I have been judging awards now for nearly 10 years and it is an incredible privilege as it provides a fantastic insight into the diversity of learning innovation and activity taking place n the workplace today.

Winning organisations and those that have been shortlisted provide an endless source of inspiration for others as well as improving their own business results.

We are in the heart of the award season at the moment and if you are considering entering one of the awards at the moment and are wondering if it is worth the time and effort, then perhaps the following information might help you!

Why bother?

For organisations implementing learning innovation internally Towards Maturity’s latest research has shown that external success in awards shows a direct correlation to internal take-up of e-learning. Many organisations are struggling to engage learners and managers but we found that those organisations in the highest quartile take up are three and a half times more likely to report external successes in awards back to the business than those in the lowest quartile.

For providers – award successes win customers. A survey, commissioned by award entry consultants Boost Marketing and undertaken by market researchers Shape-the-Future, found that of the 400 business people who took part, 81% admitted to being influenced by awards when buying training/HR services for their business. The research also demonstrated an increasing appetite for entering awards despite the economic climate. This fact was reinforced by 76% of respondents agreeing with the statement “awards are important for generating business or improving the value of a brand”.

The attached paper outlines practical hints and tips for saving time and creating an award winning submission and some advice on measuring impact from Chris Robinson at Boost Marketing.

Download the report for 10 Top tips for creating award winning submissions:

1. Don’t be put off at the first hurdle
2. Do your research 
3. Don’t waste words
4. Stick to the story
5. Demonstrate business impact.
6. Consider carefully how you position cost efficiency savings 
7. Bullet the killer facts
8. Make the most of face to face time 
9. Be inspired by others ( you can read the stories of past winners on this site)
10. Inspire others.

A good award submission will also really inspire other organisations who are just setting out on a similar journey in their own business and at Towards Maturity our interest in awards is to find motivational examples, backed by strong evidence that will help others on their journey. Whether you are shortlisted or not, we would always love to hear from you and welcome the opportunity to share your story. 

UPDATE - June 09

We had a question from a reader regarding wordcount limits this month - does the limit include captions for illustrations, - callouts (side-panel text, quotations, etc),user feedback quotes
data in tables .

From my personal perception on wordcount ( as one who has to read a lot of submissions!) - the word count is a guide to ensure that you get your best points over well and succinctly and that you don't do yourselves a disservice by creating a long submission that might not get read properly.

From a psychological point of view - a submission with many, many pages (as a result of charts and graphs) may be slightly more daunting to get to even if the word count is low so I would suggest use common sense on the use of feedback quotes, tables etc in the main submissions - quotes and graphs are extremely important but include those that really pack a punch and, if the award allows it , put the rest in an appendix ( which may or may not get as much attention, depending on the time available to the judges).

Hope this helps & good luck with your submissions!

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• A judges perspective on how to win awards

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