Entries open on 26th February, with Early Bird entry closing on 26th April and the final entry deadline on 5th July. Finalists are announced on 4th September and Award Winners announced on 13th November with an Award ceremony in London, following spectacular Awards events we’ve held over the last 9 years!

Award Entries Open on Monday 26th February 2024 - Register Now

Our judges are senior leaders in fields spanning company culture, employee experience and engagement, leadership development, wellbeing, DE&I, talent and learning. You can view our current Judging Panel here. They are practitioners in these fields, devising the people agenda in their own organisations and with extensive experience in what good looks like. Many of our judges are previous winners themselves. Judging is by invitation only but please contact cath.longfield@businesscultureawards.com if you’re keen to be considered and are a senior practitioner in one or more of these fields.

In 2024, we’ll celebrate the 9th Annual Business Culture Awards and the companies taking the greatest strides in building an exceptional company culture. The Awards and Events were originally co-founded by Tim Pointer & Cath Longfield. Tim is a Chief People Officer with 25 years’ leadership experience, directing business transformation (double-digit growth, mergers, acquisitions & IPO) in global organisations. His passion for exceptional culture as the foundation for accelerating business performance has resulted in previous recognition for him and his teams and the desire to promote greater study, celebration and recognition for company culture. Cath brings 25 years' cross-sector marketing expertise including B2B, Not-for-Profit, retail and financial services.

Yes, an entry fee is charged per category that you enter. Early Bird entries cost £125 (+ VAT) for entry on or before 26th April. Entries cost £250 (+ VAT) thereafter. You’re able to submit in as many categories as you wish and for a number of submissions we’re able to apply additional discounts. Please contact the team to discuss at team@businesscultureawards.com.

Entries are limited to 1,500 words (equivalent to 2 sides A4), answering the 4 questions on the award entry platform. Q1 is the situation/challenge you faced (250 words). Q2 is the approach and activities you undertook in response (500 words). Q3 the results you saw, both quantitative stats and qualitative results such as as staff testimonials (500 words). Q4 outlines next steps (250 words), in other words, where you are going next with this project or whether your work sparked a new initiative. You can include up to 3 supporting documents which strengthen your entry overall.

Up to 3 supporting docs can be added, such as videos, reports, slides, data spreadsheets. A well-written entry about an innovative approach which has seen strong results, with no supporting documents, will score more highly than additional documents included in an attempt to bolster a submission which is not written up clearly or does not include evidence of success.

There is no maximum file size, though you may wish to share a link to a video-sharing platform or your website for very large video files (over 100MB), instead of the video file itself. A sensible and succinct approach is advised for supporting materials – remember that judges are senior leaders in busy roles. They have given their commitment to thoroughly and critically review each of the entries but 50-slide presentations or reports are unlikely to score as well as supporting evidence which is clear and to-the-point.

Entrants are required to adhere to the word count (as detailed above) for each of the 4 Entry Questions. The award entry platform does not permit the addition of extra words for any of the sections. You may use your supporting documents to include additional evidence if you wish.

Try to avoid being significantly short of the word count in any of the sections too, as this may affect your overall score.

Most people opt to complete the entry questions within the platform and many attach one or more supporting documents. It is permissible however to create a separate entry document which is more “designed” and containing images. Please upload this as the first of your attachments and clearly label it as “Entry Form”. As you are allowed up to 3 supporting documents, your maximum attachments in this case will increase to 4. NB. You will still need to enter one or more characters, eg. ‘xxx’ into each of the 4 Entry Question fields, in order to be able to submit the entry.

Please ensure that we have all the details requested for your submission, including entrant(s) details and the category and title of your entry. Please also ensure that you address each of the Entry Questions and adhere to the word counts. If you give little evidence for one of the questions, you may lose marks, as judges are marking to specific criteria.

Absolutely. Alongside the fields for your entry, you can attach one ‘supporting image’ for each of the 4 sections. This can be a great way to emphasise parts of your narrative and bring your entry to life. The images are not included within your word count, or as one of your 3 attachments.

It can be really helpful in this case to have a short call to discuss with the team who are very experienced in guiding entrants as to which of the categories is the best match. We also adapt categories each year, including launching new ones based on trends that have been observed in the workplace. If you would like advice from the team, please contact them at +44 (0) 1727 847398 or at team@businesscultureawards.com

No, if you have strong stories to tell in a number of areas, and have seen the impact of these initiatives, you can put forward any number of submissions. Often more than one category is applicable to a project, or organisation. Many companies opt to put forward more than one submission. They either submit the same entry in more than one category; the same entry with some edits; or they create different material for each of the categories they have selected. Please bear in mind that payment is per category entered, with discounts for multiple submissions. We also have an extensive judging panel; therefore a variety of judges would be assigned to scoring and commenting on your entries across the different categories.

You can refer to ‘Tips for Entry’, on page 2 in your Entry Kit, or on the entry platform. Judges are marking to criteria and will want to clearly understand the steps you have taken from outset to review and whether the work has delivered on the intended outcomes. They'll be looking for evidence of results and measurability and that the aspect you have improved has delivered value in your organisation.

They’ll also be assessing how your culture is improved or advanced by this work and how it aligns with organisational strategy and performance. Finally they’ll be thinking about whether your approach is creative and whether it sets contemporary standards from which others can learn. The Judges are aware of word counts for entries.

If you are drafting the entry and are unsure about the best way to tell an engaging story, grammar, or your written style, we’d advise getting an internal comms colleague, or similar, to read over your entry to make sure it’s punchy and engaging for the reader.

Remember that the judges assessing are unlikely to know your company and the sector you operate in, so it always makes sense to give a flavour of this to set the scene at the start of your entry.

There isn’t a hard and fast rule here, as people’s sectors, challenges and objectives are so different. The most important thing is that whatever the time frame for the work, you'll need to include evidence of impact. A mix of quantitative and qualitative results are advisable, with a range of different metrics and testimonials.

While some companies choose to submit a longer-term and slower process of wholesale transformation, over a number of years, other submissions focus on initiatives with a shorter implementation phase, with results being seen much more rapidly. Companies and teams' responses to a crisis is a good example of the latter.

There is no requirement for our entrants or finalists to make a presentation at the current time and entries are judged wholly on the basis of the written evidence that you submit. Judging takes place over July - August and entries are marked to the criteria outlined above.

It’s completely up to you. Sometimes entrants prefer to complete everything in one go, while others prefer to submit each of their entries as and when they are approved internally, or by their clients. Our award entry platform allows you to work on multiple entries at one time, allowing you to save your progress as you go. You can submit your entries at different times, ensuring all are submitted by the deadline of 5th July 2024. It’s always helpful if you can let the team know that you have other submissions to follow and for which categories. This helps with our planning and allocation to Judges, particularly if your entries will be arriving very close to the deadline.

Entries should be completed on our award entry platform here. You will need to Register an account, Start your entries (including saving in-progress), then Submit them to be judged. You will receive an automatic confirmation of submission by email, remember to check your junk folder if this hasn’t arrived.

Once your entries have been submitted, you will be directed to your Cart on the award entry platform where you can proceed with credit card payment. Your receipt will be emailed (including VAT if applicable). Alternatively you can request an invoice - select ‘Invoice’ under Payment Method, then ‘Proceed to payment’ and download the invoice created. Your payment must have cleared before the final entry deadline. Your entry cannot be submitted for judging until payment has been received.

Generally you should enter according to the number of employees you have across the whole of your organisation. However, if an area of your business can be taken separately (for example, the UK business, or a subsidiary business within a Group) and the entry pertains to this part of the business alone, it would make more sense in this case to take into account the lesser number of employees.

We promote winners via our social media channels: we’re Business Culture Awards on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram and @bizcultureawds on X. Be sure to follow us there! We send finalists and winners digital collateral to use for their own promotion, for example, on their email, social media, blogs and website. We promote case studies for winners and highly commended organisations. We also run Business Culture Connected in-person and virtual events where a range of different organisations share their approaches and results.

To view the full range of promotional opportunities offered by the Business Culture Awards, download our Media Kit here.

All of our entrants can be assured that any information they disclose is kept entirely confidential; according to the Confidentiality documents signed by each judge and member of the BCA team. These are the only individuals who would be party to any information that our entrants share as part of their submissions. We may draft your winning case study for wider promotion, however, we never publish case studies without prior approval of the content and you can also advise if you do not wish for a case study to be shared.