Creative Connections: The 2025 Think Global People and Relocate Awards

We are delighted to announce that The Think Global People and Relocate Awards for 2025 take ‘Creative Connections for Future Success’ as the overarching theme. Dr Sue Shortland, head judge, explains the rationale for the 2025 awards, the categories we are launching this year and the judging process.

Awards-2024-dinner

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“Creative connections enable the participants to gain mutual benefits by drawing on ideas from a range of stakeholders in and beyond the workplace.”
How we relate to others is a key part of leadership, people management, global mobility and the world of education. Successful leaders and managers do not simply focus on individual issues in isolation. They see the bigger picture and make connections between individuals and activities to achieve efficient and effective outcomes. The connections between people are particularly valuable because they can lead to creative solutions that can be harnessed for future success.Making connections is inherent in today’s networked world. The influence of social media and other forms of communication drives how businesses operate. Working with others also helps to leverage new ideas, share knowledge, penetrate new markets and deliver innovative, flexible products and services to meet customer needs. Being creative rather than reactive is the key to success, which brings with it the ability to attract and retain the very best talent. This in turn provides the foundation for further growth and prosperity.For organisations to reach their strategic goals, making creative connections with others is a vital component of success. Creative connections enable participants to gain mutual benefits by drawing on ideas from a range of stakeholders in and beyond the workplace.

Recognising exceptional customer and employee experiences

Making connections that result in creative business solutions embraces the knowledge, skills and behaviours from the workplace itself, from suppliers, customers and clients and a wide range of stakeholders in leadership, global mobility and education. Such connections are a necessity in delivering tailored solutions, delighting clients and customers and paving the way for further future success.We have designed The Think Global People and Relocate Awards to recognise and reward organisations that provide truly unique and exceptional-quality experiences for their customers. The awards also focus on the demonstration of a responsive, resource-efficient and cost-effective service that is differentiated from others by showing a creative, flexible approach.To recognise and reward organisations for their leadership, people management and educational practices, the awards also cover how employees are supported by their leadership team to build these connections that deliver innovative and inspirational service in an increasingly global and diverse marketplace.In essence, those entering the awards will need to demonstrate how they address these key issues, focusing on how they have achieved these outcomes by making creative connections with a range of stakeholders.

Connect with others and celebrate success

Today’s focus on moving from being merely reactive to being creative highlights the need to connect with others. It is vital to develop organisational cultures that encourage networking, knowledge sharing and the harnessing of new ideas.In celebrating success, businesses can motivate and engage their employees. Our prestigious awards recognise everybody’s contribution and celebrate this with a beautiful trophy and a June celebration awards ceremony. Coming along and enjoying further networking opportunities enables yet more creativity to flow from making new – and reinforcing existing – connections.The Think Global People and Relocate Awards recognise the contribution of global leaders, managers and industry experts, HR, mobility and education professionals and service providers, all of whom rely on their employees to deliver exceptional outcomes. This year, the focus is on how connections made among all stakeholders can spur and sustain creativity and forge future success.All sizes and scopes of operation are included in our awards, from global delivery through to regional coverage and local country focus. Organisations from the smallest operating at a single-country level to the very largest corporations that span the globe can provide creative services that exceed customer expectations and provide excellent employee knowledge-sharing, learning and engagement.The Think Global People and Relocate Awards encompass leadership, global mobility and education and learning. These three areas intertwine, with creative connections reinforcing positive outcomes for all sectors. Leadership, mobility and education work together as the next generations are prepared – and prepare for – their future careers. To reflect this, the awards adopt an integrated approach to organisational leadership, people management, the need to move employees and their families, education and learning.

The 2025 Think Global People and Relocate Awards categories

For 2025, the awards are divided into the following categories:
  1. Excellence in global mobility/global policy design/implementation
  2. Destination services provider of the year – local/global
  3. Best serviced apartment provider – local/global
  4. Excellence in technology or analytics
  5. Excellence in talent management
  6. Excellence in education – schools/education consultancy
  7. Excellence in family support
  8. Best research contribution or book
  9. Excellence in ESG – environmental, social and governance

Entering the awards

Entrants are required to provide an entry statement summarising succinctly and in no more than 500 words how they:
  1. provide a unique, exceptional-quality experience, including its relevance to global mobility
  2. provide a responsive, resource-efficient and cost-effective service differentiated from others in the field that shows a creative, flexible approach
  3. are supported by your leadership team to build connections that deliver an innovative and inspirational service in an increasingly global and diverse marketplace.
The entry statement should say:
  • what makes your entry inspirational
  • how you have built and drawn on creative connections to achieve outstanding outcomes worthy of being the winner of your chosen award category.
Entrants are also asked to provide:

  1. one video (maximum of 2 minutes) to demonstrate the character of their organisation that supports their entry statement.
In addition, one page (maximum) of supporting documents/materials to support your entry may also be included.The closing date for entries is Friday 11 April 2025.

The judging process

It is important for those entering the awards to know that their entry will be judged by a team of experts in global mobility, human resource management, leadership and education, including practitioners and academics. Each category will be judged by two or three independent experts with no conflict of interest. All judges are required to declare any potential conflict of interest and they are excluded from judging entries should this arise.It is also important for entrants to know that each of the four points listed above can attract a score of 25 points; all entries are scored out of a possible 100. Entrants should therefore ensure that they address each of the four points above, including by supplying a video. This does not need to be a corporate marketing video. Indeed, a personal presentation of how your organisation fulfils the entry criteria is better because then the judges can see how this supports the statements made in the written entry form.Entrants are politely requested not to exceed the maximum evidence permitted – just one short video, please – and the entry should not contain multiple website links. Please keep to the stipulated word count. Your entry should be summarised succinctly to demonstrate convincingly your achievements, as should the single page of supporting materials, rather than relying on additional sources to make the points for you.Judges work independently to review the evidence submitted before comparing their outcomes and agreeing on the winner. Where there is a tie or opinions differ, the entries are reviewed by a third judge and/or the head judge.The judging panel is looking forward to hearing about your amazing achievements. Good luck, everyone!