For the first time, the overall
winner of the Personnel Today Awards is a public sector organisation –
Hertfordshire County Council.
People and property director
Alan Warner and his team were ecstatic when they collected their gold trophy
last night in front of more than 1,000 guests at the fifth awards gala dinner.
Hertfordshire’s brilliant work
in becoming the first public sector body to outsource its entire recruitment
service, saving up to £3m, outshone 12 private sector category winners to take
the overall prize. The victors received £5,000 worth of team development
training provided by Cranfield School of Management.
The overall judges were
impressed by Hertfordshire’s achievements given the complex political
environment it is working in. It outsourced all recruitment and retention to
Manpower, including advertising, management of temporary and permanent staff
and redeployment. As a result, response to recruitment campaigns has
dramatically improved, e-recruitment is now in place and temporary staff
benefit from a 24/7 service. Hertfordshire County Council employs 25,000 staff
and is the biggest employer in the area.
Special tributes were also paid
to the 2003 HR Director of the Year, Beverley Shears, for taking such a
tenacious approach to shifting the culture at the UK’s biggest train operator,
South West Trains. Shears transformed the industrial relations environment with
a new HR strategy, which focused on building, developing and maintaining
relationships.
The overall judges, who chose
an outright winner from all the category winners, were William Coupar, director
of the Involvement and Participation Association; Steve Harvey, director of
people, profit and culture at Microsoft; Mary Mallet, president of the Society
of Chief Personnel Officers in Local Government, and Colin Povey, chief
executive of Carlsberg Tetley.
The Personnel Today Awards
2003 winners in full
● Overall winner and
TMP/Hudson Global Resources Award for Innovation in Recruitment and Retention: Hertfordshire
County Council
● Aon Health Solutions
Award for Managing Health at Work: West Bromwich Building Society
● Computers In Personnel
Award for HR Collaboration: Lloyds TSB
● Deloitte Award for
Innovation in Measuring Human Capital: The Royal Bank of Scotland
● Department for Work and
Pensions Age Positive at Work Award: Barclays Business Banking
● Hammonds HR Director of
the Year Award: Beverley Shears, South West Trains
● Intellect Award for
Innovation in Career Development: Nationwide Building Society
● KnowledgePool Award for
Excellence in Training: Lyreco
● Northgate EmpowerHR
Award for Excellence in HR through Technology: New Look
● RebusHR Award for Best
HR Strategy in Line with Business: Motorola
● RightCoutts Employer
Branding Award: Alliance & Leicester
● SHL Award for Global HR
Strategy: Canon Europe
● Snowdrop Systems Award
for Communication Strategy: O2
