of outstanding achievement during the 10th Annual China Staff HR Awards. Aubrey Buckingham was at the ceremony to witness how cutting-edge HR strategies can benefit organisations across the board.
Held at the Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, this year's gala was once again hosted by Sharon Yap, editor of China STAFF. Guests were gathered from all across the globe for the ten-year milestone, with travelers from the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shenzhen among the crowd.
Yap took attendees on a trip down memory lane to when the awards was first conceived in 1998 and only six categories were recognised during the ceremony held in Hong Kong.“As the Awards turns 10 this year, we look back with an incredible sense of awe and respect at how far the HR profession has come,”she said.“Not only have HR practitioners managed admirably in a frenzied environment of continually mobile talent, the best of you have run the gauntlet of HR challenges to end up with a treasured reward – respect from stakeholders.”
The awards were judged from industry submissions. Independent reference checks plus supplemental questions from a panel of independent judges were also part of the process to ensure accuracy and objectivity. This year's panel consisted of David Li of Evonik Degussa, Freddie Chow of Sanofi-Aventis and Mark Giorgini of China Vanke. Judges assessed nominations on their ability to demonstrate excellence, show a clear relationship with HR initiatives and organisational betterment, demonstrate innovation in practice, identify a clear link between HR and overall organisational directives and to show a significant contribution to developing good practice and the HR community.
The Practitioner Awards – The people that make things work
The first award of the evening, MRI China's HR Team of the Year, was given to an ecstatic Federal Express (China).The title has gathered popularity over the years, and was awarded to FedEx on the basis that the team had the best business objectives outcome, put in a tremendous effort in spite of the great difficulty involved. According to the judges, the shared service centre program boasted excellent structure, which managed to get everyone to deliver in a short period of time. Also competing in the category were Baxter (China), Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical, Boehringer Ingelheim (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical and Microsoft (China).
Next up was the China Team International's HR Director of the Year. Impressing judges with her ability to think out of the box was Ivy Liu of Hill and Knowlton (China) Public Relations. Excited, happy and honoured to clinch the award, Liu acknowledge that it was more than her personal strengths that saw her take the accolade. “I’ve pushed the HR function from zero up to the seat of a top management team. Also, people are the only asset to a PR firm, which provides professional PR services to clients. My team and I have made serious efforts to staff retention and career development in this high-turnover-rate-industry.” Hill and Kowlton is the second PR firm to take home a gong in the awards’10 year history. Other finalists included Tony Ling of AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Company and Grace Wang of Dade Behring Diagnostics (Shanghai).
With the upcoming changes to labour law across China's mainland, it is of paramount importance to have the right professional keeping abreast of the ramifications. This year's Labour Lawyer of the Year, Matthew Durham of Simmons & Simmons, should be just the right man for the job, with solid China-related groundwork behind him and a mastery of problem-solving for his clients.“I’ve worked very hard for my clients, and it's nice to get personal recognition.”Durham's fellow practitioners short-listed for the award were Andreas Lauffs of Baker & McKenzie, along with his colleague and last year's winner Fiona Loughrey, also from Simmons & Simmons.
The Best HR Practices Awards – Strategies for the future
The Global HR's Best Practice in Engagement and Retention was given to Spansion (China). The company, which ranked top in a Hewitt Associates survey for the best companies to work for in China, was deemed to have taken a complex and vague idea – culture – and put it into practice. Even though it is an international company, it managed to make their culture program local to effectively appeal to local employees and make it understandable to them. Judges also found the detailed specifics of Spansion's HR initiatives a pleasure to read. Also nominated were 3M China, Federal Express (China) and Bayer CropScience (China).
Meanwhile, Frasers Hospitality's Best HR Strategy for Business Growth was awarded to Microsoft (China). The winner of the HR Team of the Year in 2005 took home its latest accolade with a strategy that stood out to the judges. According to the panel, “often such strategies are imposed from the head office, but this company saw the need, defined the approach and socialised it with its global peers.”Microsoft's efforts beat off challenges from China Mobile Group Beijing, Spansion (China), Hill & Knowlton (China) Public Relations, Bayer CropScience (China) and DSM (China).
The HR Service Provider's Awards – Professional HR services
Training Firm of the Year went to ClarkMorgan Corporate Training. It uniqueness was its strong point, and it has shown itself to be an innovative, well-rounded training provider. “The award is testament to the hard work and relentless dedication from all past and present staff.,” said Luke Lombe, national marketing manager for ClarkMorgan. “We are proud to be a part of the HR community, advising and guiding them in the development of staff.” Also up for the award were China Team Leadership Academy, Wilson Learning China and Auralog Software Development Company.
This year's Recruitment Firm of the Year was awarded to MRI Worldwide China Group. The firm was focused on achievements during the 2006/7 time frame and showed good corporate social responsibility. It also showed itself to be unique among fellow nominees, which included China Team International, EPC Consulting, Career International Consulting and Manpower China.
Outsourcing Firm of the Year was ADP China. Despite formidable competition from long-time incumbents Hewitt Associates, ADP's end-to-end services were deemed to be comprehensive enough to warrant the award. Other finalists included Career International Consulting, Randstad (China), Hewitt Associates Consulting (Shanghai) and Manpower China.
The e-HR Firm of the Year award was dished out to Platinum HRM, who had submitted detailed examples to judges which were specific as to what the issues were and how the HRIS system resolved these issues. Also vying for the title was Neusoft Group.
The final award of the evening was the eagerly anticipated China Team Leadership Academy's Consulting Firm of the Year for Talent Management. This year's winner was Hewitt Associates Consulting (Shanghai) for being comprehensive, solution-based and simply for being the most outstanding. “Hewitt is on a mission to make China a better place to work, and this award shows that we are on the right track to fulfilling this mission,” said Hewitt's Beecher Ashley-Brown. The other finalists were Taihe Consulting and Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
All finalists did not leave empty-handed, as they were issued with certificates of recognition for their excellence and dedication throughout the year. Attendees were also given a chance to rub shoulders with their peers over a sumptuous dinner with entertainment in the background. All in all, everyone turned out to be a winner on the night. |
