Human Resources Excellence Awards 2013

The inaugural Human Resources Excellence Awards saw some of the biggest companies in Singapore get recognised for their best practices in a gala night filled with music, awards and celebration.

On the evening of Wednesday, 22 May, HR leaders got together at St Regis Singapore for the inaugural Human Resources Excellence Awards.

Human Resources editor Rebecca Lewis kicked off the gala night by welcoming the 250-strong crowd and setting the festive tone for the night.

"There are some who might question the need for another awards programme for HR practitioners in Singapore, but to them I say ‘look a little closer.'

"There is currently no award out there in the world - let alone in Singapore - that is assessed and evaluated entirely by HR practitioners themselves, that places all its emphasis on peer-to-peer intelligence and benchmarking," Lewis said.

And that truly was one of the things that set the awards apart from others.

A total of 16 senior HR practitioners from companies such as Sentosa Leisure Group, Daimler Southeast Asia, Shell, DHL, Google Asia Pacific, Credit Suisse AG and Volvo East Asia helped judge the awards.

Entries came through from more than 60 companies for the 18 categories, which included Excellence in Compensation and Benefits Strategy, Excellence in Employee Diversity Strategies, Excellence in HR Social Media, Excellence in HR Technology as well as Excellence in Talent Management.

There were also three highly coveted awards - HR Team of the Year, HR Grand Winner 2013 and the prestigious HR Professional of the Year.

Unilever Asia was crowned both HR Team of the Year and HR Grand Winner 2013, sweeping up a total of 10 awards on the night.

John Nolan, SVP of HR for Unilever's global markets, said in his acceptance speech for HR Grand Winner 2013 that Singapore is one of the few countries where the "HR profession is held in such high esteem", and Unilever was honoured to have been recognised by their industry peers.

Unilever Asia also picked up bronze trophies for Diversity Strategies and Leadership Development, and gold trophies for Compensation and Benefits Strategy, Employer Brand Building, Graduate Development, Recruitment & Retention Strategy, Talent Management and Workplace Well-Being.

Girish Ganesan, head of human resources at Manulife Financial (SEA), was recognised as the HR Professional of the Year, calling the win both "a huge shock and honour".

"No human being can achieve all of this alone. My key to success was leveraging on my past experience and knowledge coupled with engaging global, regional and local support and expertise," Ganesan said.

The entries were judged based on four criteria, including vision and goal, implementation, impact and efforts for continual improvements.

Ministry of Manpower also won big at the awards, taking home seven trophies including a bronze in Excellence in Talent Management, silver in Recruitment and Retention Strategy, HR Technology, Employer Branding, Employee Work-Life Balance, Employee Development, and a gold in Mature Workforce Practices.

The awards were presented to winners by Lewis, Human Resources senior journalist Sabrina Zolkifi, as well as the event's judges such as Debanjan Sen, executive director of HR transformation at Societe Generale, Paul Ong, general manager for HR for Sony Electronics SEA, Li-Ki Khaw, head of HR at ANZ Banking Group, A Mateen, VP of HR for DHL Express South Asia, and Eckart Jensen, VP of HR project for HR compliance and HR audit, at Daimler Southeast Asia.

The event's sponsors, including Karen Tok, managing director at Scientec Consulting, Sureish Nathan, managing director for the Centre for Creative Leadership, Cynthia Stuckey, managing director at Forum Corporation Singapore, and Susan Teo, head of executive search at RMA Group, were also on stage to present some of the awards.

"It's fantastic to celebrate how committed locally-based HR professionals are to elevating HR standards," Lewis said.

"The turnout for this first-time event has proven there is a real place in Singapore for an awards show like this.

"I look forward to welcoming an even bigger crowd back for next year's event."