The judges will be looking for a vanguard in business that can demonstrate an effective inclusion and diversity strategy that goes beyond legal compliance and seeks to add value to an organisation, contributing to employee wellbeing and engagement.

Entries must demonstrate how the business has gone above and beyond their corporate social responsibility, shown commitment and dedication to equality, can exhibit positive results on the organisational culture and prove that they are a true champion of diversity and inclusion.

The judges will take into consideration managerial performance, sales growth, profit achievement, number of people employed and evidence of a satisfied customer base.

Please supply financial performance to support your application.

The judges will be looking at all aspects of a company's performance, paying particular attention to:

• Managerial and financial performance.
• Evidence of success against targets set.
• Potential for growth.
• Long-term plans and company strategy.
• Product and service development.
• Staff training and development.

Please supply financial performance to support your application.

The judges will be interested in how the company establishes credibility in terms of vision, communication and co-ordinating activities, how employees are treated with respect and equality, how a company encourages employees to take pride in their work, how the atmosphere created is conducive to a successful team environment and employees wellbeing and safety.

Following the challenges and achievements of a national lockdown with many businesses having to move to a home working model, we will also consider entries that can demonstrate how they successfully handled the lockdown and the move to working remotely, how they kept in contact with their teams and any new initiatives put in place to help keep their teams engaged and taking pride in their work.The award is also open to those businesses who already used flexible working practices prior to lockdown and how this helped their approach.

Judges will be looking for entrants who have:

• Set and achieve objectives which demonstrate commercial success, ambition, energy, skill and vision.
• Led the development and implementation of practices to strengthen the organisation.
• Provided exceptional and inspirational leadership that creates a sense of directions and momentum for development within the business.
• Worked proactively to exceed the expectations of customers and raised the profile of the organisation.
  

Judges will look for evidence of a contribution to the overall well-being of the community, its environment and general quality of life. Applicants must demonstrate a working partnership using positive influences to support suppliers and other partners to adopt the best environmental, workplace and community practice.

The winner of this award will be a company that:

• Is working towards sustainable development goals and can demonstrate the impact.
• Taking active green steps towards more environmentally-conscious operations and ethics.
• Made improvements in energy-efficiency, carbon reduction or sustainable working.
• You may have introduced environmental policies across your business, are using green communications or endorsing carbon footprint reduction, your strategy, policies and foresight will reflect a well-considered green approach – rather than fractional, ad-hoc actions.

Our judges want to feel inspired by your powerful story and are looking to see where you’ve come from, the obstacles you’ve faced, what motivates you to keep going and what your biggest achievements are.

Applications will be measured against:

• Originality of the innovation, its impact, practicality of its application and the measurable benefits to the business.
• All aspects of an innovative new product/service launch, including research and development, launch activity and the actual or likely commercial success of the product/service.
• Key success factors will include; degree of innovation, time taken to market, design process/best practice, market edge, USP, potential for growth/competition and profitability.
• Other factors might include job creation/safeguarding, environmental sustainability, use of teamwork, project management capability, customer delight/novelty factor and use of market research. Development to prototype stage only is expressly excluded from this award.
  

The judges will be looking at all aspects of the company's performance, paying particular attention to:

• Managerial and financial performance.
• Evidence of success against targets set.
• Potential for growth.
• Long-term plans and company strategy.
• Product and service development.

Please supply financial performance to support your application.

Judges will be looking for businesses who have overcome adversity whether that is through offering a take out option to survive, creating outdoor seating or switching their entire business model. We also want to hear about how these businesses may have supported their local community and their plans for the future.