Like many organisations, we’ve been thinking about how we better recognise our people in a way that feels meaningful, visible, and consistent. While great work was happening across our Service every day, it wasn’t always being shared or celebrated as widely as it could be. The challenge for us in comms was how to help create a culture where recognition is part of everyday conversation, not just a one-off moment.
The People Awards sit within the wider reward and recognition offering at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS). They help us formally recognise our people’s contributions and complement other ways we celebrate and value the work across the service. Positioning the awards in this broader context has helped reinforce their importance and encouraged more colleagues to engage.
A record-breaking response
This year’s People Awards have been a standout moment for us, with the highest number of nominations we’ve ever seen. For us, that’s a strong signal that the approach is working and that recognition is starting to land in a more meaningful way across the organisation.
Introducing a new category
One of the biggest shifts we made this year was introducing a new award category. This was directly shaped by feedback from across the service, where we identified an opportunity to better recognise an area of work that colleagues felt deserved greater visibility.
While simple on the surface, this change was impactful. It showed that we are listening and willing to evolve, while also giving us a fresh narrative to work with, helping us re-engage colleagues, reach new audiences, and spotlight contributions that may previously have gone unrecognised. The result was a clear uplift in both interest and participation.
Supporting colleagues to write strong nominations
Another key part of our approach this year was supporting colleagues to feel confident in putting forward nominations. We hosted sessions focused on how to write award-winning entries, sharing practical tips and showcasing examples of strong submissions from previous years.
These sessions helped demystify the process, breaking down what makes a compelling nomination and giving colleagues the tools to tell their stories more effectively. Alongside this, we encouraged peer support, with teams working together to shape and strengthen nominations before submission. This not only improved the quality of entries but also made the process feel more inclusive and accessible.
Taking an always-on comms approach
Rather than treating the awards as a one-off campaign, we approached it as an ongoing story. We worked across our internal channels to share examples, highlight early nominations, and celebrate the behaviours we wanted to see more of. This consistent approach helped us build momentum over time.
Collaborating across our Service
We made a conscious effort to work more closely with teams across our Service. This allowed us to surface and share authentic stories, the kind that resonate far more than top-down messaging. Peer-to-peer recognition played a key role in making the awards feel meaningful and relevant.
Sharing stories that matter
What’s been most rewarding is the quality and diversity of stories coming through. We’re seeing examples of innovation, compassion, teamwork, and resilience from across the organisation and importantly, those stories will be shared more widely.
Embedding a culture of recognition
The biggest takeaway for me is that recognition campaigns like this are as much about communication as they are about celebration. With the right messaging, storytelling, and collaboration, you don’t just increase engagement, you help embed recognition into the culture itself.
Comms as a driver of culture
This has been a great example of what’s possible when communications is positioned not just as a delivery function, but as a driver of connection, pride, and cultural change across an organisation.
What’s next
Alongside this, we’ve been working closely with the wider service to refresh and refine our reward and recognition offering through our employee focus group, The Dial. This has given us a valuable space to listen to colleague feedback, test ideas, and better understand what meaningful recognition looks like from their perspective. It’s helping ensure that what we build isn’t just well communicated, but genuinely relevant and shaped by the people it’s for.
Jade Hammond, Internal Communications and Engagement Manager, ECFRS
