Photos of the sold-out event, featuring winners from six categories
HR practitioners from across New Zealand came together at a sold-out event at the Hilton Auckland last Thursday when the HR Awards New Zealand made a grand return as a live, in-person event for the first time since 2019.
The hotly anticipated event recognised the efforts of the most innovative leaders and teams from Aotearoa’s HR industry during the last year – as the talent squeeze took its grip on our nation.
Winners were named across six categories. Individual awards included HR Director of the Year, HR Manager of the Year, HR Rising Star of the Year, and team awards included Employer of Choice (Under and over 200 employees) and HR Team of the Year.
Love HR founder Stephanie Love (pictured above) hosted the HRD National HR Summit, telling HRD it was a great honour to “be amongst such inspirational leaders. I know many of the attendees thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect in-person again. I look forward to next year’s event.”
If you’d like to attend or nominate someone for next year’s event, make sure to sign up to the HRD newsletter where we announce key dates for the awards.
Here are your 2023 HR Awards New Zealand winners:
HR Manager of the Year went to Holly Gibson (pictured left below) formerly from Assurity Consulting where she was nominated for the award. Speaking to HRD after winning Gibson said, “It’s about not having all the answers but actually talking to your people to understand what they need and designing with them, and I’ve just been recognised for that which I can’t believe, it’s pretty surprising and amazing.”
Phillipa Gimmillaro from Hind Management won the HR Director of the Year award. Unable to be there in person, the award was collected on her behalf by Sadia Hoosen-Daniel (pictured right below). In a post on LinkedIn, Gimmillaro said she was “incredibly humbled” by the win and thanked her CEO and COO for enabling her to “lead a true people-centric approach.”
Phoebe Donaldson (pictured below) from Spark New Zealand was named as the HR industry’s Rising Star of the Year. Expressing her excitement on LinkedIn, Donaldson wrote, “Yesterday was a big career and personal highlight. Feeling happy, grateful, reflective, appreciative and super excited for all the future growth moments ahead.”
In the team awards, Douglas Pharmaceuticals people and culture team (pictured below) were named the HR Team of the Year. After accepting the prestigious team award, GM of people and culture, Ceri Rowland told HRD, “Our whole team is jumping for joy. We’re just thrilled! It’s really lovely to be acknowledged for all the hard work and the passion and the drive that this team shows every single day to make a positive impact.”
In the Employer of Choice categories, Electric Kiwi took out the Over 200 Employees category and law firm Simpson Grierson won the Under 200 Employees category. (Pictured in order below).
Click here for the full list of winners and excellence awardees.
If you would like to nominate someone for the 2024 awards sign up to the HRD newsletter to keep up to date with key date announcements.
