We speak with 100s of L&D Managers each week about the challenges they face in their organisation. With budgets and resources being stretched and general pressures from management to prove impact, it can be tough.
We know one of your big pressures is to prove the value of your learning initiatives across your organisation. When being asked questions like:
- what’s the return on investment (or effort)?
- what’s the learning and knowledge impact?
- and how engaged are your learners?
It can be difficult to communicate this effectively across your organisation.
This is where entering an award can help!
Winning recognition for your learning initiatives has many benefits
Awards can positively and directly impact your biggest challenges around proving value and securing budget. Not to mention morale, trust, validation, inspiration and recognition. That all sounds really great, doesn’t it?!
We get that entering for an award can feel like a mammoth task you don’t have time for, but it has many benefits. Even when there are already so many urgent things on your to-do list, by thinking of the long-term return, you may start to feel more positive and enthused by that long-winded application form!
And you don’t need to tackle it alone either, we regularly partner with our clients to enter industry awards and there are even some amazing specialists out there you could outsource to.
We encourage you to grab a hot beverage, take a few minutes out of your schedule and read through our top 5 benefits to entering awards.
Why entering awards is good for your L&D team and wider organisation
1. Attract (even more) talented people
When potential employees are browsing your website and social platforms and making that all-important ‘could I work here?’ decision – your awards speak volumes! They are an instant way to add credibility and the ‘wow’ factor. Awards also show that you invest in your people and their development. This is more than just a feel-good factor but external recognition that you really care about the learning experiences of your employees.
Awards may also make a positive impact on your prospective partners and vendors. External recognition shows that experts outside your boardroom think you’re outstanding.
2. Motivate your current workforce
Awards are also a fantastic way to motivate and encourage your current workforce. By taking the time out of your day to reflect on the success of your L&D team it shows that you value their efforts and the outcomes their work has achieved.
Winning awards can also offer a huge injection of positive energy into the team and create a culture of recognition and reward. Whilst this may increase morale for the L&D team involved, it will also boost interest and curiosity from your wider employee base. Colleagues will be keener to enrol on your non-mandatory learning programmes once they know they are award-winning!
3. Boost recognition and exposure for your brand
We all know that awards are a PR dream and platforms like LinkedIn receive these kinds of updates with open arms. When you win industry-renowned awards you stand out against your competitors and you instantly make it clear you take pride in your work and you love rewarding your hard-working employees. These are all great factors for improving your overall exposure and strengthening your reputation in general. Awards also add instant credibility to both your business and personal profile on LinkedIn and fancy photography from the acceptance speech makes content gold too!
4. An opportunity to reflect and benchmark
We don’t often get the time to reflect on our achievements and realise and measure the impact we’ve made in an internal sense. It’s likely that most of us are too consumed with the outcome and impact for our clients and customers – but it’s important to focus on the work you’re doing within your organisation too.
The award writing process is a unique opportunity to reflect upon your success and benchmark your work for the future. As part of the application, you’ll need to assess your progress – giving you a valuable chance to look at your initiatives in terms of their impact. This will help you make improvements for next time and recognise what areas to build upon. In a fast-paced environment, this is a great opportunity to look at lessons learnt and make actionable recommendations for the future.
5. Attract new customers
Awards are not only great for creating positive vibes internally – they also create positive waves across external audiences too. Awards are a great hook to intrigue new customers and clients and impress them in a very instant way. By showcasing your awards across your website, your news channels and social platforms you give new customers the opportunity to learn more about what you do, how you look after your staff and generally how great an organisation you are. What’s more, if you’ve won against a big competitor, this could really help you showcase your differentiation and distinctiveness in the sector.
Join forces for a bigger and better award-winning impact
We understand that award application writing can be time-consuming and take up a lot of head space. Have you thought about entering an award with one of your partners or vendors?
This could help spread the workload and also showcase a unique working relationship – which may help you receive better recognition with the award-judging panel.
We have seen some amazing success from a partnered approach to awards. For example:
- Kineo and easyJet win at the 2023 Totara awards for the most improved learning platform
- Kineo and Credit Suisse celebrate Team of the Year award at the 2022 Learning Technologies Awards
- Kineo and ING Win Gold and Silver at Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards 2022
And the process helps our teams understand more fully what’s working and what’s important for our clients, so we can do more of it next time. Win win!
Final thoughts
Whilst entering awards can feel both time-consuming and braggy – it does have a huge amount of benefits. Reflecting on your success is a great opportunity to realise your achievements and show your team you’re grateful for their hard work.
And there might even be a glamorous night with entertainment and fancy food to look forward to too!