At Bayleaf Honours, we’re experts at honours. So, if you’re considering a nomination for yourself or someone else, it might be helpful to know what we look for. As part of our onboarding process, we evaluate some key criteria that; in our experience, means a candidate is more likely to receive an honour (or not). If you’re curious about what we look for when recommending whether to apply or not, we’ve compiled a list of critical factors.
Have one or more of the core achievements
The first and most critical deciding factor is whether the nominee has achieved any of the listed core factors. In order to win an honour, nominees must (according to gov.uk) have achievements like:
- making a difference to their community or field of work
- enhancing Britain’s reputation
- long-term voluntary service
- innovation and entrepreneurship
- changing things, with an emphasis on achievement
- improving life for people less able to help themselves
- displaying moral courage
We look at how many achievements the nominee has and for how long they’ve been performing them. We also determine within what scale their achievements have had an effect to create a rubric of sorts. The longer the duration and greater the scope, the more impactful to a nomination that achievement will be. This calculation is the first port of call for our suitability determination. We’ve even determined statistically exactly how important charity work is to winning a Queen’s Honour.
Have credible potential supporters
Once we’ve explored the breadth of a nominee’s achievements, we’ll need supporting evidence in the form of supporter letters. While we can support this process, you’ll need a significant pool of potential supporters to choose from. As a rule, you can expect 3 out of every 10 supporters to drop off during the process. Writing a supporter letter is a fairly detailed process, so out of the letters you do receive, not all of them may be suitable. We’ll help to vet and advise your supporters of what a great supporter letter should look like. And we’ll chase up the process in order to keep the ball rolling.
Pass the various checks
According to gov.uk , “As part of this vetting process, HM Revenue and Customs may advise the Honours and Appointments Secretariat about any potential risk posed to HM Government and the Crown by honours candidates, by reference to a low, medium or high rating.” So you’ll want to look into your personal and business finances to ensure there’s nothing of concern before applying. We’ll also review your online public reputation to make sure there aren’t any recent examples of bad press that could hurt your chances of receiving an award.
Nominating for the right award
There are many different awards besides Queen’s Honours. Most are for individuals only, but there is one for groups. And with the exception of the Gallantry Award, all nominees must be alive and currently performing exemplary activities. We’ll look at the profile of your nominee and ensure the right match to the correct award. We keep track of awarding statistics and trends so we increase your chances of winning an award overall. Now, this isn’t a guarantee (no one could promise to win you an award), but our experience and analysis can give you a leg up on the competition.
Want to have a look at your chances? Take our quick self-assessment.