Vodafone wins top prize at Personnel Today Awards 2007

The human resource team at Vodafone picked up the overall winner award at the Personnel Today Awards 2007 in London’s Park Lane last night.

The telecommunications firm was presented with its award by Personnel Today’s editor Karen Dempsey and impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner at a glittering ceremony.

Vodafone beat 12 other award winners to the top prize, after taking the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group Employee Engagement award.

Matthew Brearley, HR director at Vodafone UK, said: “It’s a fantastic achievement – we have got a brilliant team. They all work very hard. It is all down to them, and they absolutely deserve it.”

Winners in 12 other categories included:

• HR impact - BSkyB
• Employer branding - Cross Key Homes
• HR director of the year - Sharon Benson      
• Recruitment and retention - Royal Bank of Scotland     
• Business partnering - AA               
• Training - Maybourne Hotels    
• Reward and recognition - Park Lane College    
• HR strategy in line with business - Broadway          
• Diversity - Yorkshire Water      
• Talent management - Amey             
• HR measurement - Standard Chartered   
• Excellence in HR through technology - AstraZeneca   

Helen Giles, HR director at charity Broadway, said: “We are very happy and proud. We’re delighted that a small charity for homeless people could demonstrate as much excellence as a private sector company for our work.”

And Airi Healey, head of volume resourcing at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “It’s a real pleasure, we are utterly delighted.

“We had an innovative approach. HR worked with business divisions across the UK, and a lot of people made recruitment and retention a particular success.”