When it comes to looking for a place to work, a place to belong, it’s often the people that we look for, rather than the company itself. We see the people that interview us, the people that the company uses to represent itself in the media, the people that are featured on the company website even.
It’s only natural that we look to these people when it comes to deciding whether we ultimately might actually take that offer of employment, or even whether or not we pop our application or CV forward for a job.
When we look at the people that we might work with, it’s quite probably the case that we will look at the leaders. As humans, we tend to be drawn to inspirational people. But we also tend to be drawn to people that are aspirational – people that have achieved great things, but that we also identify with due to their similarities with ourselves. More simply – we look for “leaders that look like me”. Role models that we can see ourselves in, and that we can see ourselves becoming. How a company recognises those people is often a big part of our decision-making process.
When you’re looking for a place to work, one thing that you’ll look at will be awards or just general recognition of people from their managers and leaders. As an employee, you look to see whether your potential colleagues have their work recognised and lauded.
But it also goes both ways. As an employer, you might look at whether a potential hire has done some serious work in the past that has earned the recognition from industry. It looks good from both sides, right?
With that in mind, as a member of the defence industry, we want to let you all know about the Women in Defence UK Awards. The awards have been going for eight years now, and they celebrate all the remarkable women, men, individual or team, and allies who make the defence sector what it is.
We would love for you to share the awards with your teams and colleagues, and enter someone who you think has done something amazing in the defence industry.
Nominations are free to enter, and there are also a number of categories that might tickle your fancy including: the Unsung Heroines Award, the Emerging Talent Award, the Inspirational Award, and the Champion for Maximising Talent Award.
If you’re interested, and we really hope you are, please follow this link to nominate someone you work with!
Award nominations close on the 12th May, with judging and shortlisting taking place between May and August, shortlist announced on the 7th September, with the final winners announced at our Awards Dinner on the 22nd November.
You can nominate someone by clicking this link.
If you have any questions at all about the process or the awards themselves, be sure to drop Women in Defence UK an email and they can (hopefully) answer any questions you might have!
It’s often said that working with Oscar winners as co-stars lift up the overall morale and quality of work produced. For some people, simply having the opportunity to work with people that are recognised by their employers and by others in industry is super important. You can learn more, be inspired, and push yourself to those same levels. So why not nominate someone you know for an award – or even simply make your teams aware that awards are around? You never know, it might start a journey for you and your workplace that you’ll deeply enjoy!
