Birmingham City Council overall winner at Personnel Today Awards

Birmingham City Council was named overall winner at last night’s Personnel Today Awards ceremony at the Park Lane Hilton in London. Praised for its “innovative approach” to utilising and engaging talent, the UK’s largest local authority won top prize after scooping the award for excellence in public sector HR.

More than 800 HR professionals from some of the UK’s top employers were entertained by comedian Marcus Brigstocke – taking time out from starring in Monty Python’s Spamalot musical to present the awards – and a performance from X Factor 2009’s Jamie “Afro” Archer.

The judges said that they were particularly impressed by Birmingham City Council’s ambitious and intelligent programme for change and commended the council for driving efficiency through every part of the process.

After receiving the award, councillor Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equalities and human resources at Birmingham City Council, said: “What we’ve done is, with very limited resources, we’ve saved money, boosted the morale of our workforce, given career structure and yet delivered the goods.

“What a delight it is that Personnel Today gave us the chance to be recognised for that.”

Meanwhile, Tracy Robbins, HR director at InterContinental Hotels Group, was named HR director of the year. She was commended for the “commercial approach” taken by her HR function and for creating a joined-up culture at the group which includes hotel brands like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.

The brand new HR rising star category was won by Zoe Lloyd at health, safety and environmental consultancy RSK Group. Lloyd was described as a “truly outstanding individual” by the judges.

Members of staff from communications and IT solutions company Outsourcery jumped up and down with joy when they won the employer branding award.

Claire Billington, HR director of Outsourcery, commented: “This award recognises the hard work and efforts displayed by our management team to turn Outsourcery into an industry brand, a world-leading company and a great place to work.

“Our success this year shows that despite the economic slump, we have shown determination and drive to push the company forward.”

This page will be updated throughout the week with reaction from last night’s winners and pictures and videos from the event.

You can find the shortlists for each category, photos and the judges’ comments on our Personnel Today 2010 winners page.