6 Steps to Build an External Awards Strategy

Building and implementing an external award strategy is a powerful tool for enhancing morale, recognizing your workforce and fostering a positive work environment. Studies consistently show that employee and program recognition awards significantly improve people’s outlook, motivation, and productivity.

Here are six steps to implement an external award strategy this year:

1. Set Clear Objectives: Before submitting applications, define what you aim to achieve with your awards strategy. Look at your organization and find areas to celebrate or enhance the work you are performing or the individuals doing it. Consistent awards year-after-year build a common theme of excellence and high performance. Some objectives may include enhancing team collaboration, promoting professional development, fostering innovation, encouraging diversity, or recognizing leadership excellence.

2. Engage Leadership: Next, getting leadership support and buy-in is crucial for the credibility and success of your awards strategy — it shows a commitment from the top to value and acknowledge employee contributions. Secure buy-in from senior leadership by highlighting the benefits of industry awards and emphasizing how recognition can enhance public and intra-organizational perception, boost employee satisfaction, and foster a culture of excellence. Furthermore, leaders can help communicate the importance of these awards and encourage participation across the organization.

3. Finding the Right Awards: Research awards specific to the public sector or your competency. Prioritize reputable awards from well-known bodies, particularly those with a media arm. You must ensure your organization meets the eligibility criteria and understand the evaluation process to tailor your applications effectively — take a look at previous winners to see what type of work won them the award (note that submissions are rarely made public). Look for both program and individual awards, and don’t forget about Rising Star awards for your early-career colleagues. Below are some reputable awards that recognize programs, teams and individuals. 

• • Member association awards: NDIA, AFCEA, SIA 
  • Industry partner media awards: WashingtonExec Pinnacle Awards, FedScoop 50 Awards, GovExec Federal 100 Awards
  • Agency/Government awards: DoN CIO IT Excellence Awards, DHS Secretary Awards, VA ORD Awards, HCI Defense Acquisition Awards

4. Craft a Strong Application: In your submission, emphasize your unique strengths and contributions to the specific award category. Support your claims with data, testimonials and case studies to strengthen your application and showcase the tangible impact of your work. If possible, leverage your client support to help draft, source and submit awards. Use your discretion if you want to include their company in your submission.

5. Leverage Award Wins: Remember to celebrate your wins! Sharing your awards is a critical step in your awards strategy. Leverage press releases, social media and internal communication channels to share the exciting news. Reach out to your PAO office and encourage your employees to share on their social platforms. Celebrate internally with events or ceremonies to recognize and motivate your staff. 

6. Continuous Improvement: Seek feedback from award judges to understand areas for improvement, if possible. Use this feedback to refine your strategy and enhance future applications. Regularly updating your award strategy based on past experiences ensures continuous growth and adaptation. And keep applying! Just because you don’t win one year doesn’t mean you won’t win the following year.

Implementing an external award strategy is a powerful way to enhance employee morale and drive continuous improvement. You can create a positive and motivated work environment through an awards strategy by setting clear objectives, engaging leadership, finding suitable awards, crafting strong applications and leveraging wins.

Emilie Vicchio is an award-winning communication and brand leader known for transforming how organizations differentiate and manage change. With 18 years of experience, she has expertly navigated organic and inorganic growth, change management, and enterprise implementations. Emilie turns challenges like rebrands, M&As, and restructurings into opportunities for innovation and excellence, particularly in support of business to government organizations and the Department of Defense.

Emilie holds a master’s in strategic brand communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Alfred University. She also holds a bachelor’s of science in marketing and a bachelor’s of arts in visual communication from Alfred University.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash