The Ugly Truth About Media Company Employer Awards
Unveil the truth about media company employer awards. Discover why genuine HR excellence often takes a backseat to profit motives and learn what truly matters in employee recognition.
Love it or hate it, most of us use platforms like LinkedIn in our daily working lives. And, if you do, you’ll frequently see company leaders, HR folk, and their peers celebrating their latest award haul at some HR excellence awards, or another.
Hooray for them, right? After all, it’s great to see fellow professionals recognized for all their hard work, especially if that work is creating awesome workplaces and cultures so that the masses can enjoy wonderful and satisfying employment.
If that is what these awards truly were, I’d be celebrating and fist bumping along with all these brilliant employers. But I’m not and here’s why…
The Reality of Employer Awards
Throughout my career of just over 20 years, I’ve spent about half of that time in media, including creating HR awards, and the other half in employer branding and talent attraction. I’ve even written several HR award submissions on behalf of clients. In the past decade, I’ve spoken to more than a thousand employers and the topic of awards and recognition comes up on a weekly basis. In my humble opinion, I’d like to think I have a good frame of reference from all sides of the equation, the processes involved, and the rationales and outcomes of this practice.
And all this exposure has done is make me a cynic.
Winning an HR award isn’t bad, but it’s not nearly the achievement that people make it out to be, especially if they’re the ones selling it or winning it. The reality is that these awards are set up by media companies or associations with the primary goal to make money. While I’d always argue that these organizations are entitled to do this, let’s not pretend that the motive here is to genuinely recognize brilliance in the field – it simply is not.
The Flawed Award Process
There may be a few decent and credible HR awards out there but the vast majority aren’t. The process for winning one of these awards is deeply flawed if finding “the best in breed” was truly the objective. Only when you factor profits into the equation do the processes make any sense.
As you might expect them to, the organizers do not do actual research or due diligence to identify those who are genuinely the best employers in any given category, despite their claims to the contrary. Instead, they simply just market the awards with great fanfare to their audiences, pushing for employers within their database to enter and take part. This creates a situation where the only possible winners are those who take the time to respond to the marketing or telesales and take the trouble to enter themselves. It’s not uncommon for very few companies, if any at all, to enter per category. You will often note that categories at these awards are canned towards the end as the result of not enough interest. What all this means is that competition to win is often very low, and the pool of possible winners rarely represents the best employers in class. The truth is, the field of entrants competing for each category is all too often made up of the same cast of characters, which is usually those with the deepest pockets and strongest desire for placing another trophy in reception, hitting their KPIs and bagging their end of year bonus.
Then there is the entry process itself. The organizers will provide those entering with some guidelines and a template for submitting a self-evangelizing rationale for why they should win. All pretty standard stuff. Next up, some expert judges will read the submissions and apply scores or vote on a winner - something I’ve done many times, both as part of the organizers and as a drafted in subject matter expert. Very often, due to the laborious nature of the task, only one or two judges reads or scores each entry. As an intelligent reader, I’m sure you can already see the problems here… this process hinges more on someone’s ability to copywrite a compelling entry than on any rigorous measurement of how worthy these employers are. And, I’m afraid to say, favoritism (towards clients or big spenders) and lack of any second or objective opinions is par for the course.
The best and most worthy employers can’t win if they don’t enter. This means that undeserving employers will sweep the board if they’re the only ones who take the time and have the resources to get involved.
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The Ceremony and Revenue Generation
Then you have the ceremony itself. Table sales to those who’ve entered and the sale of sponsorship to industry vendors is how these events generate revenue. I can confirm from all sides of the buy and sell dynamic that all the usual tricks are deployed at this stage to maximize the revenues for the main event. This includes everything from sales reps dropping big hints on the phone to prospective winners to increase table sales, to there being a gold, silver, and bronze award even if there were only three entries in each category. The trick is to make sure everybody (or as many people as possible) are going home with something to make sure they pay handsomely to be there.
Those who’re winning the awards aren’t fools, either. There are, of course, genuine entries, but most seasoned folk know the game and they often play hard ball to increase their chances of a good haul. It’s reciprocal and it’s money, not excellence, that does the talking.
Focus on Genuine Excellence
In my opinion, neither side is more to blame than the other. Those paying to win the awards are usually just as complicit as those taking their money to hand them one. This may sound harsh but I’ve lost count of the times senior ranking HR folk have asked me how to get an award, usually following up by asking me how much it’ll cost them. My jaw used to drop but it doesn’t anymore. For years now I’ve tried to steer these conversations in a healthier direction by asking these professionals why they want the awards so badly, or what it is that they feel they’ve done that really deserves this type of recognition? Sadly, the most common answer is that they’ve been tasked to get an award by someone above and they just need to get one by hook or by crook. I used to be deflated by these conversations but now they actually help me to sift those who are genuine and strategically minded from those who’re superficial and not serious.
I appreciate that this blog post is scathing, cynical, and negative. This is not my usual style and I thought twice about publishing, I much prefer to focus on positive content and sharing useful insights and best practices. But! I also know that I’m not the only one who, after a long look under the hood, feels annoyed by this conceited pantomime. I think these dodgy industry practices need to be kept in check, and I believe we could all do much better if we truly care enough.
Final Message
My final message is this… for all the brilliant and genuine employers out there who’re striving for excellence with their HR practices, I applaud you. Focus on being great, not on faux awards, and the recognition and benefits will come. If you truly do have an award-worthy culture, your people will spread the word themselves. If you truly do have the best learning and development practices, you’ll see the fruits of your efforts through having a sharper and more skilled workforce. If you truly offer the best compensation and benefits, you’ll benefit by having an appreciative and retained workforce, and their word of mouth will always win you more love than a dusty statue and a day of social media posts ever could. Keep trying to be excellent and the rewards will come. If you want some recognition, do it right and do it regularly through your willing and engaged people.
If you need some help getting the (meaningful) recognition you deserve, I’d love to chat with you and do what I can to support you on your journey.
And yes, the award entries that I wrote on behalf of clients did win Gold. It truly is more about the quality of the entry than anything else.
Takeaways
What motivates media companies to host employer awards?
Media companies primarily host employer awards to generate revenue through entry fees, table sales, and sponsorships. The financial incentive often overshadows the goal of recognizing genuine HR excellence.
Why is the entry process for these awards flawed?
The entry process is flawed because it relies heavily on companies' ability to write compelling submissions rather than thorough research or due diligence by the organizers. This means self-promotion often outweighs actual merit.
How are entries judged in these awards?
Entries are typically judged by one or two judges who review the submissions. This process can be biased, favoring clients or big spenders, and lacks rigorous, consistent evaluation.
Why is the competition for these awards often low?
The competition is low because categories frequently have few entries. This is due to the awards being marketed to specific audiences, resulting in a limited pool of participants.
How do award ceremonies generate revenue?
Award ceremonies generate revenue through table sales and sponsorships. Organizers use various tactics to maximize attendance and ensure that as many participants as possible receive some form of recognition.
What should employers focus on instead of chasing awards?
Employers should focus on genuine excellence in HR practices, such as providing excellent learning and development opportunities, compensation, and benefits. Real recognition comes from the satisfaction and achievements of their employees.
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