HR:

Lighting the way

The most sought after, the most prestigious,
the longest running
The HR Excellence Awards
recognise the organisations
and individuals pushing the boundaries
of people strategy, and the
innovative ideas transforming
business for the better
Make sure you are a part of the
22nd annual HR Excellence Awards
Entries are open now. 7
Early bird entry price available
until 29th January

How to win an
HR Excellence Award
 HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks

About us
Editor
Editors note
Katie Jacobs
020 7501 6776
Deputy editor
Jenny Roper
020 7501 6341
W ant to win an HR
Excellence Award? Of
course you do who
and links to features
about winners from
HR Excellence
News reporter wouldnt? The HR Excellence Awards past. Many
Bek Frith
020 7501 6773 Awards are the most sought find winning an HR
Senior sales manager after, the most prestigious Excellence Award a
Tom Curtiss and the longest running springboard to raising
020 7501 6729
awards in the field of HR. the profile of their
Art director
VeeSun Ho
They recognise the organisation and the
organisations and talented individuals
Classified director
Rachel McElhinney individuals pushing the within their HR teams.
020 7501 6728 boundaries of people strategy. The editorial team at
Group awards Winning an award is one of the highest HR magazine certainly finds the winners
manager
Edward Wyre accolades an HR team can achieve. list a rich mine of content.
020 7501 6742 This means of course that winning or HR teams all too often expend their
Studio manager being shortlisted for an HR Excellence time and energy on the development of
Carolyn Allen Award is not easy. We do not call them the rest of the organisation, without
Production assistant the HR Excellence Awards for nothing finding the space to think of themselves.
Larry Oakes
and it is true excellence that we are The HR Excellence Awards are about
Production manager
Jon Redmayne looking for. But that means they are celebrating the value that great HR can
Circulation Manager
worth all the more if you are successful add, and provide an opportunity for the
Chris Jones on the night. best in the profession to recognise the
Production director In the months leading up to the entry fantastic work being done by their peers
Richard Hamshere deadline for the HR Excellence Awards and colleagues.
Executive director our awards team is inundated with I hope this resource will inspire you to
Ed Tranter
queries from organisations wanting to showcase your own brilliant
Email
first.surname@ know how to maximise their chances of achievements and share your learning
markallengroup.com making the shortlist. So, this year we have with the rest of the HR community,
decided to put together this short ebook and our awards team are on hand on
to help you with your entries. 020 7501 6782 to answer any other
In it, youll find a series of tips on questions you might have.
putting together a successful entry. These I look forward to celebrating with
tips come directly from the HR magazine those who make the shortlist on 27 June
team, many of whom have years of at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
experience running the HR Excellence Good luck with your entries.
Awards, and from those HRDs who have
judged the awards in the past and won
them. Youll also find information about Katie Jacobs
all of last years winners to inspire you, Editor

Contents
3 4 5 7 10 13
10 top tips: Tips from Event of the 2016 HR HR
putting an the top: our year: 2016s awards: magazine Excellence
entry judges awards Who won coverage of Awards
together advise ceremony what & how winners FAQs

hrmagazine.co.uk 2016 HR 2
HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards
Putting together an awards entry:
10 top tips
1 Describe the issue clearly.
Was this a nice to do or was
there a genuine problem or area for
improvement? Make sure you show how
the piece of work fits into the overall
business strategy. Think of your reader;
tell the story in a lively, compelling way to
bring it to life.
2 Be commercial. Show there
is a business benefit. Innovation
doesnt have to be big and expensive, but
it should make a difference. Remember
to include the budget. Its hard for our
judges to assess a strategy fully without
knowing how much money was available.
Entries without a cited budget often fail
to be shortlisted for this reason alone.
3 Provide all the
information requested. If
you miss any out its hard for the judges
to compare your entry to others. Judges
often report suspecting there was a more
compelling, impressive strategy lurking
just out of reach. But they can only judge
whats been described even where
they know the strategy is in reality more
impressive and the submission doesnt do
it justice. Dont rely on your success story
being widely known within HR circles.
To reiterate: judges can only judge what
theyve been given.
4 Describe the results and
impact with data. Include
business metrics and softer benefits. Be
clear on the measurable outcomes, but
remember this doesnt mean throwing
numbers around just relevant ones.
5 Read the criteria on which
the award will be judge.
And make sure your entry covers all
of them. Perhaps include sub headings
listing the criteria. This might make it
easier for the judges to get the full picture.
6 Show involvement right
across the business. A real
indicator of an impactful strategy is when
3 HR 2016
Frequently made mistakes
a CEO or other business leader comments
on the value of the work youve done.
And of course comments from those
employees whose working lives have
actually been impacted by your work are
always a strong indicator of execellence.
7 Check spelling and
grammar. This is about
excellence and that includes attention
to detail. Judges wont be inclined to
look favourably on sloppy work. Think
about fonts and presentation too; dont
let an unprofessional, difficult to read
submission detract from some great
content. Also, make sure you fill in the
front page of the entry summarising the
work; you would be surprised how many
dont. The judges spend hours reading
and discussing the submissions and it
never goes down well when it looks like
an entrant cant be bothered to complete
the forms properly.
8 Dont be afraid to enter
something that may not
appear innovative. Even if its
not overly innovative on the surface, is
it something you did in a creative way?
Context is everything.
9 Make sure the entry comes
from the HR team. We
understand you might want to get help
writing your entry, but ones that are
submitted by suppliers or PR agencies
dont tend to do as well as those that
come from the HR team themselves.
Getting to the heart of the story and the
impact the strategy had will only come to
life if submitted by the people who made
it happen. Agencies may polish your
entry, but be sure it comes from the team
who actually implemented it.
10 Make sure the entry
itself contains all the
relevant material. Supporting
material should be just that: to support
your entry, but not crucial to judges
understanding of it.
Entering a submission in the wrong
category. Youd be surprised how
often we move submissions into a
category all judges agree makes
much more sense. But this wont
always be possible. Often the way
the entry is written, and the details
provided, means that although the
judges can see its really an
engagement strategy, say, rather
than a talent management one, it
can be hard to move successfully.
So think and think again: is this really
an overarching CSR strategy, or
should it have been entered in D&I?
Submitting self-serving arent we
marvellous entries. These dont fare
well with our judges. Remember
modesty is a virtue...
Making the submission too long.
Some categories have 20 or more
shortlisted entries so you want yours
to be easy to read and
understandand memorable. Dont
attach reams of appendices
particularly where the information
isnt relevant.
Writing entries in textbook speak.
Submissions that seem like they
could have come straight from a
management textbook wont
capture our judges imaginations
and often confuse as to whats
actually been done and achieved.
Entering an initiative too soon.
Often judges will all be in agreement
that a HR team is doing some good
things, but it seems the strategy has
been entered just a year or two too
early, i.e. before the teams had
chance to measure and reflect on
results. So ask yourself if it would be
better to wait another year to build
up more supporting evidence.
Submitting exactly the same entry,
word for word, in several
categories. Its fine to enter the
same strategy in more than one
category. But make sure you tailor
your entries. Some judges will be
judging both categories, and they
will want to see some thought as to
why each submission has been
entered into each category.
hrmagazine.co.uk

Tips from the top:
What judges look for in
an award-winning entry
Irene Stark,
group HR
director,ATS
Euromaster
Your entry
needs to be
something truly
connected to a
business need
and delivering
commercial
value, not something dreamed up by
HR. I like to see involvement of people
across the business and not just HR. I
like supporting data but it is important
to make it concise and relevant. I
dislike entries where HR seems to have
gone to an external consultant whos
done all the work. Of course external
people have their place but its great
when HR has done much themselves
or at least in conjunction with an
external company. Its always great
when an entry has added bottom line
value, but if something is more
intangible its good to see creative
ways of measuring results. I like entries
that demonstrate value to the
customer as well as employees and
the business.
initiative was; what constituents in the business have benefited; and
what challenges were experienced and how they were overcome.
Andrew Dodman, chief HR & corporate
officer, The University of Sheffield
The best entries are those that are about people,
rather than process, practice or policy. The judges
want to hear how the HR excellence has
genuinely inspired people, and changed
working lives for the better. A strong authentic
narrative will help, preferably one that offers
quantitative evidence but also provides
stories of personal impact and contribution.
We want to see and hear the voice of the
employee, and not just the HR/management
team. Often a good submission will also
be one that demonstrates that the HR
team has taken a risk, and delivered
something different from before, and
with the outcome positively
influencing the whole of the
workforce. The very best entries are
those that are fresh and fun to read,
and moreover leave the judge
desperately wanting to implement
the initiative.
hrmagazine.co.uk
HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks
Neil Morrison, director,
strategy, culture and
innovation, Penguin Random
House UK
The first thing that I look for is the
relevance to the organisation, not just
relevance to the HR team. I want to
understand the challenges that the
organisation faces and how the work helped solve that or improve
the situation. That context is really important in helping compare
companies with different budgets, cultures and maturity. For me,
excellence can be well-executed simplicity as much as leading
edge innovation; it all depends on the context and demonstrable
results. I want to understand the data that supports a submission.
Remember that the judges are experienced professionals who will
be able to sniff out dodgy or contradictory numbers. So be really
honest and straightforward. I also want to read a compelling
narrative that demonstrates pride and passion and sets an
example to the profession as a whole. A really good example was
a submission in the technology category one year. It wasnt the
most cutting edge, but it was absolutely right for the business, and
the submission explained why and the results achieved.
Eugenio Pirri, VP of people and
organisational development, The
Dorchester Collection
The key to any submission is to understand
why you are applying to win the award. I
believe it is key to ask yourselves these questions
initially: What is your purpose in applying? What
are you trying to achieve? How does what you
do align to your company vision and strategic
plan? What was the value obtained as a result of
your actions? Based on this, the evidence must
support this by providing: actual timeframes and
outcomes (outcomes should not be listed only in
percentages, but numbers as well); what the actual value of the
Then the entry must address: whats next? Where do they go
from here?
Danielle Harmer, chief people officer,
Metro Bank
The winning awards tend to be those that had
an impact on the organisation and the people
within it and were genuinely offering life-
changing benefits for employees. Or they tend
to be those that made something hard seem as
simple, easy and painless as possible for the
organisation and the people in it. They made
me proud to be in the HR profession and to
see the difference HR makes when it is done
really well. For example: the Wincanton
submission on wellbeing last year, which had
reduced the incidence of driver heart attacks
and had genuinely saved lives, was brilliant. It
was simple, low cost and engaged the
companys people to bring about sustainable
change and make their lives better
(and longer)!
2016 HR 4
 HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards

A glittering event:

Wayne Clarke, headline sponsor the Global Growth Institute

Fitness First celebrates winning Best Global HR Strategy

The Wincanton team with Miles Jupp and HRs publisher

Winner of HR Future Leader of the Year Rachel

Bushby with 10Eightys Michael Moran

Jaguar Land Rover won Best CSR Strategy for for its War for
5 HR 2016 Military Talent Strategy
hrmagazine.co.uk
 HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks

2016s gala dinner The winners of the HR Excellence Awards 2016

were unveiled at the London Hilton Park Lane

Editor Katie Jacobs kicks off proceedings

Juliana Lim from the Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore, joint winner of Best HR Strategy from Overseas

Miles Jupp entertained as compre

CEO of RHP David Done, joint winner

of Most People-Focused CEO

The team from Wincanton, who won the overall

Gold Award, celebrate their success

The United Learning Trust celebrate winning the Outstanding

Employee Engagement Strategy Award

hrmagazine.co.uk 2016 HR 6
HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards
HR Excellence Awards 2016 :
Who won what and how
Health & Wellbeing: Wincanton
There arent many HR departments that can claim to have actually
saved lives. But when Wincanton experienced driver deaths linked
to long-term health and lifestyle issues, it kick-started a two-year
programme of increasing health awareness, which resulted in a
significant reduction in deaths related to heart conditions from 10
in 2014 to three in 2015. Other results include a reduction in
absence rates, saving the company a staggering 335,000. Judges
were blown away by this strategy, calling it simple, inexpensive and
impactful. One judge simply commented: Wow love this.
Wincanton also won the Gold award, given to that entrant who
impressed the judges most across all categories
Best CSR Strategy: Jaguar Land Rover
Long gone are the days when a strong CSR strategy involved
painting homeless shelter walls. Jaguar Land Rovers (JLR) Winning
the War for Military Talent strategy perfectly epitomises a much
more business-lead CSR approach. Chief executive officer Ralf
Speth puts it perfectly: Military servicemen and women are
extremely well-trained. Their unique skills and behaviours will be
an asset to many companies. To date, JLR has assisted more than
200 ex-armed forces personnel to find employment and potentially
life-changing opportunities across the company, saving an
estimated 700,000 in recruitment costs. In January JLR was
awarded the prestigious Gold Award by the Ministry of Defence.
7 HR 2016
D&I Award: TfL
Transport is still a very male-dominated sector;
in rail alone, only 15% of employees are
women. Transport for Londons (TfL) 100
Years of Women in Transport (YOWIT)
campaign sought to seize the opportunity of
this centenary to celebrate the fact things are
now moving in the right direction. Its aim was
to showcase those women now building
exceptional careers, to inspire generations to
come. The judges loved the creativity of this
strategy, describing it as in a different league
and streets ahead. One judge commented:
Love this. Creative, powerful, impactful.
Most Successful Change
Management Strategy: West
Dunbartonshire Council
The historical change management approach at
West Dunbartonshire Council was an all-too
familiar one. Typically it was a one direction
change initiation from the top down, resulting
in lack of staff engagement, no clear
communication strategies and the failure or
lengthy implementation of change. But this
wasnt the case with its programme to relocate
300 staff, where the approach was to involve all
employees. The award judges were impressed
with the results, particularly given the scale of
the challenge. When people dont have a desk
anymore, culturally it can be a nightmare,
commented one. Another said no one should
be in any doubt that this is hard stuff to do.
hrmagazine.co.uk
 HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks

Outstanding
Employee
Engagement Strategy:
United Learning
Trust
An in-house employee survey at
United Learning Trust in 2011
attracted just a 46% response rate,
demonstrating real issues with levels Best L&D Strategy: Stonegate Pub Company
of engagement as well as mistrust If youre looking for an icon to base your L&D strategy on, who better than Albert
around the survey itself. So the HR Einstein? That was the view of Stonegate Pub Company. It wanted to offer a career
team identified staff survey pathway with blended learning development, assessment and evaluation for every level,
ambassador in each of Uniteds to its 14,000 employees operating in hundreds of UK locations. So it hit upon the idea
then 31 schools, responsible for of Alberts Theory of Progression, creating a learning pathway loosely based on the
managing the survey and local periodic table and online platform Albert Online. Turnover has dropped dramatically,
action planning. School leaders particularly among those sent on development programmes. Online training has an
heavily promoted the survey to staff, almost 100% completion rate and Stonegate has also introduced Alberts App.
achieving a leap in response rates to
70% by 2013. A whole range of
other activities supported this,
leading to an impressive result of
employee engagement rising to 72%
well in excess of the MORI
education sector norm of 60%.
Judges praised this entrys clear
strategic link to the business case
and the fact this was a big
investment leveraged.

Most Innovative
Deployment of
HR Technology:
Questback
Questback offers enterprise
feedback management technology;
so its only right the firm practices
what it preaches. After a period of
rapid growth, the company decided
it needed to look to its own
employees to drive change and
innovation. Step forward: MySay,
which went live in July 2015 and
allows every employee to feed back
ideas through a simple, mobile-
friendly platform. In the first six
months, more than 3,800 dialogues
took place an average of over 12
per employee. Of these, 10-15%
resulted in immediate changes. The
judges praised this entry as fresh
and interesting.
Best HR Strategy from Overseas:
Dubai Police and IDA
Like all police forces, Dubai Police faces the training challenge of wanting to upskill
officers in an environment that is both hands-on but also safe. In a move the judges
described as brilliant the force embraced cutting-edge video game technology to
create virtual incidents, developing its training programme and all related technology
entirely in-house. Meanwhile joint winner the Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore (IDA), the organisation spearheading the transformation of Singapores
vision to be the worlds first Smart Nation, impressed judges with its talent strategy. The
judges praised its Influencing Tomorrow strategy as a diverse and fully integrated
campaign for achieving the objectives IDA set out to achieve.
Best Talent Management Strategy: Wincanton
Wincanton recognised it needed to focus on overcoming future skills shortages, and that
raising the profile of talent management as an essential component to business success
was key. With the business at the heart of their thinking, the HR team created a
governance structure for its talent strategy, getting essential buy-in from key
stakeholders. The team built a new talent identifying tool into its performance processes,
focused on potential. An Aspiring General Manager programme has been very
successful, with a 70% promotion success rate. This entry was all the more impressive
given Wincanton had little or no structure in place only three years ago.

hrmagazine.co.uk 2016 HR 8
HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards
Best Global HR Strategy:
Fitness First
As the largest privately owned health club group in
the world, with 360 clubs worldwide and almost
930,000 members in 16 countries, Fitness First needs
to take a truly global view. Following major
organisational changes and a rebrand, the chain
refocused its efforts on talent investment in all
markets. The HR team worked closely with the global
CEO, executive team and regional HR teams to devise
a set of comms tools, designed to work across a
diverse range of cultures. The judges praised Fitness
Firsts performance in a tough market, adding that
this was particularly impressive given the backdrop of
a general redesign of the brand and wider business.
Most Effective Recruitment
Strategy: LV=
In 2007, LV= had no in-house resourcing capabilities,
no employer brand, and 86% of recruitment was
done through agencies. Fast forward to 2015, and the
landscape looked completely different, with 96% of
recruitment delivered directly by a 19-strong internal
resourcing team and a brilliant employer brand. In
2014, 20% of group risk hires were made through
third parties. By 2015, only 6% were. Since February
2015, LV=s dedicated careers website has seen a 32%
increase in applications.
Most Effective Use of Internal
Communications: Amey
Ensuring all staff understand the risks they navigate
on a daily basis is a top priority for Amey, reflected in
its safety campaign Target Zero (TZ). Its philosophy
is simple: Injuries are not inevitable, harm is not
acceptable, and risks are ours to manage. The
message to employees was one of empowerment,
reminding them they have the skills and knowledge to
mitigate risks. The judges were impressed with the
alignment of the campaign to Ameys core values of
being progressive, accountable, collaborative and
effective. Success of the campaign, and its eventual
target of zero harm, is evidenced in the steadily falling
accident rate at Amey.
9 HR 2016
Best HR Team: Financial
Compensation Services (FSCS)
The FSCS HR teams philosophy is: keep employees
engaged and the culture healthy by always
considering new ways of working. A newly developed
Competency Framework allows FSCS to generate a
personalised competency development plan for
everyone. Learning Pathways show a journey of
possible courses and learning opportunities, allowing
staff to take control. The judges praised the teams
focus on their ambitious targets; by 2018/19, FSCSs
people team hope to be recognised as a Sunday Times
Top 100 employer, maintain a sickness target of 2%,
and be recognised as a Gold Investor In People.
HR Future
Leader of the
Year: Rachel
Bushby
One of Rachel Bushbys
major achievements is the
improvement of the Tescos
Early Careers team. Over
the past two years, 50% of
their original resource has been redeployed due to
efficiencies she instigated. The judges agreed that
Bushbys track record for success, despite the size of
her organisation, and her positive, collaborative
attitude, mark her out as a leader of the future.
Most Effective Benefits
Programme: Sandwell
Metropolitan Borough Council
Sandwell Council is the largest employer in its area
with approximately 4,500 employees and so has a
constant need to attract, recruit and retain talented
and dedicated people. Given a backdrop of cuts, it
also had to make savings, and so needed a benefits
programme fit for this purpose. It settled on an
excellent solution: a single reward platform,
providing retail discounts and access to the entire
benefits offering, with a variety of salary sacrifice
options, an employee assistance programme and
offers in the local economy.
hrmagazine.co.uk
 HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks

The great and good

(and really good) of
award-winning HR
Coverage in HR magazine of HR Excellence Award-winners over the years

LV= The United Learning Trust

Insurance company LV= won Most Effective Recruitment
Strategy 2016 by converting a post and pray approach to
one aligning internal recruiters to business functions rather
than markets. A refreshed social media presence and new
dedicated careers website have also been key, resulting in a
32% increase in applications from 2015 to 2016.
The United Learning Trust has been a staple on our award
winners list for the last two years with Lindsay Batchford
winning HR practitioner of the year in 2015 for her role in
supporting the growth of the organisation and the team as
a whole winning our Outstanding Employee Engagement
Strategy this year. Read director of people Mandy Coalters
fascinating take on how we need more nuanced solutions to
business gender challenge here.

The University of Sheffield

The perennial complaint is that HR isnt commercial enough. But
this accusation certainly cant be levelled at The University of Surrey County Council
Sheffield, with the team recently launching externally facing, Surrey County Council impressed our judges in 2014 with its
profit-generating health and wellbeing consultancy Everyday Juice strategy to make employee pay go further through innovative
Limited. No surprise then that the brains behind this were highly use of local discounts, refreshed salary sacrifice schemes and
commended in 2016s Best HR team category and that health & better communicated benefits, scooping the Most Effective
wellbeing was the award scooped in 2014. Read more about Rewards Strategy as a result. Firmly on the HR communitys
Sheffields commercial venture here and HRD Andy Dodmans radar since for progressive public sector HR strategies in tough
thoughts on job design and work/life balance here. times, the council impressed once again with its restorative HR
programme, which sought to combat the adversarial approach
NEA all too often characterising the public sector with a preventative
UK organisations are certainly not alone in facing an aging workforce good quality conversation approach.
challenge. And so why not look to other
countries for HR strategy inspiration?
Winner of Best HR strategy overseas
2015, Singapores National Environment
Agency (NEA), is one organisation
through its re-employment scheme and
tech training for older generations for
example making great strides here. So
HR magazine caught up with them
when they came to the UK to attend the
2015 awards to get the inside track.

hrmagazine.co.uk 2016 HR 10
HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards
CEO of the Year winners
Home repairs and insurance firm
HomeServe had been through torrid
times, but 2016 joint winner Martin
Bennetts leadership has helped it
back onto an even keel. He
became group CEO in 2014 and his
direction has seen engagement rise
from 56% to 84%, customer
retention rates to 83% and profits to
56.4 million. An impressive 94% of
employees agree they understand
what Homeserve is trying to achieve
as a business, up a huge 19
percentage points from the year
before. And Bennett is one of the
highest rated CEOs on Glassdoor.
Here he talks the power of listening
and transparency.
Joint 2016 winner CEO of housing
association RHP David Done, was
highly praised for this authenticity. In
the past five years RHPs operating
surplus has increased from 13
million to 18.6 million, it has had
a 24% reduction in complaints, and
its service has been rated the
friendliest in the UK. Here he shares
five things hes learnt along the way
and what he wants from HR.
11 HR 2016
HCL Technologies
If anyone knows how to roll-out and ensure the
success of innovative technology, its surely a
$6.1 billion turnover, global IT company. No
surprise, then, that HCL Technologies won Most
Innovative Deployment of HR Technology in
2014. In these articles chief HR officer Prithvi
Shergill discusses inverting the pyramid, so that
leaders identify their role as empowering
employees to become the CEO of their own
career; using gamification to keep candidates
engaged in the time between accepting a job offer
and starting the role; and creating permanently
agile organisations through savvy use of tech.
Nottingham City Council
Making those cuts required by a
climate of public austerity, while
simultaneously creating a strategy to
boost engagement, attraction and
retention of staff, is no mean feat.
Yet this is exactly what Nottingham
City Council has done with its Work
Perks strategy, making it a worthy
winner of our 2015 Most Effective
Rewards and Benefits Strategy
award. (Indeed the judges
pronounced it fantastic not only in
the context of public sector cost-
cutting, but worthy of being judged
against private sector strategies too.)
So Nottingham was the ideal
organisation to feature in a piece
last year on how the public sector
can best weather wave after
wave of cuts.
Financial Services
Compensation
Scheme
When David Blackburn first joined
FSCS as head of people in March
2013, he found an organisation
highly resistant to change, with the
HR department stuck in a
transactional rut. Fast forward three
years and its a much more lively,
agile and engaged place to be,
making the HR department a worthy
winner of our Best HR Team award
in 2016. Find out more here.
hrmagazine.co.uk
 HR Excellence Awards HR ebooks

HRD of the Year winners

Karen Beaven
During her time at River Island, HRD Karen Beaven has led
a significant transformation programme for the HR function,
giving it full backing of the CEO and senior leadership
team. In 2014, Beaven developed an idea for a
commercial venture, River Island Style Studio, which she
launched and now leads. No surprise, then, that Beavan
won HRD of the Year 2015, and that River Island also
scooped Best HR Team: Private Sector, Most Effective
Recruitment Strategy and the Gold Award that year.
Post-win, Beavan shared details of Style Studio, and
discussed HRs role in spotting commercial opportunities
and proactive recruitment in a tough retail climate.

Kath Austin
In 2010, when Austin joined, Pizza Hut hadnt had a profitable
year since 2006. Its a very different story now. In its final
quarter of 2015 the chain reported its ninth consecutive
quarter of growth, thanks to a strategy that puts people at its
heart, and the complete alignment of the internal and
external. Its great to see an HR person responsible for
another area of the business and make a demonstrable
contribution to business success, was one HR peers
comment in voting for Austin. Another described her as an
exemplar for HR. Here she talks empowering leaders, Pizza
Huts hospitality business management degree and her dual
HR/marketing role.

Neil Morrison
In a sector not hugely famed for moving with the times and
championing cultures of innovation, or indeed for HR sitting
on and influencing boards, Neil Morrison stands head and
shoulders above the crowd for his no-nonsense but always
deeply considered approach. After starting life as a lecturer
in psychology and then working in a variety of HR roles at
FTSE100 companies, he joined the Random House Group in
2008 and has been one of the main leads in helping to
steer the merger with Penguin the most significant in
publishing history. Here he is talking about his mission to
make HR sexier, the most depressing phrase in HR and
developing more HR talent.

Eugenio Pirri
The Dorchester Collection has been another regular on
our winners lists over the years (scooping four awards in
2014 and HR Young Talent of the Year and Best Talent
Management Startegy in 2015), and a regular in terms of
commenting in the magazine. Here we gain insight into
2014 HRD of the Year winner Eugenio Pirris rise to the top in
the hospitality industry and on the close alignment of the
hotel chains people and customer satisfaction strategies,
and read his thoughts on how to approach talent; why
everyone should, but often dont, love HR; and global OD.

hrmagazine.co.uk 2016 HR 12
HR ebooks HR Excellence Awards

Frequently
asked questions...
What is the deadline to submit an entry to the HR Excellence Awards 2017?
You must submit your entries by Monday 6 March 2017.

How much does it cost to enter?

If you enter before 20 January 2017 you can take advantage of a discounted rate.
For private companies, it costs 350 (increasing to 385 after the 20 January).
For public and not-for-profit companies, it costs 175 (increasing to 195 after the 20 January).
For private companies entering more than one award, each subsequent entry costs 195.

How many entries may I submit?

There is no limit on the number of entries you may submit. However, you should avoid
duplicating entries across multiple categories, tailoring the entry specifically to the criteria of the
category you are entering.

May I submit on behalf of a client?

Yes, although their permission must be obtained and evidence of this shown. You will be asked to
provide contact details of a senior person at the organisation. We may or may not contact this
person. Entries which do well are ones which get to the heart of the story and demonstrate the
impact the strategy has had. If you are a supplier and entering on behalf of a client, please ensure
that the entry is written from the perspective of the HR team of the client and get as much
involvement from them as possible.

Can I enter if I am an international company?

In 2017 international companies can enter the Best HR Strategy Overseas and Most Innovative
Deployment of HR Technology. International companies who have a presence in (have offices in
or do a lot of business in) the UK are able to enter any category.

What is the difference between the entry document and supporting material?
The main component of your entry is the entry document. All key information listed in the
criteria for the category needs to be in the entry document and not in the supporting material.
Supporting material is optional and may be submitted in addition to the entry document. It
should be used to illustrate/demonstrate what is in the entry document. Supporting material may
include, but is not limited to: photographs, testimonials, graphs/data, videos (please send a USB
stick), and hard copies of any printed material (e.g. brochures).

What happens after I have submitted my entries?

Once you have submitted your entries they will be processed by the awards team, ready for
judging. Judging takes place in April and we will announce the shortlist during the week of
10 April.

When are the winners announced?

The winners are announced at a ceremony on Tuesday 27 June, in London. Please keep this date
free in your diary.

Who are the judges?

The HR Excellence Awards 2017 will be judged by a panel of judges made up of some of the UKs
top HR directors working in leading organisations.

If your question is not answered here, please get in touch with the
awards team on 020 7501 6782, who will be happy to help.

13 HR 2016 hrmagazine.co.uk
 HR magazine is published monthly by MA Business
2016 Mark Allen Group. Editorial, production, advertising and events:
St Judes Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB.

www.markallengroup.com