Employee Benefits Live 2017: A winning award entry needs to have an interesting benefits story to tell.
Addressing delegates on day one of Employee Benefits Live 2017 in the session What makes a winning benefits and reward strategy, Sam Kirk (pictured), reward director at TalkTalk, a previous winner and judge of Employee Benefits Awards, shared her insights into what makes a good award entry. “You don’t enter awards like these unless you have something really great to shout about,” said Kirk. “And if you’ve got something great to shout about, you should be really proud about it.”
Ian Baines, head of pensions at Nationwide Building Society, agreed that winning accreditation, such as Employee Benefits Awards, can be valuable in engaging employees. “It holds up a mirror to employees and is saying ‘what we’re offering you is very good’”, he said.
Baines explained that while his organisation might not necessarily enter every industry award, he is a big fan of them. “We need to have a story that is both interesting to other people in the industry but also ticks those boxes in terms of differentiating us.”
In terms of writing an interesting entry that stands out, employers ensure that they have shown how the entry is tied into their reward strategy, said Kirk. “Show results, show that you have done X to generate Y.”
Metrics are very important, added Baines. “If you’re doing something because you want to retain people, or recruit people, evidence that its done that,” he said. “Did it work? Evidence it with facts.”