31st January 2018
How would your Employee Engagement programme rank against the best?
The profession of Employee Engagement took another leap forward at the Employee Engagement Awards on January 25th, 2018. It wasn’t just the scale of the event – over 500 employee engagement practitioners in one room – but the quality of the winning entries, that proves Employee Engagement really is becoming a part of the core strategy of organisations of all sizes and in all sectors.
Tom Debenham, MD of People Insight, agreed in his opening remarks: “The quality of entries has again been astounding, showing a shift towards employee engagement as business as usual rather than a nice to do activity. Organisations have developed strong internal capability. Instead of looking for single magic bullets, they are taking fully integrated approaches that start before recruitment and extend through the employee journey. When you see the employee experience being led from the C-suite, as we increasingly do, you know it’s serious stuff.”
The black-tie Awards Gala Dinner was held at Wembley Stadium and began with a Champagne reception that gave everyone the chance to come together as a community to network, learn and celebrate with each other.
The three-course dinner, live band entertainment, and of course the abundance of wine made for a spectacular evening. But the real highlight was undoubtedly the Award winners.
Recognising the positive difference we make to people every day
The ceremony began with an opening speech from Matt Manners, Founder and CEO of the Employee Engagement Awards who started by highlighting why employee engagement professionals work as hard as they do to make a difference: “Every organisation has a choice about the difference they make to the psychological and physical wellbeing of the people that work for them. The wrong choices create an environment that causes unnecessary stress and damage to people. The right choices produce engaged, energised and happy people that deliver huge value to their organisation. This year the entries have proven the transformational value that focusing on the right employee experience can deliver. I hope other organisations around the world are inspired by what all our entrants – and especially the winners – have achieved.”
The Judges Comments show the many different ways employee engagement adds value
Matt Manners (The Employee Engagement Awards) said of NIIT Technologies, Reward and Recognition Award: “An innovative approach to reward and recognition. It was tied to an outcome of enhancing both the customer and employee experience – which in tandem drove business improvement.” –
Nissan’s entry to the Best Use of Technology Award, drew this comment from the Andy Campbell (Oracle EMEA): “This delivered frontline employees a consumer grade user experience, nice and clear. High levels of adoption, ongoing regular usage, measurement embedded in the delivery and exec success, nicely done!” –
Livin’s entry shows the difference that can be made to people and the organisation. Ruth Dance (The Employee Engagement Alliance) said of their entry to the Non-profit/ Charity Company of the Year Award: “Mind blowing results that delivered the tangible and intangible. 100% of employees would recommend the programme to a peer and hundreds of thousands of savings identified. Congratulations.” –
Natalie Sigona (Rolls Royce), Gamiel Yafai (Author) and Sharon Pegg‘s (The Co-operative Group) comment about the Post Office entry to the Diversity & Inclusion Award shows that hard work and commitment to make a difference to people pays off: “This showed the depth and strength of activity needed to ensure an inclusive culture could strive and survive. They highlighted the level of engagement needed to ensure that the voices of their employees who were traditionally disadvantaged, were truly heard” –
The range of winners prove the employee engagement delivers value to every type and size of organisation
This year’s winners demonstrate how far-reaching Employee Engagement is today. They span manufacturing, banking, IT, pharmaceuticals, retail, the NHS, service companies, transport and the sporting world.
- The Employee Engagement Company of the Year Award
- Winners – Homeserve & Southampton Football Club
- Highly Commended – IG Design Group
- People Insight Enterprise Award
- Winner – The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
- Highly Commended – Marks and Spencer, Boehringer Ingelheim
- SMB Award
- Winner – Lawn Tennis Association
- Highly Commended – Involvement Packaging
- Wellbeing Award
- Winner – NHS Business Services Authority
- Highly Commended – The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
- Reward & Recognition Award
- Winner – NIIT Technologies
- Highly Commended – Plusnet, Tata Consultancy Services
- Inclusion & Diversity Award
- Winner – Post Office Ltd
- Highly Commended – FanDuel
- Unsung Hero Award
- Winner – Mike Boyle – First Bus
- Highly Commended – Shona Sullivan – Capita
- Employer Brand Award
- Winner – Arrow Business Communications
- Highly Commended – Southampton Football Club
- Internal Communications Award
- Winner – Involvement Packaging
- Highly Commended – Centrica, Inspired Thinking Group
- Social Responsibility Award
- Winner – GSK
- Highly Commended – RB
- Leadership Award
- Winner – Time Inc.
- Highly Commended – PPL
- Non-Profit/Charity Award
- Winner – livin
- Highly Commended – Cancer Research UK
- Public Sector Award
- Winner – University of Lincoln
- Highly Commended – Ministry of Justice
- Customer Engagement Award
- Winner – Fitness First
- Highly Commended – PPL
- Best Use of Technology Award
- Winner – Nissan
- Highly Commended – Marks and Spencer
- Consultancy of the Year Award
- Winner – H&H
- Highly Commended – Dragonfish, Instinctif Partners
- Vendor of the Year Award
- Winner – Benefex
- Highly Commended – Peakon, LifeWorks
We left inspired. Why not share what you are doing to make a difference to your people and your organisation?
We’re proud to partner with the Employee Engagement Awards. We left Wembley on a high – supercharged by the energy from people just like you. If you want recognition for the great work you’re doing and to show your people you truly put them first – use the EEA to network, meet previous winners, access learning events and webinars, and receive case studies from the leaders in the industry.
Don’t forget that as a member you receive discounted tickets to the Employee Engagement Awards and Conference that showcases best practice from the year. The next conference on 1st March 2018 will showcase winning case studies, so a great opportunity to hear best practice first hand. You will be able to learn from best-in-class engagement programmes across a wide range of companies and sectors and understand what pitfalls to avoid along the way. Whilst hearing from world-class thought leaders and the ability to network with industry colleagues. Book here
It makes sense to enter the Awards next year to prove the value that you are creating. But, you don’t need to wait to share your successes. Why not add a comment below to share what you are doing to make a difference to your people and your organisation?
The more we share, the faster leaders of organisations will embrace what employee engagement can do. And that’s an outcome I know everyone who is part of the Alliance is working to achieve.