Relocate Awards 2017: why enter, and how to win!

There are compelling business reasons for entering relocation’s leading international awards in their tenth anniversary year. Tips from our judges will help you get on the fast track to success.

Relocate Editorial

12 January 2017

Being appreciated and recognised for making a difference is highly satisfying and extremely motivating. Being part of the Relocate Awards provides public acknowledgement of excellence and highlights your successes, of which you have every reason to be proud. It also provides the opportunity to have your outstanding work showcased.Entering the awards raises your status and profile, demonstrating to those who know you – and to those who have yet to work with you – your professionalism and exceptional achievements. It also provides a really thoughtful way of thanking your staff, colleagues, partners and clients as you show the valuable part that they have played in the achievement of relocation industry excellence and respect.Entering the Relocate Awards, which celebrate their tenth anniversary this year, is particularly significant for HR and global mobility professionals, especially given the high profile attached to relocation as we enter a new political landscape.The emphasis in the years to come, with Brexit on the horizon and a new political environment in the US, will be on the promotion of business success and the mobility of jobs and people to bring this about. The time has never been more apt to celebrate current relocation successes and take the lessons forward, building employee engagement to support even better approaches to global mobility in the future.

Strengthening your business

We know that resources are precious and HR and relocation professionals are busy, but spending time on entering the Relocate Awards is a wise investment.The application form has been designed to help you identify and reflect on your strengths and key achievements, review examples of excellent practice, and articulate why they were successful. In this way, you can build on these lessons going forward.Our aim is help you strengthen your business, sharpen your practices and goals, and engage in continuous improvement by so doing. Our team of experienced, expert judges, drawn from industry, specialist relocation services and academia, provide detailed feedback on entries.While we all have the challenges that lie ahead of us on our minds, remember that we learn best by analysis of our previous experiences, by reflecting on what went well and what not so well, and by applying our learning from these issues to future activities.So think back over 2016, consider your key achievements and the lessons learnt from the various mobility examples in which you were involved. Enter the Relocate Awards by 31 March 2017, and aim to win!The winners will be announced on Thursday 11 May at our black-tie Gala Awards Dinner. To mark our tenth anniversary, we will celebrate the journey that relocation professionals have made into new locations, their quest for excellence, and their future plans for superlative service by holding the event in the Science Museum’s Space Hall.The exhibits will serve as a reminder of how much can be achieved when we put all our efforts into reaching what seem to be impossible goals.As the Science Museum exhibits show us, the impossible can become the possible. And our pride in achieving such dreams will drive us on to even further exploration and the advancement of knowledge and understanding. A human colony on Mars is already being discussed. Who knows where the future of relocation professionals will eventually lie?

Awards categories and winning tips

In 2017, there will be ten Relocate Awards categories:

Each of the categories requires you to complete an entry statement. Take care to craft this section well: in the event of a tie, it can be the one that decides the winner.The key to this section is to say why you should win; don’t leave it to the judges to infer this. Convince them that your actions are outstanding. Be persuasive and dynamic. This is about your success story, what you are most proud of, and how you measure your success. Focus on excellence. A brief example can be very effective to support this section.For category 1, Technological Innovation, the entry statement should be between 250 and 500 words. The judges will be looking for you to:

Explain how your system/product/service helps your customers to improve their value proposition
Express clearly the features and benefits of the technology and how it supports service excellence and service delivery
If the technology is not ‘new’, explain how it has improved or developed over the last 12 months
Explain how the developments were initiated – ie market-led, customer-led, solution-based, following issues or feedback
Make sure you relate what you say to relocation/international assignments and that it can be understood by someone who is not a tech expert

You will be required to provide a demo of the technological innovation entered for this award, or a link to a website that includes PDFs. The entry statement, together with the demonstration, should illustrate why your technology is a market leader. You may provide examples or a short case study in your supporting material (maximum of ten pages) to explain the features of the system/product/service further.You may also supply, via a link to YouTube or similar, a brief, non-promotional video (maximum two minutes) demonstrating the character of your organisation.For categories 2–9, the entry statement should not exceed 250 words. The judges will be looking for you to:

Make a clear case, setting out what you have done that is new, different, effective, efficient, exciting, etc
Show challenges and how they were overcome, and draw out successes
Demonstrate continual improvement
Show how learning gained has been used, and how knowledge is transferred
Provide examples, as these are very useful to show what you did, who benefited, and how this will be taken forward in future
Relate what you say to relocation
Show how individuals/teams have passion and inject this into their work, linking your examples directly to relocating employees, their families and their employing organisations

For category 10, Exceptional Contribution to Relocation, the entry statement should not exceed 250 words. The judges will be looking for you to convince them that the nominated individual is a relocation industry leader/thought leader, has made a contribution to be proud of, and/or is a true relocation ‘personality’.This is about a real success story, Examples may include

Significant relocation industry contributions
Acknowledged significant expertise and experience
Charitable endeavours
Innovation and ideas generation
Excellent team, partnership and people management
Knowledge dissemination
Industry leader, renowned in their field
Character and passion

Entry criteria

Categories 2–10 each require you to complete five additional sections addressing key differentiators:

Added value
Agility
People management
Resource management
Innovation and/or technology

Each section is limited to a maximum of 150 words.Adding value is critical if service delivery is to be recognised as outstanding and relocation outcomes are to enhance business success. In this section, tell the judges how you have added value to the relocation process. For example, you could give an illustration of how you added value in relation to particular business, employee and/or family situations.A key differentiator today is agility – responsiveness to change. In this section, you can tell the judges how you have achieved fantastic outcomes by doing great things and doing them well.For example, you can give an illustration of being proactive – what you did, and why and how you did it – in the context of unplanned, unexpected and/or fast-moving change. Speedy and appropriate reactions to change can also be highlighted, explaining the outcomes and how you measured your success.By people management, the judges mean how you lead, manage and engage your own staff, bringing out the very best in them to provide exceptional service to organisations, relocating employees and their families.For example, you could comment on the leadership and management strategies/styles that you use and how these raise staff commitment and engagement. You might mention how teams are led, giving a brief example of excellent people management outcomes. Examples of how you overcame people management issues/problems linked to operating in an increasingly diverse, global environment could be included.We are all under increasing pressure in terms of time and resources, so tell the judges how you cope with resource management constraints. For example, you could give an illustration of manpower and how it is used effectively, how you keep costs down, and/or how you raise standards and give great value for money resulting in excellent organisational, employee and family relocation outcomes. You might consider a brief cost-benefit analysis example.In relation to the final entry criterion, you can draw upon either new approaches/innovations and/or the use of technology. For example, you can say what you did, what went well and what didn’t, and how you overcame any problems in achieving your goals/outcomes/service delivery.Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes; you can earn respect by saying what wasn’t perfect when you try something new. But do say what/how you learnt from this, and how you will take your learning forward to provide better outcomes in the future.Interesting and novel stories are nice to hear, but excellent service that you provide every day can also be noteworthy if you stretched the boundaries and went the extra mile, so don’t feel you need to come up with something unusual.For categories 2–10, you may provide up to five pages of relevant supporting material and a brief video via a link to YouTube or similar (maximum two minutes) demonstrating the character of your organisation.For entry tips tailored to the category you are entering, visit our Categories page, click on the category of your choice, and follow the link to download the tips. Don't forget, entry closes on Friday 31 March.Good luck!