What does it take to win a business award? Is your business ready to enter a business award? While every awards program and business is different, there are some key trends we’ve observed in award-winning businesses. If your business is performing in these areas, you’re much more likely to be competitive in a business awards program.
Being recognised for a business award means your business is exhibiting excellence across multiple fields. To help you decide whether your business is ready to enter a business award, here are four key areas you should consider:
1) How does your business treat your people?
In business awards, a common theme will be employee satisfaction and wellbeing. It’s all about employee engagement, company culture and how your staff are being recognised and remunerated.
Judges will be looking for unique examples of how your business treats its people. Do you offer mental health leave? Menopause leave? What career progression opportunities are available? How do you recognise top performers? How do you retain staff? What is your staff retention rate? All of this will typically be important.
2) Does your business contribute to the community?
Giving back to the community is no longer just ‘nice to have’ but a given. Business awards judges will be searching for compelling answers in regard to the social purpose of your business. Does your business give back to the community? Does your business partner with charities? What does your business do on the social responsibility front? Does your business authentically connect with the community through support or building relationships on a local scale? If answering these questions is tricky, maybe you should consider whether your business needs to be doing more in this space.
Judges will wonder how your business creates impact. For example, most categories in the prestigious Telstra Best of Business Awards now have a social slant, examining how your business is contributing to the community, accelerating women, making an Indigenous based impact or focusing on the environment.
3) Is your business genuinely innovative?
Most businesses say they are innovative, but are they really? True innovation is more than just building or leveraging technology, it’s about empowering people to come up with and test new ideas. Are staff supported to try something new, without fear of failure? Does your culture allow people to fall forward and learn from their mistakes? Is your business constantly iterating and trying new things, finding ways to improve? The top performing businesses will be leaders when it comes to innovation, paving the way for their industry.
4) Is your business growing?
Depending on the award, you may also want to consider a fourth key area, which looks at business growth and sales. Although many awards do examine business sales, this area is not always essential, especially more recently given many businesses slowed through COVID-19. It’s important to remember that not all success is about business growth, it could be about resilience or overcoming adversity.
Considering these four points is essential before jumping into a business awards submission, however, the awards criteria will differ for each specific award. You should always assess the criteria first and decide whether your business is ready to enter the award based on the requirements.
In any event, assessing your business against these four areas is a useful guide, not just for winning awards, but for business excellence more broadly.
Still not sure if your business is ready to enter an award? Green Door Co can help. Talk to us today about whether your business is ready to enter an award.
