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Nominees will be non-customer-facing managers whose primary role is to provide support to the contact centre operation, either from within the contact centre or in a team that provides significant levels of support to the contact centre. Nominees may manage activities such as data and insight, governance, project management, business continuity, HR, IT or communications. They will have a strong understanding of the contact centres opportunities and challenges and have actively driven through improvements in the last 12 months. They will be a key contributor to the delivery of the contact centres operating plan.

Nominees will be training their contact centre colleagues in contact centre best practice. They will be using modern approaches to training with impactful delivery and have a process in place to monitor the success of the training. They will therefore be able to demonstrate that their training is effective and having an impact on the customer experience, employee retention and overall contact centre success.

Nominees will be responsible for driving the learning strategy, developing a culture of learning and providing colleagues with opportunities to develop within or beyond the contact centre. Nominees may be a Learning and Development Manager, a Training Manager or an equivalent that can demonstrate excellent stakeholder management skills and a passion for helping people progress. They will also be able to demonstrate the impact that they have had on improving the employee and customer experience and the effectiveness of the successful delivery of key learning and development initiatives over the last 12 months.

Nominees will be non-customer-facing individuals whose primary role is to ensure effective resource planning and workforce management in the contact centre. They will have a strong understanding of the contact centres planning methodology and performance levels and would have demonstrably used this in the last 12 months to drive through efficiency and effectiveness improvements. They will be a key contributor to the creation and delivery of the contact centres operating plan.

Nominees will have responsibility for a team of specialists responding to complaints. They will have a good understanding of the customer issues, the changing nature of customer expectations and their complaints and will be able to demonstrate how they have improved the customer experience in the last 12 months. They will understand, and follow, complaints regulatory requirements and have good industry and cross-sector awareness and involvement in improving complaint handling.

Nominees will be responsible for ensuring that adequate controls and measures are in place to deliver a compliant, quality service to end customers. Nominees will be managers who are passionate about delivering quality through frontline colleagues and will be working closely with the contact centre management team to create an environment where delivering a quality customer experience is paramount. They will be able to demonstrate improvements that they have implemented or influenced in improving processes and measures in the last 12 months.

Nominees will have driven change and innovation across their contact centre operation or the wider organisation in the last 12 months. They will manage a project team either within the contact centre operation or with representatives from many areas of the business to deliver business improvement. They will be able to demonstrate a robust methodology for identifying, prioritising, implementing, and monitoring business improvements and be able to demonstrate clear examples of improvements that have been delivered and the impacts realised across colleague, customer and business performance metrics.

Nominees for this category will be driving a customer-centric culture with a focus on improving the customer experience and being the voice of the customer at every opportunity. As a contact centre leader, they will have personally initiated, led, and implemented significant developments in the organization’s customer experience in the last 12 months. They may have delivered improvements through raising awareness internally, improving processes, systems, or engagement with their organisations customers. Nominees will be natural customer-centric individuals who recognise the impact that a good customer journey has on all elements of the balanced scorecard.

Nominees will have been a Team Manager for less than 12 months and already had a demonstrable impact. They will be responsible for a team of frontline colleagues, with typically between six and fourteen direct reports, who handle enquiries directly from customers. The Team Manager will report directly to the Contact Centre Manager or equivalent and excel in their role on a daily basis delivering on all their key performance indicators.

Nominees will be responsible for a team of frontline colleagues who work in an outsourced contact centre. They will typically have between six and fourteen direct reports who handle enquiries directly from customers. The Team Manager will report directly to the Contact Centre Manager or equivalent and excel in their role on a daily basis delivering on all their key performance indicators. They will have demonstrated key leadership skills in the last 12 months that had an impact on the team, team performance or the relationship with the client.

Nominees will be responsible for a team of in-house frontline colleagues. They will typically have between six and fourteen direct reports, who handle enquiries directly from customers. The Team Manager will report directly to the Contact Centre Manager or equivalent and excel in their role on a daily basis delivering on all their key performance indicators. They will have demonstrated key leadership skills in the last 12 months that had an impact on the team and/or the team’s performance.

Nominees will be responsible for a team of in-house frontline colleagues and have responsibility for delivering a sales target. They will typically have between six and fourteen direct reports and operate with strong sales ethics of fairness, honesty and integrity. The Team Manager will report directly to the Contact Centre Manager or equivalent and excel in their role on a daily basis delivering on all their key performance indicators. They will have demonstrated key leadership skills in the last 12 months that had an impact on the team and/or the team’s performance.

Nominees for this award will have made a significant contribution that has had a big impact on the operation and/or the colleague or customer experience. They may be a colleague working in a support team, such as a Coach, Quality Analyst, Performance Analyst, HR Business Partner, IT Business Partner, Finance Business Partner or Communications Lead, or someone that was seconded to deliver a project within the contact centre. Equally it may be a Team Leader or equivalent, or more senior, who has done something significant outside of their day-to-day role that deserves recognition.

Nominees will have operational responsibility for the day-to-day running of a UK-based contact centre outsourced operation, with Team Managers or equivalent reporting to them. They will be responsible for the delivery of the contact centre’s operating plan, ensuring a healthy colleague culture, and succeeding on all their key performance indicators. Nominees will be able to demonstrate their achievements in leading a motivated, successful, customer-focused contact centre team. They will have demonstrated key leadership skills in the last 12 months that have had an impact on the team, team performance or the relationship with the client.

Nominees will have operational responsibility for the day-to-day running of a UK-based in-house contact centre operation, with Team Managers or equivalent reporting to them. They will be responsible for the delivery of the contact centre’s operating plan, ensuring a healthy colleague culture, and succeeding on all their key performance indicators. Nominees will be able to demonstrate their achievements in leading a motivated, successful, customer-focused contact centre team. They will have demonstrated key leadership skills in the last 12 months that had an impact on the team and/or the team’s performance.

Nominees will be Directors or Head of Function that have overall strategic responsibility for the contact centre. They will have planned and implemented a strategic change in the last three years that has had a significant impact, such as the transformation of a contact centre operation or an overhaul of the customer experience. They will be forward thinking and able to demonstrate innovation in their approach to strategy, management, and delivery of customer experience through the contact centre and have a track record of delivering excellence with evidence of the impact on colleagues, customers, and business results. Nominees will have a passion for empowering and inspiring their team and will demonstrably champion the contact centre within their business and the wider industry.

Nominated teams will be providing operational support to customer-facing teams within the contact centre. This could include quality assurance, communications, customer insight, management information, marketing, digital, planning, risk, fraud, IT and HR teams. They will be recognised by their internal customers as experts in their field, will have delivered outstanding support to the contact centre and are able to demonstrate the impact they have had on contact centre performance in the last 12 months.

Nominations are invited from teams who are managing the organisations’ customer complaints. They will have a good understanding of the customer issues and will be working closely with the contact centre to create opportunities in their organisation to reduce complaints going forward. They will be working within regulatory SLAs and have thorough knowledge in this area. They will have processes in place to analyse data and demonstrably used the insight to drive improvements across the contact centre and wider organisation to improve the overall customer experience in the last 12 months.

Nominations are invited from teams who are managing and delivering the organisations quality management framework. They will have a good understanding of the customer issues and will be working closely with the contact centre to create opportunities in their organisation to improve quality going forward. They will be working within regulatory SLAs and have thorough knowledge in this area. They will have processes in place to analyse data and will have demonstrably used the insight to drive improvements across the contact centre and wider organisation to improve the overall customer experience in the last 12 months.

Nominated teams will be responsible for delivering the training and development programmes in their contact centre operation. Nominees will have a clear strategy for developing colleagues, an in-depth understanding of learning management approaches, adopting new ways to embed learning and will connect learning to career progression. They will be recognised by their internal customers as experts in their field and will be able to demonstrate the impact that they have had on improving current learning and development programmes in the last 12 months.

Nominations are invited from teams who are focused on delivering change to the contact centre and have implemented a key change programme in the last two years. This may include a small yet impactful change, business readiness, process improvement and continuous improvement initiatives, through to major transformation projects. The team, which may be a project team with representatives from across the business, will be working closely with the contact centre leadership team to understand how to improve the customer and/or colleague experience and will be able to demonstrate the approach that they have taken to identifying issues and deploying solutions, along with the results that have been realized.

Nominations are invited from organisations looking to recognise their contact centre leadership team for the impact that they have had in the last 12 months. They may be the strategic leadership team with collective responsibility for the contact centre or a middle management team that is responsible for a division of the contact centre. Together they will have created a diverse and innovative culture, driving change, recognising employee value and have a track record of delivering excellence with evidence of the impact on colleagues, customers and business results. They will actively champion the contact centre within their business and in wider industry.

Nominations are invited from organisations that have introduced a successful apprenticeship programme into their contact centre. The nomination will be measured against the commitment, contribution, and success that apprenticeships have brought to their organisation and to the apprentices. Nominations should demonstrate that the apprentices are given a structured personal development and training programme which enables their career development and helps raise standards across the contact centre industry.

Nominations are invited from organisations that have adapted or implemented an effective colleague recruitment, onboarding, and/or induction experience in their contact centre. Judges will be looking for evidence of a great colleague experience covering engagement during the recruitment and/or onboarding journey and a commitment to their induction. Nominees will be able to demonstrate the impact that their approach to the new employee experience is having on attrition.

Nominations are invited from organisations that can demonstrate that their approach to working is delivering for the contact centre. Judges will be looking for organisations that have successfully found a way of working that considers the needs of colleagues balanced with the needs of the business. This may be a flexible working model and/or a hybrid working approach. Nominating organisations will be able to demonstrate how they recruit, retain and engage colleagues, how they manage performance, how technology is supporting their model, and the impact on the customer experience. The nomination will be able to show the benefits being realised across efficiency and effectiveness, customer and colleague experience, with a great culture and a strong performance across key performance indicators.

Nominations are invited from organisations that are supporting their contact centre colleagues’ wellbeing, such as mental or physical health, psychological or financial support or personal learning and engagement. Their approach will be having a hugely positive impact on the working environment. The nomination will be measured against how successful the programme has been implemented, the benefits that are being realised across the contact centre and the impact the programme is having on colleague engagement in the last 12 months.

Nominees will be able to evidence a genuine culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the contact centre. They will be able to convey the steps that their organisation has taken to implement and manage a successful DEIB strategy, including communication and training. They will need to demonstrate that they have gone above and beyond legal requirements, created an environment where everyone feels valued and clearly show how this is benefiting the customer.

Nominations are invited from organisations that have delivered activities in the last 12 months that support their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. This may include supporting local communities and charities or having a sustained approach to sustainability and saving the environment. Nominees will be able to demonstrate the impact of their support on the beneficiary as well as on colleague engagement, customers and the organisations brand.

Nominations are invited from organisations who have the best practices in place to support customers with additional needs or vulnerabilities. These organisations will be able to evidence that they are able to quickly identify customers in vulnerable circumstances, have adapted their approach to support their needs and as a result have improved the customer experience. Nominees will be able to demonstrate that they have provided appropriate training and support for colleagues and that this has had a positive impact on colleague engagement and retention.

Nominees will be able to demonstrate that they have a true focus on people, providing them with great and healthy places to work, learning opportunities, engaging environments, career opportunities, great diversity and inclusion practices, recognition and reward and a real sense of community and purpose. They will be able to evidence the culture from across the contact centre and demonstrate the impact that their culture is having on the customer experience, the performance of the contact centre operation and wider business.