Awards… love them or hate them? Undoubtedly a bit of a ‘Marmite’ subject.
Do you think entering HR awards is all about vanity? Maybe you dismiss them as magazines/institutes making a bit of cash/publicity, or do you see them as a driver of excellence?
Maybe you see the writing of award submissions as an unwanted distraction, or alternatively, maybe you think that we need to be distracted from time-to-time to take stock and evaluate our achievements.
If you want to see just how many HR and Training awards there now are out there, click here: http://www.boost-marketing.co.uk/awards
Looking forward to your comments.
Chris
Chris Robinson
4 Responses
They are rare, but do exist
Hi Iain, completely see your point.
In the most you are absolutely right. Luckily there are two big exceptions:
The National Training Awards are government funded, share best practice, have regional winners and even a small local dog kennels can win, and did.
The Business in the Community Awards have free workshops, share case studies online, and promote CSR, happy healthy workplaces and community involvement. They have regional as well as national awards, 40% of entrants win a ‘bug tick’ and a lovely e-learning company called Academy Internet, with just 15 employees and no HR full time department, won a National Award (awarded by Prince Charles and Al Gore)
If only all awards were like these eh?
Chris
Awards
If you look are organisations that “win” these awards in most cases they are large organisations with large HR teams. You never see examples of organisations who management a successful HR function with limited numbers in their Department.
We have all seen the lists of the XXX most influential people in HR. (In away another awards list) but when was the last time anyone saw any of the people listed on these lists further HR by providing support and advise such as this notice board or place examples of their work in the CIPD Library to provide examples of best practice.
If an award was run asking for nominations of people that help further the case of professional HR most of the nominations would be for local HR managers who no one has ever heard of but support their local community.
Value less than zero….
I am in danger of ranting about the various awards that are out there. From “HRD of the year”, via “HR Team of the year” through to “XYZ supplier of the year”…. they are all a con. As are the 100 firms to work for. In the latter case, if only 100 firms can afford the fees and waste of resources that entering costs, and the costs of sponsoring a table at the presntations, and taking out advert.s, then the lower 50 will clearly be the worst 50 Companies to work for. In the first year of the publication in the Times, i believe this was the case! As for HRD of the year, etc., whilst it may or may not be good for the team involved to win it, those HR folk who really add value to their business seem to me to be the ones who just get on and do it…….Am I alone in thinking this?
Dick Townsend
Don’t take awards at face value
Although HR Awards are undoubtedly great for marketing for companies who receive them, you can’t afford to take them at face value. For example, the “childcare voucher provider of the year 2007” claims in its award entry to offer the lowest management fee for a fully-managed service. However, I found out that they charge 4.5% while KiddiVouchers only charges 1.5%, for at least the same level of service and flexibility. I contacted Employee Benefits about their award being misleading, and it turns out they aren’t at all pro-active about inviting companies to enter for the awards. If I was running a HR Award, I’d be doing a Google search and sending entry documents out to all the main providers, to get as many entries as possible. I’m glad I Googled for a childcare voucher provider rather than believing the awards had done the job for me. We’ve been really pleased with KiddiVouchers and I’d highly recommend them – http://www.kiddivouchers.co.uk.