Teamwork is fundamental for businesses/organisations to succeed and thrive, and the winning company will detail a well built, integrated, cross-company team with a defined purpose. The award will go to the organisation that has an exemplar team, by providing evidence of how collaboration within a team has worked for the overall benefit of the organisation, highlighting how a productive team spirit has been developed.

Your entry for this award should cover:

• How the team has demonstrated excellent, creative teamwork in improving delivery against organisational goals
• How the team met and overcame the challenges of dealing with more exceptional circumstances or projects
• When and how the team has developed an innovative solution that has contributed to best practice within the organisation; and
• Any additional reasons why you feel you should win the Team of the Year award

The award will focus on strong initiatives between business and educational organisations and look at what steps they are taking (individually or jointly) to enable young people to achieve the critical initial steps towards their career ambitions.

This award also aims to recognise businesses and/or schools that have identified inspiring initiatives to develop the mindset of young people, apprentices or students as regards to career opportunities open to them.Provide detail of long-term initiatives in place the demonstrate how you motivate young people to fulfil their career ambitions and make a successful transition into a career or workplace, by utilising initiatives such as mentoring, work experience and placements. Can you specifically show quantifiable results in linking students to your workplace?

The world of work has changed. Challenging economic times, volatile world events and fast-changing technology can leave organisations vulnerable. Tell us how you’ve future-proofed your business. What processes have you implemented to harness the talents of your people to ensure success in the continually evolving business, economic and regulatory environment? What approach has your business taken to develop its product, services and people skills for the future? Tell us how your organisation allows for these ideas to be developed.

What really excites your talented people and makes them proud to work for you? If you have a uniquely effective approach to encouraging innovation and development from apprentice to boardroom level, then we want to know. Demonstrate how you ensure your organisation’s high performance is driven at every level to propel your business forward effectively. Give examples of how your staff are challenged and stretched within your organisation. Demonstrate your unique excellence in fields such as product innovation, business strategy and customer value, overcoming key industry challenges and accomplishing innovative or disruptive breakthroughs. Finally, tell us how you can further develop high performance from your existing workforce.

In a fast-moving world a company’s success depends on enhancing the skillset of its employees. This category celebrates organisations that ensure their employees are constantly learning and growing in their roles. The winner will demonstrate how it champions employees’ skills development and has built a lifelong learning culture in the workplace. The award will distinguish your organisation as an outstanding employer that focuses and prioritises employees’ skills development.

It is a prestigious symbol of excellence and will help your company gain a competitive edge in talent attraction and retention.

This award recognises businesses with healthy and happy staff. They enjoy higher levels of staff morale, productivity and ultimately profitability. The winner will have an excellent approach to work-life balance, health and wellbeing practices. It will also have the support and policies in place to benefit their employees and get results.

The winning organisation will demonstrate how they have linked a healthy workforce, the impact of workplace support and policies, and employee welfare to improved performance within their business.

To demonstrate how you are making health and wellbeing an organisational priority we will be looking for:

• Do you have an organisational health and wellbeing strategy?
• How do you integrate a health and wellbeing strategy into the organisation’s policies and communications?
• Do you empower a team of workplace wellbeing champions to design and implement health-promoting initiatives?
• Is health and wellbeing embedded within the organisation’s skills and knowledge requirements of line managers?

Diversity and Inclusion has never before been so much at the forefront of business priorities.

Modern businesses need teams that reflect the diverse nature of our society and there has been a much-needed drive towards diversity and inclusion in recent years. This award recognises organisations that have implemented successful programmes to make their workplaces more representative/ welcoming and inclusive.

The winning organisation will need to show how they work hard to create a culture where people are respected, appreciated and feel included, demonstrating how it is harnessing a truly diverse workforce.

This award will recognise the significant efforts of organisations that excel in their commitment to equality and inclusion across all strands of diversity:

Diversity – the range of people in the workforce will be diverse. There will be a good mix of genders, ages, religions, sexual preferences, cultures and disabilities. These differences will be valued, not discriminated against.

Equality – all people will be treated fairly, irrespective of differences.

Inclusion – everyone feels valued. They will feel free to express personal opinions and ideas, discussing any problem areas with management and removing the presence of bullying, harassment and discrimination.

Reflecting on the past two years, the all new Best Company Connection Award will be presented to the organisation who best demonstrates how it has adapted its workplace wellbeing strategy to the challenges of remote working influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, remaining committed to providing excellent support to its staff throughout, by maintaining contact and connection with workers during periods of uncertainty and isolation.

This award will go to a business that continued to provide wellbeing support to remote and furloughed workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic with dedication and care. The winner will have recognised the importance of maintaining contact and connection during such uncertainty and isolation.

Is your organisation passionate about making a difference to communities in which you operate? This award recognises businesses with a stand-out CSR agenda which could include:

• Covid-19 response
• Reducing carbon footprint
• Charitable efforts