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Say thank you or give a compliment

Say thank you or give a compliment

Do you want to thank someone or compliment them? You can nominate a council employee for a Going the Extra Mile (GEM) award at any time.

The GEM awards recognise employees and teams that go above and beyond their job duties to make a positive difference. It helps to:

  • celebrate great customer service
  • develop the best way of doing things
  • recognises work done by our employees.

The GEM award is important in helping us to develop new ideas, support customer service, respect and trust for staff, and helps us to keep to our promise of improving services

Award categories

You can nominate a person or a team for any of the following categories:

  • Standout Performer(s): For someone who regularly does high-quality work, or stands out on 1 project or event.
  • Innovator or Problem Solver(s): For those who develop new ideas and solutions to improve reaching a goal for other staff members or customers.
  • Unsung Hero(es): For those who do really important work in the background but don’t often get the spotlight.
  • Pillar(s) of Support: For those who offer excellent support, mentoring, or guidance.
  • Exceptional Customer Service: For a person or team who has got outstanding customer feedback.

Who can be nominated

You can nominate any of our employees, including 3C shared service staff. You can not nominate your husband, wife, partner or a member of your family. 

How to nominate

Complete our nomination form

When you nominate someone, we will let their manager know and invite them to add a comment.

Judging panel

We want to ensure that every entry has an equal chance of success. All entries will be assessed by Anne Ainsworth (Chief Operating Officer), along with one other member of Leadership Team on a rotating basis. 

Award ceremonies and winners

We have 2 award ceremonies each year:

  • Spring GEM Awards in May
  • Autumn GEM Awards in September

We will show on our staff intranet who the nominees were and the winners. The winners are first revealed at the GEM awards ceremony, where they are given their certificates.