Maya Koleva, Head of Research and Insight @ Commetric / AMEC Board Member (2019-2020)

AMEC’s Young Professional of the Year award is all about the future – its main goal is to identify the upcoming leaders of the communication measurement industry who make a valuable contribution to their companies by providing excellent client services and by developing and driving business. But for companies, nominating young professionals for the award has many additional perks. Here are my own top three:

1. Talent management. Talent management is a business strategy that has grown in importance over the past decade, especially when it comes to young employees. Most people born between the 1980s and 2000 – now the largest generation in the workforce – look for companies that invest in their employees with ongoing training or education incentives, as well as with continuously opening new doors for their professional development – something that can be achieved by having your work recognised by a global trade association. This was the case for Ngaire Crawford, Insights Director at Isentia, who won the 2014 YPY award: she told me that “winning the award, and becoming involved in the young leaders group has opened up a lot of opportunities for me.” In this regard, numerous studies have demonstrated that giving young people the chance to grow and develop their professional and personal skills is a major motivator for them to stay at a job, making companies rethink their approach to talent management at a time when “job-hopping” is the trend among young generations.
2. Employee recognition. A handsome paycheck might have been a top priority for the professional life of previous generations, but millennials look for far more than monetary compensation. In fact, 86% of millennials would even consider taking a pay cut to achieve higher objectives, such as working at a company whose mission and values align with their own, according to LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Culture report. Receiving recognition for their contributions is also among this set of motivations, as young employees prefer a collaborative environment to a competitive one. Ngaire told me that she never really thought that anybody noticed what she was up to prior to winning the award. “It was such a confidence boost for the company to recognise my work, and to want to advocate for it,” she said. And for Anastasiya Nanivska, Account Manager at A Data Pro and the most recent AMEC Young Professional of the Year, winning the award was “the ultimate recognition of the trust and appreciation that my company has for my work.” Similarly, my Commetric colleague Hristina Petrova, who was “Highly Commended” at the 2019 awards shared with me that the nomination “inspired” her, as it gave her the confidence that she had the support of both employer and colleagues and “that our team work really mattered”. In addition, constructing an award entry entails also getting some feedback from colleagues, partners and clients – and to Hristina personally, this felt as the biggest reward – “it allowed me to understand how clients evaluated my work.”
3. Employer branding. Today’s increasingly interconnected economy has led to the rise in importance of employer branding for both HR and marketing practitioners. For millennials, strong employer brands are the ones that go beyond treating their employees just as workers and engage with them emotionally, aligning more closely to their life goals and sustaining a sense of purpose. In the US, roughly 50% of the US workforce is made up of millennials, with that percentage set to increase to 75% by 2030, but at the same time, a recent Deloitte report showed that a whopping 44% of Millennials expressed a desire to leave their employers in 2 years. With this in mind, companies need to cultivate workplace cultures that have a strong sense of belonging by crafting a strong employer brand. One of the most effective steps towards this is showing that you want your employees to gain distinction in their field. As Ngaire puts it: “It’s one thing to speak to clients or an industry in behalf of your company – but to have your profile endorsed by a global industry body really helped me build confidence and a profile as a researcher and a speaker.”

Now you know why you should put forward your young team members for the award – see here on how and by when to do it. This award is open to individuals who are under the age of 35 on 17 November, 2019.

And if you haven’t done so yet – make sure to also check out the Young Professionals

Network. The group consists of AMEC members under 40 from agencies, private and non-profit companies, and educational institutions who  work together to ensure a voice for members who are at earlier stages of their careers. As Ngaire Crawford, the current Chair of AMEC’s Global Young Leaders Group says, “anyone who is passionate about measurement and evaluation and could benefit from a network of younger professionals and is keen to make a contribution to AMEC and our industry.” So feel free to get in touch with Ngaire via Twitter or LinkedIn to find out more!