The CGIUKI awards is the definitive acknowledgment of excellence and achievement in the governance space. The awards are made up of 8 community endorsed nominated awards, and 8 annual disclosure based non-nominated awards, highlighting exemplary examples of governance in the last 12 months.
Nominated Awards
For any organisation, success starts with your people – how you develop them, how you value and support them, and how you bring out their full potential.
This award recognises the rising stars of governance. These are the people who, even with just a few years’ service behind them, are making a substantial contribution. They are the ones who are proactive in embracing new challenges, who show imagination and energy, and who are resilient in the face of adversity. The ones who help and support colleagues and who learn from their mistakes.
The judges are looking for nominees who demonstrate these qualities and more, who make a significant and positive impact in their organisations. They are looking for evidence of why nominees are destined to get to the top of the profession, and why in particular this is the year they should win an award.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline key achievements that will help them stand out against their peers. The judges will want to know how they have gone about their achievements.
- What do they want to achieve in the future? Personal or career goals?
- Why do they deserve this award?
- You can include endorsements from colleagues or clients.
We regret we cannot accept self-nominations for this award.
Oversight for effective governance is not just the work of the company secretary. Across all parts of the economy, dedicated individuals in a variety of roles are having a very positive impact on the governance of their organisations.
This award recognises those individuals who have made a positive and sustained contribution, who have gone above and beyond to encourage, support and raise awareness of good governance. They may have built powerful relationships with a variety of stakeholders, or taken on a high-profile project that had a materially positive impact, or demonstrated effective leadership in the achievement of departmental and organisational objectives.
This category is open to anyone in a governance role who isn’t a company secretary as such. Heads, or directors of governance would qualify, for example, as would trustees, non-exec directors and others whose work has a strong governance focus. The judges are particularly interested in those who can demonstrate an impressive range of achievements during the year.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline key achievements that will help them stand out against their peers.
- Why do they deserve this award?
- You can include endorsements from colleagues or clients.
The most effective teams happen when individual contributors come together to pool their talents and work toward a common goal. They are the product of hard work, commitment – and sometimes a fair amount of struggle.
This award recognises company secretarial and governance teams who have demonstrated excellent collaboration, who have brought out the best from team members and developed effective, innovative ways of working. They will have a strong sense of team identity, an understanding of their common purpose, good internal communications and clear and complementary skills and roles. Above all, they will share a clear focus on the delivery of organisational and team goals.
This award is open to company secretarial and governance teams of all shapes and sizes. The judges are looking in particular for teams who can evidence they are delivering outstanding performance, tackling problems in creative and effective ways. They may have led upon a reorganisation of business entities, introduced new technologies and processes, or simply gone above and beyond.
Include the following in your submission:
- A description of the team/department, its structure and personality - what makes the team special?
- Evidence of how the team has pushed for and implemented best practice.
- How teamwork was effectively employed to deliver business impact.
Not every organisation has the resources, expertise, or even the desire, to deliver their company secretarial or governance services in-house. For many, the use of a third-party provider is an efficient cost-effective way to focus on the organisation’s core competencies.
This award recognises those individuals or companies that provide company secretarial or governance services to other organisations, and who have gone significantly beyond basic service levels. Nominees will have made a valuable and creative contribution to the client’s business, providing practical, cost-effective solutions to the day-to-day and embracing the unknown. Theirs will be a forward-looking service for their clients, backed up by glowing testimonials.
You can self-nominate, or your clients can nominate you. The judges will be looking for ways the nominee has gone above and beyond their contractual obligations to the client, and the value they have created as a result.
Include the following in your submission:
- What makes your organisation stand out?
- Please include client feedback
A champion may be many things. They may be a visionary, someone who opens doors and creates ‘the new’. They may be an evangelist, inspiring and challenging others. Or they may be the person who drives and pushes for recognition – for others, and their profession.
Who do you think deserved the title ‘champion’? Perhaps they lead by example, advocating and demonstrating through their behaviours the value of good governance. Or maybe they have the personal touch, bringing in new talent, nurturing and helping them to flourish. Perhaps, simply, they’re the people who won’t be ignored, who will stand up for what’s right.
The judges are looking for nominees who demonstrate any or all of these qualities and more, and who make a significant, positive impact upon other people and upon their organisation.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline key achievements that will help them stand out against their peers.
- Why do they deserve this award?
- You can include endorsements from colleagues or clients.
We regret we cannot accept self-nominations for this award.
In recent years, it’s become more apparent than ever that having an effective plan for diversity and inclusion in the workplace is essential. For many organisations, really moving the dial on diversity is a significant piece of work in itself.
This award recognises initiatives which are designed to boost diversity and inclusion around the organisation, that aren’t simply “business as usual”. They will be participative and collaborative, and will draw upon input from customers, investors and other stakeholders. They will have been designed to achieve a set of clearly articulated goals, underpinned by appropriate measures of success. And they will be of demonstrable benefit for the organisation, its employees, customers and other stakeholders.
The judges are looking for evidence that the work has enjoyed support at the highest levels, and that the learning has been shared across the organisation. Nominees can be individuals or teams in any sector.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline any objectives, research, planning, implementation and results that were set out or completed.
- Did you experience any challenges?
- Provide tangible evidence around your initiative’s success.
A project might be defined as a piece of work carried out individually or collaboratively, carefully planned, resourced and managed and which leads to the achievement of a specific goal.
This award recognises governance projects that are of such strategic significance that they could be described as transformational. The projects have a governance issue at their core and are exceptional in nature – that aren’t simply “business as usual”. They will have been designed to achieve a set of clearly articulated goals, underpinned by appropriate measures of success. And they will be of demonstrable benefit for the organisation, its employees, customers and other stakeholders.
The judges are looking for evidence that the work has enjoyed support at the highest levels, and that the learning has been shared across the organisation.
Nominees can be individuals or teams, and the project must have been completed within the 12 months to 31 July 2024.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline any objectives, research, planning, implementation, and results that were set out or completed.
- Did you experience any challenges?
- Please provide tangible evidence around your project’s success.
Ask senior leaders to name one issue that’s occupied a lot of their time recently, and they’ll say environmental, social and governance, or ESG. Organisations have had to be nimble to keep up.
This award recognises those initiatives which are designed to address ESG issues around the organisation, that aren’t simply “business as usual”. They will be participative and collaborative, and will draw upon input from customers, investors and other stakeholders. They will have been designed to achieve a set of clearly articulated goals, underpinned by appropriate measures of success. And they will be of real and demonstrable benefit for the organisation, its employees, customers and other stakeholders.
The judges are looking for evidence that the work has enjoyed support at the highest levels, and that the learning has been shared across the organisation. Nominees can be individuals or teams in any sector.
Include the following in your submission:
- Please outline any objectives, research, planning, implementation, and results that were set out or completed.
- Did you experience any challenges?
- Please provide tangible evidence around your initiative’s success.
Non-Nominated
The annual report is far more than a statutory obligation; it is an opportunity for the company to tell its story, vividly, honestly and in its own unique way.
These two awards between them recognise “whole report” excellence. Reports may come from different sectors of the business community, but each will demonstrate how to turn an obligation into an opportunity. That may include, for example, describing clear links between strategy, risk and KPIs for success, or it may mean describing the board’s work in providing leadership and oversight. It could mean offering an honest, ‘warts and all’ account of a difficult year. In each instance, the use of boilerplate will be kept to a minimum, and the emphasis placed firmly on disclosure of everything material to the business.
The judges are looking for reports that maintain a consistently high standard of commentary throughout, that are interesting and enjoyable reads, and easy to comprehend. Above all, they should offer real insights into the business.
The annual report is far more than a statutory obligation; it is an opportunity for the company to tell its story, vividly, honestly and in its own unique way.
These two awards between them recognise “whole report” excellence. Reports may come from different sectors of the business community, but each will demonstrate how to turn an obligation into an opportunity. That may include, for example, describing clear links between strategy, risk and KPIs for success, or it may mean describing the board’s work in providing leadership and oversight. It could mean offering an honest, ‘warts and all’ account of a difficult year. In each instance, the use of boilerplate will be kept to a minimum, and the emphasis placed firmly on disclosure of everything material to the business.
The judges are looking for reports that maintain a consistently high standard of commentary throughout, that are interesting and enjoyable reads, and easy to comprehend. Above all, they should offer real insights into the business.
Disclosure on executive remuneration plays a critical role in enabling shareholders to engage effectively in the process of setting pay. Done well, it can offer invaluable insights into the background to and rationale for executive remuneration.
This award recognises high-quality remuneration reports which don’t shy away from the difficult issues, and which make the rationale for key decisions clear. They will offer a clear explanation of how remuneration policy in the company exemplifies good practice, and will make explicit the link between remuneration, strategy and the long-term interests of shareholders. They may also disclose any remuneration targets that were set and explain why those targets were felt to be appropriate, and describe how external economic considerations are factored into remuneration policy and practice.
The judges in this category are looking in particular for those reports which are transparent, which describe the relationship between organisational culture and remuneration policy, and which show innovative thinking in this most difficult of areas.
High-performing boards rely upon high quality information around which to form decisions. Yet what about information on the board itself? How can investors gain assurance that the board is fit for purpose?
This award recognises those reports that offer insights into the work of the board – the issues it faced during the year, the skills of the people around the table, and how it equips itself with the skills needed for effective strategic delivery. Succession planning, induction and development are clearly evidenced, as is how the tone from the top is cascaded throughout the organisation. Strong nominees may also describe the importance of board refreshment to the company’s strategic purpose, and discuss the process around board evaluation, the outcomes achieved – and the actions taken.
The judges are particularly interested in reports which offer a strong sense of the personality of the chair, which explain how the chair leads the board and demonstrate how he or she takes personal responsibility.
The audit function is vital for ensuring a company is complying with its legal and regulatory obligations. Beyond that, however, lies an even greater value; an effective audit function can bring peace of mind to the board and, investors and other stakeholders as well as to executive management.
This award recognises those reports that get under the bonnet and offer quality commentary on such things as how the audit committee goes about its work, how the company manages relations with its external auditor, and how the provision of non-audit services is handled. Strong reports will provide clear insight into how the board satisfies itself on auditor independence, how the audit committee gains assurance on management’s approach to complex issues, and how and when the committee challenged the external auditor on its work.
The judges are looking in particular for reports which underline the significance of the audit function, and which present a clear narrative on how the company delivers a high-quality audit for shareholders.
Even before it became a mandatory disclosure, many companies were already reporting on how their directors were complying with their duty under section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to have regard to the interests of other stakeholders – particularly the interests of employees, suppliers and customers.
This award recognises high quality reporting on the business’ efforts to engage with stakeholders. Strong reports in this category will go beyond the usual boilerplate disclosure on mechanisms used to secure employee feedback. They will really get under the skin of what has been done by way of engaging with employees and other stakeholders, and provide meaningful discussion of the learning outcomes from that work. They will include a clear definition of and discussion about non-employee stakeholders, and describe what mechanisms are used to solicit feedback.
The judges in this category are particularly interested in those reports which offer a clear explanation of how stakeholder feedback has been taken into consideration in board decision-making.
The UK Corporate Governance Code requires that listed companies include in their annual report a variety of information about their board performance review – not just how it was conducted and by whom, but also what the outcomes were.
This award recognises high quality disclosure on a board review. Strong reports in this category will offer clear insights into the approach taken to reviewing the board and why that approach was the most appropriate for the company. They will include a discussion of who carried out the review, the brief they were given and how they were chosen to undertake the work. They will also offer meaningful discussion on what the company learned from the performance review, and how it followed up that learning and put it into practice.
The judges in this category are particularly interested in those reports which go significantly beyond the basics to provide genuine insights into the process of board evaluation, and are unafraid to describe its consequences.
This award recognises companies that understand the relationship between sustainability and strategy, and that focus their efforts on what will keep their business in operation for years to come.
The judges are interested in companies that show throughout their report that sustainability is at the heart of their business. The judges particularly like to see reports that show the board’s commitment to sustainability, combined with excellent case studies and data that demonstrate sustainability in practice.