The awards season is in full swing across the Atlantic with the Screen Actors Guild Awards at the weekend bringing out celebrities dressed in their finery. The Oscars are round the corner as well as the BRITS in London. In the ‘Events’ Industry, our venues and people are in the front line of hosting and running these awards ceremonies for others.
The CHS Group will be hosting the CHS Awards now in its third year at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 11th May. The CHS Awards give the hospitality industry a chance to shine and enjoy a glittering night of fun, networking and celebrating the best that our industry has to offer. At CHS Group we positively champion the small venue and our awards are designed to be accessible for all types of hotels and venues, allowing even the smallest independent venue to be recognised for an aspect, service or feature of their property or service.
At CHS Group, we believe that everyone should hear those heart stopping words ‘and the winner is …(you)’, at least once in your life!
Here are our Top Five reasons to enter industry awards
1. Free Marketing
Being shortlisted for an award gives you endless marketing opportunities and something to discuss across your communication channels. Cash in on free marketing, using hash tags across your social media platforms to promote your entry. Maximise all PR opportunities for being shortlisted from your email footers, local press and across all your literature. And if you win? Well you can shout this from the rooftops and take full advantage of all the PR opportunities long after the awards event itself. An award win is a promotional gift that keeps on giving!
2. Benchmarking
When you have to complete the entry form with a statement on why your venue/staff member should win an award, it will make you take stock of your business and give you the opportunity to benchmark your company against what your competitors are currently doing. You will see that you are actually doing a great job- hopefully much better than your competitors and comparing your performance against other professionals can focus your mind on ways to improve, or cement your current good practice.
3. Increased Credibility
Being shortlisted or winning can act as a third party endorsement for your business and enhances your brand amongst your industry peers and your customers. The CHS Awards have 70 venue finding agents who judge all the entries across the 19 categories, so this is a great way to showcase your facilities to key influencers’. Being shortlisted for an award also reassures your customers, that you are doing a great job and are offering a brilliant experience for your customers.
4. Employee motivation and engagement
Being shortlisted is a great motivator for your staff and showcases and recognises all the hard work and achievements of your employees through the year. Being entered for an award can really boost staff morale and create a team spirit which increases motivation.
5. Attract talent
As a company, if one of your employees or your venue has been shortlisted or won an award this is great for attracting talented staff to your business. Winning an award demonstrates that you are actively pursuing excellence and it shows that you care about your staff and value them enough to bother applying for an award on their behalf. This type of staff investment gives your company the edge over your competitors, as should 70 independent judges have voted you ‘the best’ – who wouldn’t want to join such an aspiring and inspiring team.
What are you waiting for?
There is always something to gain from winning an award; it provides you and your team with a stamp of approval for a job well done. Being shortlisted or winning can also open up doors to new contacts and of course the award looks great prominently placed on a shelf for all to admire.
What have you got to lose? Filling in the CHS Awards application will take no longer than half an hour and is FREE to enter and it could be the best and most productive 30 minutes you will have spent on paperwork this February. The closing date for award entries is the 3rd March 2017.