HFS blog

Awards – are they worth it?
By HFS Chief Executive Nicola Barclay
(4 September 2019)

It’s been a week of Awards chat in the office.

The shortlist for the Herald Property Awards was announced this week and I was delighted to see so many of our members represented. We held a feedback session about our own Homes for Scotland Awards with members and judges to share understanding of where they can improve their submissions in the future. We also reviewed of our awards for 2020 to make sure the categories and criteria remain relevant. And then this morning, a photo of me winning The CEO of the Year at the Scottish Women’s Award a couple of years ago popped up on my Facebook memories feed. All this got me thinking, what is the purpose of awards, and are they worth it?

Visiting our members offices and looking at their websites, there is no doubt that winning awards is great for their brand and marketing. It sets them above their competitors and helps raise their profile with potential staff and customers. In this fiercely competitive world, any little edge helps. I know I loved receiving my own award, and it’s important for us to stop and celebrate our successes in this frenetic fast-paced world where it’s too easy to only focus on the problems and issues of the day.

But I like to think that Awards can help beyond the temporary ego boost or marketing opportunity.

One of our key objectives at Homes for Scotland is to improve the image and understanding of the industry. We use our awards to do just that.

The examples submitted by members are the cream of the crop and we use them to show government and others that the home building industry is constantly improving. One of the comments made in our feedback session was that something that might have won five years ago is very unlikely to win today – the bar is being raised each and every year and the whole industry needs to try to keep up. I can see that our industry is constantly evolving and improving, but we need to have the evidence to demonstrate to others that this is the case.

This comes in the form of submissions from members – every home, every development, every example of innovation and best practice is evidence that we can use on your behalf.

You commit to continually raising the bar and we’ll commit to continually raising the profile. That’s what I call a win win!