PR Week's Best Places To Work

PRWeek's Best Places to Work


PRWeek’s Best Places to Work scheme has been designed to help PR agency and client-side comms team leaders develop the best possible working environments for their staff, while recognising outstanding workplaces and initiatives these businesses do.

After an uncertain year, our new COVID-19 Employee Support category gives you the chance to be in the spotlight for how your organisation has adapted its workplace policies during the era of the coronavirus pandemic.

With entries judged in a rigorous two stage process, and competition from the best agencies in the UK, the Best Places to Work Awards is the best platform to attract the industry's up & coming talent.
A note from the editor
"Even the best organisations have felt the strain in this turbulent year, but many in the PR industry have risen to the challenges, and created effective and compassion working environments. 

The Best Places to Work Awards is your chance to stand out from the crowd and be recognised as a top comms employer - at a time when good employment practices are more important than ever."

John Harrington, Editor, PRWeek UK

Enter now

Be the best


Few reasons why you need to be involved...
Benchmark yourself: Entering encourages you to view your business from a different perspective and identify areas for improvement. The learnings are as valuable as the award itself. Celebrating the strengths in your working environments not only strengthens the culture, but develops the industry as a whole. 

Exposure: PRWeek is an internationally recognised brand and the Best Places to Work celebrate the outstanding agencies of the industry. Benefit from global exposure for your projects on PRWeek and on the awards website. Awards winners will feature both in digital and print media.

Motivate your team:  In the current climate, it is now more important than ever to focus on the positives on what your teams have been doing to combat an unprecedented challenge. Showcase and champion the astounding achievements and raise morale!

Grow your business: Winning an award demonstrates the highest possible standards, elevating your brand and building trust in your business, enabling the growth of your business. Impress your employees and draw in prospective talent. 


Winning Best Place To Work was an incredible moment for us. We knew that our team did breathtaking work every day, but it was especially heartwarming to be recognised for the culture we’re building along the way. Asi (2).png

Best Places to Work Categories


What will you choose?

Gold Awards

Small Agency (2-29 UK employees)
Mid-Size Agency (30 to 99 employees)
Large Agency (100+ employees)
In-house Team

Specialist Categories

* Please note to enter a specialist category, you must also enter a Gold Award. There is no limit to the number of Specialist Categories you can enter.

 

NEW: Employee support during COVID-19:
Please outline ways in which your organisation has adapted its workplace policies during the era of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
- Practical help for working from home
- Mental health support
- Changes to the office (if relevant)
- Employee/employer communications channels and approaches

Please note: it's likely that you would have mentioned some of these steps earlier in the application form. It's not a problem to repeat them here.

 

Training & Development Award
- How do you decide what kind of training you provide to individual members of staff? Eg: during line manager appraisals, using third party training providers
- Describe your approach to staff training
- How do you measure the success of the training programmes?
- How much money and/or time do you allocate to staff training and development?
- How are staff promotions managed?
- How do you identify and fill skills gaps?

 

Reward & Benefits Award
- Describe your approach to staff pay
- Please describe your approach to staff bonuses. Eg: how the bonus is calculated, what percentage of profit is spent on bonuses
- Are staff able to acquire equity in the business? If so, please detail your approach
- What is your pay bracket for entry-level staff? Eg: £23k to £26k
- How do you assess if staff are being fairly remunerated for their work? Eg: benchmarking against industry averages
- Please describe your approach to holidays/annual leave
- Please describe your approach to staff sabbaticals, if applicable, and detail how many employees have taken sabbaticals in the past three years
- Describe your staff pension offer
- Please list other main staff benefits that you offer. Eg: health insurance, gym membership, cycle to work schemes

 

Culture, wellbeing and mental health support
- How do you ensure your staff don't work excessive hours?
- How do you compensate or reward staff who work excessive hours?
- Detail any specific policies or schemes you have to support the mental health of employees
- How do you measure the success of these schemes?
- How would you support a member of staff whose mental health appears to be suffering?
- How do you ensure line managers are able to support the mental health of their team?

 

Diversity and Inclusion Award
- How do you encourage diversity in your recruitment, in terms of gender, ethnicity, educational background, disability and LGBTQ+?
- What impact have your policies had on the makeup of the workforce? Eg: proportion of non-white and female staff and board members

 

Internship and apprenticeships
- Describe your organisation's approach to internships, if applicable
- What impact has the internship scheme had on your organisation and on interns, if applicable? Eg: how many interns go on to become full-time staff members
- Describe your organisation's approach to apprenticeships, if applicable
- What impact has the apprenticeship scheme had on your organisation and on interns (if applicable)? Eg: how many interns go on to become full-time staff members

 

Winning Best Place To Work was an incredible moment for us. We knew that our team did breathtaking work every day, but it was especially heartwarming to be recognised for the culture we’re building along the way. Asi (4).png

Key Information


Dates for the diary
Early Bird Deadline: Thursday 28 January 2021
Standard Deadline: Thursday 11 February 2021
Shortlist: March 2021
Event Date: April 2021
Prices
Early Bird Gold Award - £395 +VAT*
Early Bird Specialist Category - £200 + VAT

*Entries made after the Early Bird deadline on the 28 January will have an increased price point of £450 + VAT for the Gold Awards.

Enter Now

Nominate a yourself or a colleague to be a judge for the 2021 awards
An elite panel of judges chosen by PRWeek’s editors from across the UK will be responsible for reviewing and scoring each entry submitted.
These judges include senior PR professionals from agency, corporate, nonprofit and government teams, as well as PR education professionals. Judges will be chosen because of their professional and wide-ranging level of expertise.
If you would like to be considered for part of the 2021 judging panel, please submit your nomination.

Nomination Form

Contacts


Freya Spath
Event Manager

E: [email protected]
P: 020 8267 4153

Steve Forsdick
Partnership Opportunities (UK & EMEA)

E: [email protected]
P: 07464 494732