Inside Emergn: #myemergn awards
As an organization spread across 10 countries, we know that maintaining “togetherness” and belonging is critical, especially amid the pandemic and remote work. We also believe it’s important to recognize our people who go above and beyond the expectations, and we’ve created different ways to acknowledge that. The #myemergn awards is one of them.
Last year we rolled out the #myemergn awards, which gave employees the opportunity to nominate peers across the organization who go above and exceed the high expectations that come with working at Emergn. In the first year of the #myemergn awards, the nomination process attracted over 200 nominees who received 1,000+ votes cast by peers across the business. Our new internal awards also received its own international business accolade when we won bronze in the Stevie Awards for Great Employers.
To share our gratitude for one another and the help, support, and achievements of this year, we kept the tradition going and opened the awards again. There was only one criteria – during 2021, nominees should have shown examples of behavior described in the principles of The Emergn Way and the Value Flow Quality (VFQ).
Irina, Head of Global Communications, shares the concept behind it and why it’s important for Emergn:
“The concept of ‘company values’ has a certain corporate flair, and many in my profession try to avoid it. Their loss. In essence, our personal values define how we make our decisions when no one is looking. When we understand what those principles are for a group of people – a small team or a large company – we have a key to that community.
With the #myemergn awards, where peers nominate each other by choosing one of our principles – The Emergn Way or VFQ – we help our people see what following these principles actually looks like in ‘real life’. We encourage them to look around at how their colleague’s act: how they help or support one another, bring new ideas and perspectives, or deliver stellar work for our clients, and have an ‘a-ha’ moment matching it to one of the principles. It happens when people nominate, later when they vote (and read all the shortlisted nominations), and when we celebrate the winners.
This serves the main objective of the #myemergn awards – to build belonging to our global Emergn community via showing what unites us: how we act, how we make decisions based on our principles, and how this behavior earns you gratitude and appreciation from everyone within Emergn.”
This year’s employee engagement was even more impressive – we’ve seen over 200 submissions and almost 1,000 votes. We’ve also seen many thought-through and inspiring nominations, recognizing their peers and what’s been accomplished. So, we’ve asked a couple of colleagues to share their reasons why they’ve engaged and expressed their gratitude for each other. We asked them why the internal culture of recognizing and saying “thank you” to those who have gone above and beyond is important for the company and themselves personally.
Here’s what they’ve answered:
“It is important for Emergn as any other business, as people are what makes us great. If you want to encourage people to be great, tell them when they are and help them when they aren’t.
We all want people to recognize us. I come from a place that says we are all equal and that we are all on the same team, so we should respect one another. Saying thank you for a good job or getting me out of a hole is important to me, and to those who receive the thanks. It doesn’t always have to be for the rest of the business to see. It can be a thank you in a conversation or a quick message after the event as well.”
Liam, Consulting Solutions Lead
“For me personally, this award and the internal culture of recognizing and saying thank you is extremely important. We work as a whole, and the success of my team also means my success. The more successful my team and my projects are, the more successful I am.”
Konstantins, Project Manager
“Before the pandemic, we were working in one office, in one place, and had an opportunity to thank our teammate directly: after a good demo or after any advice. Now many of us are still working remotely and though we have several internal and companywide meetings, these words ‘thank you’ mean more than previously. We started to see these words from another perspective and became more open. And if someone says thank you to you or the other way round, these words help to bring you closer, and you don’t feel an informational vacuum around you. The #myemergn awards is another way to say thank you and unite people in Emergn.”
Azamat, UX/UI Designer
“As a team lead, I work with different people and each of them has smaller or bigger wins every day. It is the best part of the day when you have the opportunity to say thanks to your team members and colleagues who have accomplished great work.
In everyday routine, we might be lacking the time to reflect on what’s been accomplished, but I really like the way Emergn encourages us to make quarters and the end of the year special for everyone. I feel more confident and optimistic about my next tasks when I have positive feedback and recognition from my colleagues, so I believe that receiving and providing others with feedback is key for success in the future.”
Sandra, Delivery Manager
“It is the people that make Emergn so great. #myemergn award is a fantastic opportunity to let others know how brilliant your colleagues are and that you appreciate them immensely. I think given the still remote state of things, these nominations are even more important now to deliberately call on individuals and teams that shine. Personally, I was very touched and honored to have been nominated for an award so I can only imagine that others would feel the same way when nominated. So really, there was no question about engaging or not.”
Renate, VP Value Proposition
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