'Tis the Season

By Thomas Mason-Paley

With Christmas just around the corner, we are now in the midst of another important season in my industry, award season. For the past few months, bid writers, marketers, copywriters, account managers and sales people have enjoyed adding to their workloads by furiously writing submissions on all types of topics, from unique advertising campaigns through to new technology systems. Acting like award squirrels, they’ve been running around harvesting the facts, quotes, data and anecdotes to address the myriad questions from a myriad of award providers.

When you’re already weighed down with work, creating submissions can be an exhaustive and stressful process, but this is all forgotten when shortlists are released, and you see your company’s name at the top. This is even more true when your company wins an award and, all of a sudden, your grumbling about working late on a project ‘that shouldn’t be your responsibility’ turns to pride that you were able to contribute to the industry recognition of your colleagues, people that you know work hard and deserve a pat on the back.

This year, I felt great pride of PeopleScout’s award haul, especially at the TIARAs, Personnel Today , RMAs and RADs. What gave me most pride, however, was an award that attracted less fanfare– this year PeopleScout won the Supplier of the Year award at Heathrow’s internal supplier awards. This was the first time a recruitment partner had been nominated in any category and our team only went and won the top prize. What made it so special was the impact it had on our Heathrow team, they’ve built a tremendous relationship with the client; re-engineering recruitment processes, helping local Heathrow residents gain employment and increasing the diversity of graduates. All of these initiatives take resource, time, late nights, stress and hard work. It’s great when you see them being recognised by industry leaders, but it’s even more special when you see them recognised by the very client who has worked with you to achieve them.

Award season is now nearly at an end and, as I write this, I’m sure people across the country are putting their dinner suits and bow ties back in their suit carriers, ready for the whole process to start again next year. If you want tips on how to better prepare for the next flurry of submissions, my colleague Robert Peasnell has provided some excellent tips in his latest video.