Becoming an award-winning place to work is about so much more than the actual award. Angie Redmon, President and Founder of striveHR, says the biggest benefit to an organization is the learnings you gain about your employees along the way. Angie breaks down how to pick which awards your organization should pursue. She also shares her insights on maintaining award status so you can increase retention, employee engagement, and ultimately customer satisfaction.
Truth You Can Act On
1. Know Why You’re Applying for Awards
The very first thing the leader of an organization should consider when they’re applying for an award is why they want it in the first place. It could be things like they want to consider what benefits or goals they’re going to achieve by earning the award, or maybe their ‘why’ includes helping with recruitment and retention strategies. In my opinion, the benefits an organization earns as they go through that entire process will far outweigh actually earning the trophy or earning the award. I often use the phrase ‘more than a trophy,’ because, yes, earning that award is fantastic, it’s great. And after all, that’s what these organizations are striving for, but the real reward comes from the insights they learned when they measured employee engagement.
2. Understand What Awards You Want
There are awards that recognize employers within their geographic area, like Best Places to Work for whatever state they may be in. And there are similar awards like Top Workplaces that recognize for the city. So within those awards, you’re not only competing with other organizations, but it really focuses down on their similar size or geographic area. And there’s also awards that recognize outstanding employers in specific industries. And then there’s also awards where you can be recognized as a top 100 or a top 50. And often these are sponsored by in media or a magazine type publication. So that’s why it’s so important to determine what the why for your organization is so you can set down the right path to get you what you’re trying to achieve through those types of awards.
3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Once you’ve determined you’re going to apply for an award and you know which award, the very first thing to do is share that information with your team at your company. Communicate this is a goal that you have set forth. It’s great when that comes from the leader of your organization because it shows they’re getting behind this initiative and they’re showing support. Let your employees know they’re going to be asked to complete an engagement survey and that you as leaders within your company support them to take the time to do the engagement survey. It’s really important to share that you are committed to letting your employees know about the findings of the survey. This doesn’t mean you have to act on every single piece of feedback your employees give. This is a great education opportunity for you as an employer to say, ‘We’re going to be asking you for feedback. We may not be able to act on all of your recommendations, but we will let you know what we can act on. And if it’s something we can’t, we will explain why.’ And I think that’s really important for employees to know.
4. Be Persistent about Maintaining Award Status
The best recommendation I have is to make the steps you take to achieving award-winning status part of your daily culture. It should be part of the strategic initiatives you have within your company that you are dedicated to culture, you are dedicated to employee engagement within your organization and focusing on your people strategy and strong efforts towards continuous improvement and making people a priority within your organization’s strategic plan. When organizations are focused on gathering their feedback through engagement surveys and putting into action and setting goals going forward that can focus on continuous improvement, it just becomes part of their culture. And I promise you, your employees recognize it. And they appreciate the fact that you’re asking for their feedback.
Book Recommendation:
Listen to the full episode: Episode 153: Being an Award-Winning Workplace with Angie Redmon
