that relate to your entry can really ramp up productivity levels. Equally, if people are chatting about the award over the water cooler or in the canteen, other departments will get wind of it and also want to prove that their part of the business is awesome too!

There’s always the option to go one step further if you really want to motivate your staff: offer incentives to those whose work clinches that win or a place on the award shortlist. Spa days, shopping vouchers, an F1 experience, a hamper of goodies, a bottle of bubbly or a new TV… there’s plenty of scope depending on budget.

A sense of pride

The big business win from encouraging your employees to actively pursue an award is how it translates to your clients. The drive to do things better and take pride in their work will mean that your staff will always be promoting the values and ethos of your company. This makes for a nicer working environment, smoother internal processes and ultimately, an improved customer experience – and if you get that right, it could be them nominating you for an award next year, rather than yourself!

If your team has identified an award they want to go for but needs support to pull it all together, we’re always here to help. Why not give us a call on 07921 543898?