Personnel Today is delighted to launch an exciting new awards scheme: Best Places to Work in HR, in association with Courtenay HR.
Given that HR departments spend their time creating great places to work for employees in their organisation, we felt it was about time you received some recognition for your efforts. Is your HR department the most fabulous place to work in the UK? Then now’s your chance to tell your peers all about it.
We’ll be gauging the opinions of HR professionals over the next few weeks, and in October we’ll announce the very best places to work in HR at an exclusive awards and drinks reception.
HR functions will be recognised for their contribution in the following categories:
Leadership
Professional development
Employee engagement
Reward and recognition
Best large HR function
Best small HR function.
There will also be a prize for the Overall Best Place to Work in HR.
To be in with a chance of winning, you just need to get members of the HR department to fill in a survey online (the more who complete it, the better your score) by 27 July.
Be assured that all responses will remain strictly confidential.
Best Places to Work in HR 2007 Online Survey
What makes a great place to work?
So what makes a great place to work? Having spent the past few years working in one, there appears to be no single item, no one magic pill, that you either adopt, implement or change that does it. Like most things, it’s a combination of factors. But which ones? And how do you know what to focus on to make the grade?
Well, for starters, an unwavering, determined focus on being a best place to work will probably not get you there. Sounds strange? Well, they say that if you focus on profit alone as a goal, you will not achieve maximum profitability. Better to focus on doing great business and the profit will follow.
And the same applies in terms of being a great place to work – you need to focus on the elements that come together to give people the feeling that this is the ultimate place to be in terms of personal and professional fulfilment, and not on achieving the end goal itself.
Although it’s an over-used word, engagement is the key here. Employees will need to ask themselves any number of the following questions:
Am I getting a return on the energy I am putting into my role?
Do I respect and admire my leader?
Does my leader respect and admire me?
Does my reward meet my expectations?
Am I taken seriously?
Can I see the impact of what I do?
These and many others are questions that we, as employees, ask ourselves all the time. Sadly, in most cases the answer to many of them is ‘no’.
Organisations that can work out the root drivers of these issues and turn them into positive responses are the ones who will ultimately be ahead of the game.
By Gareth Jones, leader, Courtenay HR
About Courtenay HR
Founded more than 36 years ago, Courtenay HR is one of the UK’s leading HR search and selection and interim companies.
Gareth Jones, leader at Courtenay, says: “Most of our work is now repeat business from FTSE 100 companies, so we get to handle the most interesting, inspiring and sought-after opportunities in the market.
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“And we attract the most interesting, inspiring and sought-after individuals to fill them.”
Click here for details of Courtenay HR’s practice, services and clients.
