These winners are stopping world hunger. So who's winning now?
One of the things I love so much about running a company that manages awards programs and helps businesses win awards is that I get to hear of some really amazing businesses achieving incredible feats that are changing the world. The Aussie restaurant chain Zambrero is one of the most impressive I’ve ever come across.
For every burrito or Mexican food bowl purchased at a Zambrero outlet, a meal is donated to someone in need. As of today they have donated a staggering 16,086,642 meals.
While that’s impressive enough, what has impressed me as an awards specialist is how this company recognises their internal award winners in a way that reinforces their pledge to beat world hunger while rewarding these winners with a truly unique money-can’t buy experience.
It’s a mastermind stroke. Here’s how it works: The winners of Zambrero’s Rookie of the Year, Restaurant of the Year and Franchisee of the Year travel with a small number of core support staff to a country nominated by their relief partners, Rise Against Hunger, and visit areas where the meals are donated.
Zambreros call this winner journey a Vision Trip, and last year the winners visited the Philippines where they served meals to children and gained an understanding of the profound influence that their everyday work has on people in poverty in the countries where Rise Against Hunger operate.
One of the success stories on Zambrero’s website outlines the life of Cris, a six-year-old boy from a Philippines slum. At the time that Rise Against Hunger first met Cris he had wasted away to just 10.6kg – almost 12kg less than the average western world boy that age. Thanks to support from Zambrero, “Rise Against Hunger meals supported Cris’ family and he now has the energy he needs to play and live a normal life”.
So why do these Vision Trips make a great awards benefit?
In weighing up whether to enter a specific award program, organisations and individuals subconsciously compare three factors: 1) Is this a credible award process affording an impartial chance of success? 2) What benefits will flow if I / we win? 3) What resources do I / we have to invest to enter?
This is why the most successful awards are those which: * Rest on a foundation which sustains credibility. * Require only a moderate investment of resources to enter. * Are managed like any other product or service that the organisation who hosts the awards wants to flourish. That is, the awards are monitored, reviewed and nurtured to evolve. * Offer benefits that cannot be purchased.
Zambrero’s staff awards tick every one of these boxes and have the added feature of reinforcing the company’s fantastic community social responsibility ethos. Well done Zambrero.
That’s a big YES from me.
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