How to Enter

An online submission link will be made available in May 2024.

Here are the guidelines to help you start preparing to make your submission in the meantime.

What to Include in Your Submission

Overall Project Summary

In this section, provide a high level introduction which reflects what your submission is about and why your submission is relevant to the category in question. You may also indicate the industry/organisational context for the submission and what made the work excellent.

This overall project summary should be no more than 100 words; it will not be scored.

The Challenge

Your response to this section should include answers to the following questions:

  • What was situation that prompted this Business Psychology intervention?
  • What evidence did you have to suggest that Business Psychology skills, tools or techniques would assist in resolving the challenge?
  • How did you convince appropriate stakeholders that you were able to successfully achieve the objective?

This section should not exceed 400 words and ideally it will provide evidence against our Diagnosis and Advice assessment criteria.

Your Approach

Your response to this section should include answers to the following questions:

  • Which psychological models did you use to inform your intervention?
  • What did you do and how did you manage the work to ensure success?
  • What expectations were set for the success of the project and how that would be measured?

This section should not exceed 600 words and ideally it will provide evidence against our Design and Implementation assessment criteria.

Outcome Evaluation

Your response to this section should include answers to the following questions:

  • How did you measure the success of this intervention? It is appropriate to consider commercial and psychological measures in your answer, quantitative and qualitative.
  • How can you rule out other explanations for the outcomes you observed, i.e. that the result would not have occurred if you had not engaged in your work?
  • What did you learn from this work; what advice might you offer others and/or if there anything you’d do differently next time?

This section should not exceed 500 words and ideally it will provide evidence against our Evaluation assessment criteria.

You may additionally include “supporting materials” if you wish. These may include, for example, a visual of your model/s, screenshots from an app, or photographs from a programme. Please note that Judges may view these for context, but they will not be taken into account when scoring your submission. So, do not include essential information in your “supporting materials”; put it in the body of your submission within the word counts allowed.

How to Write a Winning Submission

Here are some tips on how to ensure your submission is the best it can be:

  • Read the instructions – this might seem an obvious point, but ensure you read the guidelines and judging criteria carefully and then ensure you answer all the questions in full without going off at tangents. If you are not 100% sure what a section is about – ask.
  • Tell a story – make your submission compelling to read. Describe relevant context, for the people and the organisation, set the scene for the project/intervention. Describe the “before” state clearly so that your achievements can be recognised in the “after” state. This can serve to make your submission more engaging – but keep your story telling within the word limits.
  • Interview the right people – even if you think you know the project, you should interview as many other people as possible. Ideally a senior sponsor, implementer and beneficiary, to get a rounded perspective on the value, relevance and impact of the project.
  • Demonstrate clarity of purpose – clearly and specifically describe why the work was undertaken, the business issue you sought to address and the specific psychological approach that you took in response. Show links between the project/intervention and the individual/organisation’s objectives/success.
  • Create distinction – explain what is unique, or innovative or otherwise excellent about your entry; be specific about its value, importance or the scale of the challenges that had to be overcome.
  • Make it relevant – this is a Business Psychology Awards programme so be sure you have demonstrated where and how psychologically sound principles, models and tools have been applied.
  • Keep it simple – write clearly and in plain English and avoid jargon or acronyms; do not assume that all the judges will have an insight into any/all of the models or approaches you used or the organisation/industry that you were working in.
  • Avoid the quagmire – the biggest trap in any submission writing process is to focus too heavily on “what we did” – the quagmire. It is called this because you can get bogged down in the detail. Remember that Awards are as much for what you achieved, as what you did. So balance the two. 
  • Prove you’re the best – while telling your story avoid the pitfall of including unsubstantiated assertions like, “the feedback was excellent.” A priority for the ABP is to promote evidence-based approaches, so take time to collect specific evidence. Provide qualitative or quantitative, Tier 1 or Tier 2 metrics, and be explicit on how the impact of your project/intervention was demonstrated and measured.
  • Find an independent reviewer – the judges are unlikely to know all the details of your work and/or industry, so it’s useful to get someone equally objective to read your draft submission and offer feedback before you finalise it.
  • Recycle your entries – having spent a while writing a thorough award entry in previous years, we wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to use it again. If work has progressed since your last submission, you can make a submission again. But be sure to reflect clearly what has happened in the past 12 months/since your previous submission.

Remember the deadline to make a submission is Friday 26th July 2024.

FAQ

Business Psychology is the study and practice of improving working life. It combines an understanding of the science of human behaviour with experience of the world of work, to attain effective and sustainable performance for both individuals and organisations.

No. A core value of the ABP is inclusion. We are keen to encourage a diverse range of projects – both large and small – to be entered every year. What matters is that the project demonstrably applied business psychology to attain effective and sustainable performance for both individuals and organisations.

No. Again, in the spirit of inclusion and to encourage as wide a range of participants as possible to get involved in entering award submissions, we will not be charging a submission fee.

Charges will apply to attendance at the Awards Gala Dinner, however. If you wish to attend the event you will need to book and pay in the normal way.

No.

Thanks to the collaborative spirit of our Founding Members, the Association has long held a reputation for openness amongst its members. Our events and our members’ interactions typically represent genuine knowledge-sharing in the interest of furthering the study and practice of Business Psychology. The Association’s Awards Programme seeks to build on this tradition directly. The Awards Programme provides an auspicious platform for recording and sharing excellent practice in Business Psychology, and disseminating leading practitioners’ knowledge and experience. It create visibility for the practice of Business Psychology, for the benefit of the Association and all organisations working in this field.

For this reason, in the spirit of celebrating and publicising best practice in Business Psychology, the ABP reserve the right to use information contained in short-listed entries (apart from contact details).

Submissions will not be considered confidential or copyright, or to contain confidential or sensitive information, unless explicitly marked “not for publication” by the entrant. In making a submission, please consider seriously the necessity of including sensitive or confidential information and avoid doing so if possible. If it is not possible for you to make your submission without including confidential, sensitive or copyright information, you are asked to identify explicitly in the submission which parts of the content are not for publication (for example, a client’s name or financial performance information). And you are asked to provide a second version of the submission, with the “not for publication” content removed so that it is appropriate for publication.

Note: All submissions are accepted under the Terms and Conditions published for the Awards Programme. The ABP makes no claim of Intellectual Property rights over the content of any submission, simply right to reproduce it in whole or in part, with additions, deletions or substitutions, for the purposes of the ABP.

We will not publish the names of companies, organisations or individuals that have not been shortlisted for an Award, nor will we reproduce any information from those entries. Therefore if you enter the Awards, but are not successful, this will remain confidential.

Yes. We want to share the information gathered through the Awards Programme with as many people as possible so we will be publicising submissions on our website and directly to our membership. Look out for this in our newsletter, on our website and in our events programme after the Awards.

You could also support the Awards programme as a volunteer. For more information on Volunteering opportunities, please contact us by email: admin@theabp.org.uk.

It is a bold statement to make, that the Awards Programme will serve to define Excellence in Business Psychology, and not one we take lightly. So each year we convene a panel of highly regarded, impartial and extremely well-qualified Business Psychologists and related professionals, from the public and private sectors, to judge Awards submissions.

Evaluation of submissions and the selection of winners takes into consideration the effectiveness and sustainability of the outcomes achieved. In this way we’ll ensure that credible, practical and objective decisions are made.

Our Judge’s first priority is to evaluate the rigour of your application of Business Psychology, as demonstrated in your submission. Then they will consider the standards of professional practice you evidence in respect of your project management and relationships with stakeholders, as you worked through the stages of diagnosis, advice, design, implementation and evaluation.

The Judges use the published criteria to rate each submission in a category.

They submit their individual scores to the Convening Judge for collation and a shortlist will be created from which winners are selected.

Decisions about finalists and winners are based on consensus from Judges, reflected in their ratings.

The Convening Judge’s decisions are final and neither the organisers nor the judging panel will enter into any correspondence about the results.

The short-list of finalists in each category will be announced on Monday 2nd September 2024 on this website. At that time entrants will also receive a direct mailing to advise them of the outcome of their submission.

Winners will be announced at the Awards Gala Dinner.

You can contact the ABP during office hours on telephone: +44(0)1787 221294 or email: admin@theabp.org.uk.

Eligibility

This Awards programme is open to all who apply of Business Psychology. For the purpose of Award submissions we define Business Psychology as the study and practice of improving working life. It combines an understanding of the science of human behaviour with experience of the world of work, to attain effective and sustainable performance for both individuals and organisations.

For entries to be eligible for consideration by our Judges they must meet the following criteria:

  1. Entries must be received by the ABP on or before the entry deadline (Friday 19th July 2024). Entries cannot be submitted, amended or cancelled after this date.
  2. All submissions must be made in English.
  3. There is no limit to the number of submissions and Entrant can make. Each submission should pertain to a distinct piece of work however and must clearly state the category to which it is intended to apply.
  4. The work described must have taken place in the preceding 36 months and the results measured and reported in the submission must have been collected in the past 12 months.
  5. All submissions should pertain to work that has been carried out in, or that has included activity in, the United Kingdom.
  6. Include a meaningful response to all relevant sections of the submission form, within the word counts allowed.

By making a submission to the Awards, Entrants agree to be bound by all the Terms and Conditions of the Awards programme. If you do not agree to the Terms then you must not enter any submission to the Awards. These Terms place legal obligation on you so please read them carefully.

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