“Like winning the Champions League” say Co-op

What prompted you to take part in these awards last year?

1. Credibility of the awards -it’s like the champions league
2. Rigour of the process and quality of the judges
3. Categories were relevant to areas of focus for us
4. Overall cost was reasonable
5. Quality of the evening event

How do you feel these awards compare with other award programmes that you have taken part in?

These awards stand apart for all of the reasons above, but especially the first two. A win here is the highlight of the year – you don’t say that about any other awards.

What are your lasting memories from the judging process?

We had two different processes:

1. The site visit – the 3 judges really knew their stuff and put us through our paces, whilst being friendly and giving the people they met a good feeling about being judged.
2. The presentation – judged by 3 experts in the field (of VoC) which evidenced itself in their understanding of what we’d set out to do and the quality of questioning afterwards.

What are your lasting memories of the awards dinner?

1. Being announced as the winner and then getting on stage with Sir Steve and Fiona was an incredible feeling.
2. Enjoying a bottle of champagne with the team in the upstairs bar and being joined by Ann-Marie who shared some very nice feedback
3. The standing ovation for the immigrant support centre team
4. The fun element at the venue, with the acrobats and winter theme

How did you celebrate your achievement back in the office?

1. Claire emailed her boss and a number of other Co-op execs with the good news on the night – we got some great responses
2. We ran the team through presentation and stressed their role in winning it
3. We got some chocolates made with the winners logo on and shared these with the team
4. We sent some chocolates and a summary of the presentation to stakeholders who were involved , thanking them for their involvement
5. We use the winners logo in email signatures
6. We display the trophy, with others, in the meeting area

Do you have any tips for organisations that are thinking of entering the awards this year?

Take a “planning cycle” view – if you’re not doing award-winning stuff now, entering an awards isn’t going to win you anything, no matter who writes the entry. You need to plan to win, so, working back from t=0 is awards night:

• T-2 months – judging
• T-3months – awards entries in
• T-4 months – start writing awards
• T-5 months – compile analysis and MI
• T-16 months – start 12 month delivery plan
• T-18 months – start planning
• T-20 months – agree your strategy and decide which awards would reflect success in delivering the strategy

So for an awards in November you’re looking at starting in Q2 the previous year if you want to go from “average” to best in class. I don’t think many people realise that.

Do you feel that your organisation has benefitted from winning an award at the ECCCSAs? If so, how?

1. Makes colleagues in the department feel proud
2. Raises our profile with senior stakeholders, securing support for what we’re doing
3. Has provided a platform to share at an industry level, improving Co-op’s reputation

Better engagement with service providers – they want to work with an award-winning operation because they share in the publicity

Any other comments that you would like to share with us?

Team Stagg has done an amazing job with the ECCCSAs, bringing the rigour of the CCMA judging process together with the ability to throw a great party.

The admin around the judging visits and presentations was really excellent too – timely prompts and reminders with all the info needed, and organisation and venue selection for the presentations was spot on.

The only improvement suggestion I have is….the name! When you say it to people you have to count the “C”s in your head to make sure you’ve said three, and then they ask what it stands for and it never trips of the tongue. Perhaps it could have a Trademark name and ECCCSA be its formal name?

Apart from that – wouldn’t change a thing.

*Editor’s note: It’s actually really easy to pronounce The ECCCSAs. It should be said like this: “The EKSAs”!