Personnel Today Awards 2014 winners: McDonald's wins overall prize

McDonald’s Restaurants came out top at the 2014 Personnel Today Awards, named as overall winner for implementing an innovative new HR technology platform.

This year’s awards ceremony, the biggest in five years, attracted 950 HR professionals from some of the UK’s top employers.

Rob Brydon, star of panel show Would I Lie To You? and The Trip, entertained guests in the glamorous surroundings of the Great Room in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

McDonald’s beat competition from entrants in 22 categories, including teams and individuals from 106 businesses, to bag the coveted overall award.

This is the second time that the restaurant chain has won Personnel Today’s overall award, also having claimed it in 2008 for the way it aligned its HR goals with those of the business.

This year, the judges praised the company’s “PeopleStuff” system, which provides a “hire to retire” service to employees. It is a web-based system that allows staff and managers to do a range of work-related activities, from booking shifts to gaining manager approval.

As a result of implementing the system, restaurants have enjoyed lower crew turnover and improved productivity. McDonald’s also came top of the Excellence in HR through Technology category.

The HR Team of the Year award, sponsored by Monster, was won by London Overground Rail Operations, which successfully steered the workforce through a tough restructuring programme after a transition to driver-only trains.

Fiona Roberts from Volkswagen Group won HR Director of the Year, having overseen major changes to the car giant’s employment model.

This year, the Personnel Today awards introduced two new categories: the HR Supplier Partnership award, designed to recognise successful projects in partnership with an external provider, and Consultancy of the Year, which recognises the important role of consultancies in helping employers achieve their aims.

This was also the first year where two hugely popular categories – employee engagement and learning and development – were split into two (either fewer than or more than 1,000 employees), to recognise the efforts of both large and small companies.

The Supplier Partnership award was won by consulting company Purple Cubed, which supported hospitality chain Village Urban Resorts and De Vere Hotels’ revamp of its employer brand.

Consultancy of the year went to Mind Gym, whose “bitesize” training approach is now used in almost two-thirds of FTSE 100 companies.

Rob Moss, Personnel Today’s editor, said: “Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who made the shortlists. We were amazed by the standard of entries this year and the reception our new categories received.”