For Elisabeth Doppelhofer, Head of Credit and Support Services at the Adecco Group UK & Ireland, the world’s second-largest Human Resources provider, the British Credit Awards is the gold standard in credit management.

“Being a finalist, or even better, winning an award, is such an achievement. To be recognised by an Institute as respected as the CICM is the biggest compliment anyone in our industry can achieve.”

And for Elisabeth, her journey started many years ago thanks to her former boss, and previous Adecco Group UK & Ireland Head of Credit, Martin Kirby: “I used to work under a Head of Credit who I very much looked up to and around five years ago, I was there when he won his award for Credit Professional of the Year. Seeing how much that meant to him was inspiring.

“You could see winners of all awards beaming with pride and being supported and championed by their peers and their own teams all evening long. I felt really happy for him, and I wanted that for myself and my team.”

As soon as Martin left the company, the next logical successor to the role was the long-serving Elisabeth, who threw herself into it immediately. It wasn’t long before her managers recognised her hard work and nominated her for the same award as her predecessor.

After being recognised with a ‘highly commended’ on her first nomination, Elisabeth’s supervisors took it upon themselves to enter her again the following year. This time, she took home the winner’s prize: “For me it felt like the pinnacle of my career, to be recognised externally as Credit Professional of the Year. It’s quite hard to put it into words how much that means.

“I’m lucky enough to have a great team around me so I‘m noticed and celebrated by them, however, to be recognised by your peers and judges, and for them to say, ‘this is best practice and this is our Credit Professional of the Year’ it just means the world and it’s a huge confidence boost.”

Elisabeth believes the biggest effect of the win can be felt within her team and her department. Her win, which she credits to her team and their support, has catapulted her department to Board level recognition within the business and has given them a big confidence boost.

“The wins we’ve had at the BCAs has given our team such a boost over the past few years and have significantly raised the standing of our team within the business. The morning after I won my award, after the Board and the wider company had been notified, we had congratulatory emails flying around all day. In fact, when we won Team of the Year, our CFO came over to our offices to personally say ‘well done’.”

The wins have sent such ripples around the team, Elisabeth has seen the number of nominations within her team increase, and with this year’s entries sat on her desk for review at the time of our conversation, she was immensely proud to see her team nominated. “

Our team individually and collectively are now striving to be nominated at the BCAs which is so rewarding to see, and Debbie Matthews, one of the Credit Managers on my team, won the same award last year, which fills me with pride.

“The awards themselves are also now seen as the ‘go-to’ event in the calendar with our new CFO ensuring they stay within the budget for the next few years based on the recommendation of our previous CFO, who enjoyed them so much!”

With the BCAs returning to an in-person format this year, the CICM is very much looking forward to seeing team out in full force.