Personnel Today Awards: 10 tips to make your entry stand out

With not long to go until the 2024 entry deadline, experienced Personnel Today Awards judge Mark Withers provides some top tips on what might help you get shortlisted and ultimately win a coveted trophy.

I have been privileged to have been asked to judge the prestigious Personnel Today Awards for the past decade. Whatever the category, each year brings a pack of entries that are all worthy and all describe interventions that have been impactful.

Those submitting entries are rightly proud of what they have achieved and, as a judge, you sense the hard work and commitment that lies behind each entry.

It’s great to get your hard work recognised externally and nationally and the Personnel Today Awards are the best place to let your work shine. But as these Awards are so prestigious, you can expect some excellent competition.

In most categories, entrants are requested to provide clear responses under three headings:

• The challenge – an outline of what the organisation hoped to achieve
• The solution – what the organisation/individual implemented
• The benefits – what the organisation and its people gained.

Entries should show examples of innovation, achievement, teamwork, leadership, effective use of resources, and HR’s contribution to the business.

So what can make your entry stand out from the pack? Here are 10 top tips I can offer, drawn from my experience of reading, rating and ranking your submissions over the years:

The Challenge

1. Show there’s a real organisational problem to solve. Set out clearly the pain point or need at the heart of your entry. Summarise what the problem is, why it is significant for your organisation, and how solving it will help the business.

2. Be clear about the scale and complexity of your challenge. How many people are affected? How difficult is the problem being addressed? Have solutions been tried before? If so, how does this entry relate to past experience? What kind of challenges need to be overcome?

The Solution

3. Show how your solution was arrived at. In what way is your solution relevant to your organisation and its challenges? Doing what’s in fashion or copying other organisations won’t grab attention. Showing the link between the challenge and the solution will help you to stand out.

4. Explain how your solution built ownership and commitment. Approaches that show how you have included and engaged with key stakeholders across the organisation in developing the solution point to good change management. Solutions need to be implemented, so it’s important that you show how you have brought the perspectives of relevant others into your thinking.

5. Point out areas of innovation. This is less about proposing something revolutionary, but more about highlighting aspects of your solution which are different from the run-of-the-mill. What you need to show isn’t just innovation for its own sake, but how innovations have helped you reach a better solution.

The Benefits

6. Allow time to assess impact. This is a key area. Too often entries are submitted too early, with insufficient time to really assess impact of your solution. To some extent this is understandable. A team has worked hard, they have delivered a solution which the business values, and there’s already great feedback. This is all good, but the really standout entries show patience. They wait until they have some longevity – a track record that builds a strong narrative on impact.

7. Share metrics that measure impact. Citations and testimonials from colleagues, customers or clients are great. As a judge, I absolutely want to hear how they have experienced your entry. But let’s be honest, no entry includes comments that aren’t raving reviews in support of your entry! The judging panel also needs metrics – data that measures impact and which shows how the benefits have addressed the original need. Points 8 and 9 say more about this.

8. Show organisational impact. Where possible link your impact measures to strategic goals. Where you are able to, show top-line or bottom-line impact. Explain the impact on customers. In a nutshell, look out beyond HR and show how this work is helping your organisation get better at what it does.

9. Show impact on people. Where possible, show how your entry is driving key people indicators like employee experience, retention, attraction and the like. If you can put a financial value on this, include it!

10. Set out your learning. Nothing is ever perfect. There is always learning. Showing how your entry sits within a process of continuous improvement is really helpful. It sets the tone that this solution has taken you so far and your learning will help you to take it even further.

What I have noticed over the years is that many entries have a bias towards explaining the solution, even though this is only one-third of the scoring.

The weakest area is often the measurement of benefits to the organisation and its employees, which is why I have focused more on this part of the entry. The very best submissions are strong in all three sections.

Awards are a great way of getting external recognition of the hard work and contribution you and your team have made to your organisation. They are a way of celebrating successes, recognising great work and building your employer brand.

There’s still time to put in an entry for this year’s Personnel Today Awards and I hope these reflections and tips will be of help!

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