Awards Categories

This award looks for training interventions that have significantly benefited the business or organisation, particularly if the trainers involved have developed new approaches. The judge will want to see evidence of improved performance and gains in employee skills and capabilities. Entrants should show how training has boosted motivation and helped focus staff on key organisational objectives. The judge will look for well designed, innovative and well delivered training programmes.

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This new award is aimed at HR teams that can demonstrate they have achieved genuine strategic status within their organisations. Entries should explain the business strategy and the contribution of the team to meeting objectives. Judges will look at the team’s own strategy, how this was devised and implemented, the involvement of senior staff, relationships with other functions and what results have been achieved. Entries should explain how the team identified priorities and how HR has measured the benefits.

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This award recognises an HR professional or team that has added value to their organisation through an innovative, clever or determined solution. The winning intervention should show HR at its most creative and flexible. Entries should provide evidence of: speed of reaction, innovative thinking, clear communication, an understanding of the business drivers; and measurement of the benefits. Entrants could include testimonials from people who have benefited from the intervention.

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This new award recognises the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility and the benefits it can bring to an organisation. Entries should outline clearly the business drivers behind the CSR programme, as well as its impact on the charity, cause or wider community. Judges will consider how you engaged employees in the programme, examples of collaboration between employers and charities, as well as ongoing organisational benefits.

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This award is for an individual HR director who can demonstrate outstanding leadership. Entries should explain the contribution the HR director has made both to their own team and the organisation as a whole. Candidates must demonstrate that they have developed an effective HR team and present evidence of their contribution to the business. Past winners have submitted testimonials from across the organisation and its customer base to back up their entries.

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This award recognises organisations that have adopted a proactive approach to talent management and succession planning. With career opportunities and development being top of the wish list for today's most ambitious employees, employers need to be creative in order to attract and retain the best. The judge will look for imaginative organisational talent reviews by the HR team working in conjunction with others in the business. Entries should explain what action has been taken to identify and develop key employees.

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This new award specifically recognises people management programmes that have made a positive and measurable impact in public sector organisations. Judges will be looking for examples where HR has transformed the business to deliver stronger performance; has transformed itself; the innovative use of HR to tackle a specific business challenge; developed the workforce; increased productivity or improved the delivery of public services. Entries should give demonstrable and measurable examples of business impact.

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This award recognises the effective use of technology or social media by HR teams to bring about business benefits. Entries should explain what changes have been implemented, why they were necessary and how technology facilitated it. This could be the introduction of an e-HR system or e-learning initiative. Or it could involve innovative use of social media to boost your employer brand, run a recruitment campaign or deliver a training programme.

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This award is about demonstrating the value and business benefits of a diverse workforce and the measures taken to achieve it. Judges will expect to see initiatives that have delivered positive results in terms of equality, staff engagement, recruitment, and retention or customer service. For example, a positive action campaign that encouraged applications from under-represented groups, or a flexible working scheme targeting older workers.

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The new Rising Star award aims to recognise up-and-coming HR practitioners that are set for a bright future. Those on the shortlist and the eventual winner really are the ones to watch. Entrants can self-nominate or be nominated by their department head. Candidates must have worked for a minimum of two years in HR (but not necessarily in current role) and present evidence of their contribution to the business. Statements from their HR Director or other senior managers can be submitted to support the entry.

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Entrants will need to demonstrate that they have undertaken a successful change programme resulting in clear improvements to the business. Judges will look for examples of HR’s role in managing and embedding change, which might, for example, focus on creating or modifying major structures and processes in the organisation. Entries will need to explain actions taken to ensure the programme was successful, how you worked with others to help overcome any resistance and the benefits to the business.

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This award recognises effective approaches to the targeting, selection and recruitment of employees at all levels from school leaver and graduate to senior positions. The judge will look for successful examples of innovative ways of attracting the right applicants to the organisation. Relevant to this category are new methods of recruiting, measuring and assessing capability and performance, career management, succession planning and competency testing. 
 

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This award is for organisations who can demonstrate how specific employee health, fitness or wellbeing initiatives are making a positive impact on performance. Judges will be looking for evidence of the organisation’s commitment to staff welfare and the benefits enjoyed by both the employees and the organisation. This may be in terms of a positive impact on staff satisfaction, motivation, or productivity.

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This new award is for organisations that have taken a different approach in their recruitment practices. This might include utilising government schemes to get long-term unemployed back into work, including Local Employment Partnerships, work trials or pre-employment training. Judges will also consider the use of apprenticeships or graduate schemes as a way of recruiting young people. Entries should demonstrate how the scheme tackled a real business need, and what sustainable benefits – financial and otherwise – were achieved.

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Successful employers of choice work hard at creating an identity for themselves as accessible, flexible organisations. This award recognises employers that have made a major effort in this area. The judge will look for a clear explanation of how the employer brand was created and is being maintained. Evidence should be provided of the benefits it has brought to the organisation, such as its impact on recruitment, retention and employee engagement levels.

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This award aims to attract entries from high-performing organisations that are unlocking discretionary effort from staff through effective employee engagement. Judges will be looking for evidence of respected leadership, exceptional levels of communication, and a strong sense of community that centres on shared values. Include measurement data, (eg. employee attitude survey results, staff turnover rates, absence levels etc) to prove the value of your organisation’s high levels of staff motivation.

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Entrants into this category will demonstrate how they use reward and benefits in a strategic way, aligned to their organisational objectives. They will show how their reward and benefits mix relates to specific market and competitive pressures, how they maximise staff appreciation of the package, and how they measure its impact. Judges will be looking for entries demonstrating innovation, ROI, flexibility, clear communications and evidence that reward is making a positive difference to organisation performance.

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