Intranet awards – chicken soup for a business’s soul

The intranet awards season is rolling around again including the Interact Intranet Excellence Awards and with all the best intentions in the world you want to enter but in terms of priority it’s not really top of your agenda. Awards take time and effort to enter, someone has to gather the evidence, write the submission and even pay an entry fee. All this work and you don’t even know if you’ll get shortlisted!

However, if you do get shortlisted and dare to dream – WIN, then all of the preliminary work is forgotten about and the feel good factor kicks in. This is because winning or even being short listed for an award, gives your business the feedback that you are doing an excellent job. You may know this internally but having it confirmed by your peers generally makes it that little bit more special and gives you time to celebrate and promote your success.

You see, excellent work is always celebrated but doesn’t always get any recognition outside of its immediate project team so, the rest of the business doesn’t always know about a job well done. When you win or are shortlisted for an award it’s communicated both internally and externally, generating a lot of exposure for that project and those associated with it. So in affect if your business wins an award, your business and your employees both bask in the glow of that success.

What does that success look like?

As an award winner or finalist you have been selected as a business that stands out from the norm, who is taking things to the next level and setting expectations beyond what is the usual. This level of benchmarking gives an added edge to your business’s reputation making you DIFFERENT to the competition. Having that differential edge in an often saturated marketplace could be the clincher you need to secure a new opportunity… awards are suddenly beginning to look like more of a priority aren’t they!

It’s not just about the GBP’s though, awards can bring so much more than just a boost to the bottom line, although this is one of the most important benefits or businesses would cease to exist.

Attract new employees – who doesn’t want to work for a successful award winning company? It looks good on your CV to work for a company that stands out in its field for great work; the success is attributed to the employees as much as to the business and job seekers would see this as a major advantage to boosting their future career aspirations.

Retain customers – why would they want to move to a competitor when your industry is recognising you as the benchmark for success? Ok some customers it won’t save – things don’t always work out, but your average customer whose happy with the product/ service won’t be as susceptible to the lure of a competitors latest acquisition campaign if they know that you are at the forefront of the pack and are still able to meet their needs.

Boost employee morale – give your employees something to feel proud about. Employee morale can often be something that is neglected in everyday working life, everyone has their job to do and is expected to get on and deliver to the high levels expected in your business. But, and we’ve all had these days, some days you just wonder why you’re doing what you’re doing as it doesn’t feel like you get any thanks for it. Awards give a business the opportunity to say a big ‘thank you’ to its employees as without them they wouldn’t be able to achieve the successes they are recognised for. Every business needs its employees to function but award winning businesses have award winning staff that is what sets them apart and they should celebrate this and ensure employees are aware that the business success is directly attributed to them as the best in their field.

PR & Marketing – fresh stories and being recognised as a leader in your field opens up a whole raft of PR and marketing opportunities for award winners and runners up. Journalists are always looking for new industry experts and thought leaders to provide quotes and articles for their publications. Your business profile benefits from the boost of being an award winner/ finalist as journalists in your industry will either be attending the awards dinner to report for their publication or be sent the press release from the award organizer pushing you into their view and giving them reason to contact you.

From a marketing perspective your win can be publicised on all of your marketing material including brochures, newsletters, website, campaigns and email signatures. This extra piece of information could be what is needed to catch the eye of a future prospect.