And the winner is......
Yes it’s that time of year when people and companies get awards. I hate awards. You don’t say no to one and it’s always nice to get one, but they are so subjective and many of them are not fully representative of their industries.
Frankly if you can’t put “award winning” before whatever piece of self-marketing you are preparing these days you might as well go home. Award winning has become so ubiquitous that it is losing its meaning as a result.
In my own case you might as well talk about Richard Donkin, the “air breathing” journalist. The awards I won were such a long time ago, reflecting a time of my life when I was slightly less cynical. I’m still proud of them, but they sit there on the CV like old medals that are rarely taken out of the drawer.
These days I get to sample the other side of the process as a judge in both The Work Foundation's Workworld Awards for journalists and the Confederation of British Industry’s Human Capital Awards.
Why do I do it? Two reasons: Firstly, it’s nice that someone thinks you are experienced enough to recognise quality when you see it; secondly, it helps to keep you in touch with who is doing good stuff.
I know from experience, then, how much of a lottery they are. I have seen how a seemingly runaway winner can be overtaken on the rails by a back marker whipped to the front by a powerful advocate among the judges.
Another thing I don’t like about most of the awards is that you are required to enter them. Many people and companies simply don’t bother. Either they are too busy to enter, they’re fed up of losing or they won last year and are suffering from “award fatigue.” This means that a lot of good people and companies are overlooked.
Then there are awards themselves. How many of them exist as a genuine form of recognition and how many are inspired by the marketing department of a particular organisation? Let’s not kid ourselves. The main reason there are so many awards is that they are about marketing and promotion.
In human resources there are so many. Personnel Today magazine has them. Human Resources Magazine has them and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and People Management has its People Management Award. Then there’s the CBI awards that I have already mentioned.
There ought to be an awards bunker for those who want to avoid all those dickie-bow events at Grosvenor House in London. At least the HR people maintain a reasonable sense of decorum, unlike a minority who attend journalists’ awards that often degenerate in to a bun fight among the tabloids.
Perhaps there should be an award for the most professional awards ceremony.
Frankly if you can’t put “award winning” before whatever piece of self-marketing you are preparing these days you might as well go home. Award winning has become so ubiquitous that it is losing its meaning as a result.
In my own case you might as well talk about Richard Donkin, the “air breathing” journalist. The awards I won were such a long time ago, reflecting a time of my life when I was slightly less cynical. I’m still proud of them, but they sit there on the CV like old medals that are rarely taken out of the drawer.
These days I get to sample the other side of the process as a judge in both The Work Foundation's Workworld Awards for journalists and the Confederation of British Industry’s Human Capital Awards.
Why do I do it? Two reasons: Firstly, it’s nice that someone thinks you are experienced enough to recognise quality when you see it; secondly, it helps to keep you in touch with who is doing good stuff.
I know from experience, then, how much of a lottery they are. I have seen how a seemingly runaway winner can be overtaken on the rails by a back marker whipped to the front by a powerful advocate among the judges.
Another thing I don’t like about most of the awards is that you are required to enter them. Many people and companies simply don’t bother. Either they are too busy to enter, they’re fed up of losing or they won last year and are suffering from “award fatigue.” This means that a lot of good people and companies are overlooked.
Then there are awards themselves. How many of them exist as a genuine form of recognition and how many are inspired by the marketing department of a particular organisation? Let’s not kid ourselves. The main reason there are so many awards is that they are about marketing and promotion.
In human resources there are so many. Personnel Today magazine has them. Human Resources Magazine has them and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and People Management has its People Management Award. Then there’s the CBI awards that I have already mentioned.
There ought to be an awards bunker for those who want to avoid all those dickie-bow events at Grosvenor House in London. At least the HR people maintain a reasonable sense of decorum, unlike a minority who attend journalists’ awards that often degenerate in to a bun fight among the tabloids.
Perhaps there should be an award for the most professional awards ceremony.
Labels: CIPD, Drovenor House, Human resources Magazine, People Management Award, Personnel Today, Work Foundation
posted by Richard Donkin at
6:41 AM
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