Whether it's boosting your employer brand or adding to your bottom line, award recognition has its benefits
Nominations are now open for HR’s most outstanding professionals as the fourth annual HRD Awards returns for 2023. Nominations opened on 31 October, and close on 2 December. Winners will be announced at the HRD HR Summit at the Hilton in April 2023.
Click here to learn more and nominate
HRD spoke with Gary Flynn, general manager at Clarkson’s and recipient of a 2022 Employer of Choice Excellence Award. The company was first-time entrant into the awards, and Flynn said they were thrilled to get the recognition.
“For our business it has been about a measure of success – we think we’re great and so do many of our customers, but how do we demonstrate this?” said Flynn. “Entering an award was one way to independently evaluate us versus others.”
An unintended benefit of winning the award came a bit later while Clarkson’s was tendering for a deal with a large international company. “We were asked to demonstrate an example of where we had received any recognition for our diversity and inclusion efforts,” Flynn said.
Read more: Awards NZ to recognise top HR leaders, teams and employers
The company was able to respond outlining their efforts and subsequent recognition from the HRD Awards. “Which was great,” Flynn said, “and we won the tender, which was even better.”
Being a great place to work does not just happen.
HR teams put a lot of work in behind the scenes to make sure their company’s employer brand is the best it can possibly be, something that is increasingly difficult in the current tight talent market.
Evelien Johnston, senior HR business partner at KraftHeinz, who won an Excellence Award for HR Team of the Year and an Employer of Choice Award, said, “At Heinz Wattie’s, one of our key values is ‘dare to be better every day’. We are constantly challenging ourselves on how we can improve our employee experience and be an employer of choice. Knowing that we are making a difference is incredibly rewarding, we feel proud to have been awarded in recognition of all the initiatives we have designed and delivered.”
Read more: HRD Awards now open for nominations
Gabrielle Cook, national people and culture manager at Gallagher Bassett (GBNZ) said, “Entering the HRD awards gave GBNZ an opportunity to showcase the incredible effort put in by the wider team in making GBNZ a great place to work. The recognition has allowed us to build our employment brand and validate what we have always known – that being a great place to work does not just happen.”
Award information
The annual HRD Awards is the leading independent awards program in New Zealand. The awards showcase the country’s most outstanding HR teams, leaders and employers for their innovation, best practices, and achievements in the HR profession over the past 12 months.
There are seven categories open to in-house HR teams, HR leaders, and programs across areas such as leadership, workplace flexibility, employee wellbeing, diversity, and more.
Award categories include:
- NZ HR Director of the Year
- NZ HR Rising Star
- Best Reward & Recognition Program
- Best Workplace Diversity & Inclusion Program
- Service Provider of the Year
We encourage you to put forward your team, programs, colleagues, or even yourself, for as many categories as you like.
Award Methodology
Nominations: Nominations are open for submission from 31/10/22 – 02/12/22 via the event’s online portal. The awards are free to enter. Individuals and companies can nominate themselves or their peers in unlimited categories. Submissions must focus on the achievements of the last 12 months.
Research and judging: The HRD Awards team conduct thorough research to verify all submissions and nominations. An independent panel of judges made up of HR leaders from around New Zealand review submissions and allocate each nominee with a confidential and impartial score.
Winners: Winners will be announced at HRD’s annual HR Summit, a highly anticipated, in-person event held on Auckland’s waterfront at the Hilton on 27 April 2023.
