After a tough year in business and HR, it was good to celebrate some of the biggest successes. And so a record attendance list saw nearly 700 of Singapore’s best HR professionals and business leaders turn out for the seventh annual HRM Awards last night. They enjoyed a gala evening of fine food, wine, music and fireworks, not to mention the highly anticipated verdicts in each of the 23 award categories.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and SMRT Corporation came home the biggest winners of the night, each organisation bagging three awards. Standard Chartered, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), and the Ministry of Manpower each collected two trophies. Apart from these, multiple award winners, the night was punctuated by a wide breadth of organisations taking home individual prizes. With no one or two employers dominating proceedings, it was clear this was a year in which HR in many organisations stepped up to the strategic plate.
Employer of Choice
The coveted Royal Caribbean Cruises Award for Employer of Choice, representing the best in all-round HR practice, went to HP, the third time in six years that the technology company had taken home the top prize. Don Robertson, Vice President of HR for HP Asia Pacific and Japan brought the whole team on stage to accept the award.
“We didn''t expect it so we''re very humbled by it,” he told HRM at the close of the event. “We feel HP is a great place to work so we''re excited that we''ve been recogonised for that.”
And the secret to such success? “It''s (finding) a good balance between winning in the marketplace and also making an environment that our employees want to be part of.” HP was also named joint winner (with McDonald’s Restaurants) of the ST701 Award for Best Employer Branding.
SMRT Corporation rated strongly in the individual categories, but also took home the Aviva Award for Best HR Team. The team at Unilever meanwhile won its first HRM Award, for best Change Management Practices.
Yena Lim, Managing Director of A*Star, was honoured as the winner of the Hudson Award for Champion of HR. She led a strong field of CEOs and senior business leaders who have made HR strategy a key priority in business. Geraldine Lee, Chief HR Officer, NTUC First Campus Co-operative, also enjoyed an individual prize, receiving the Robert Walters Award for Best HR Leader.
In the two other individual prizes, Madelene Lee, Senior Manager, HR Development, SMRT Corporation received the Randstad Award for Best HR Manager and Daphne Wee, Manager of HR Policy and Planning within the Ministry of Manpower’s People Matters Department, was named the best HR Young Gun.
Outstanding Contribution
The HRM Awards celebration also included a special tribute to one of the stalwarts of the profession in Singapore. Tommy Ng, Senior Vice President of Corporate Services with SMRT Corporation, was the surprise winner of the M H C Asia Group Award for Outstanding Contribution to HR.
Ng is well known in the HR community as a strong advocate for good industrial relations practices and has made significant contributions to the welfare and development of workers across many industries in Singapore, including 20 years in hotels alone. He was part of the SMRT delegation at the Awards but did not know he was in line for a personal award.
The suspense was further enhanced by Dr Low Lee Yong, Founder and CEO of the M H C Asia Group, who challenged the audience to guess the winner.
“I really did not expect this award,” Ng told HRM after the standing ovation. “I''m very happy and honoured that all these years of hard work are being recognised.” Ng also paid special tribute to the many colleagues and friends won along the way. “A lot of what I do is the result of the good and dedicated people that I work with - past and present,” he said. “To all of those people I thank you.”
Industry judges
The HRM Awards have been held annually for seven years and are widely recognised as the pre-eminent recognition of HR excellence in Singapore. That’s largely thanks to the independent judging process.
Each of the 23 categories was judged by 18 esteemed industry experts, including representatives from the Workforce Development Agency, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices, the Employer Alliance, and the Ministry of Manpower. The awards were open to all employers in Singapore and this year 70 organisations were nominated across the 23 categories. These finalists came from both private and public sectors – and included multinationals, local companies, government agencies and small businesses.
While it was the larger groups like HP and SMRT Corporation taking the bigger awards this year, smaller organisations certainly put up a strong challenge. With HR becoming a vital priority for businesses of all shapes and sizes, next year’s event is expected to be, once again, bigger and better than ever.
And the winners are…
Royal Caribbean Cruises Award for Employer of Choice
Hewlett-Packard Singapore
Robert Walters Award for Best HR Leader
Geraldine Lee, Chief Human Resource Officer, NTUC First Campus Co-operative
Kelly Selection Award for Innovation in Recruitment
Yahoo! South East Asia
Randstad Award for Best HR Manager
Madelene Lee, Senior Manager, Human Resources Development, SMRT Corporation
Aviva Award for Best HR Team
SMRT Corporation
Thomsons Online Benefits Award for Best Use of Technology
Hewlett-Packard Singapore
ST701 Award for Best Employer Branding
JOINT WINNERS - McDonald''s Restaurants and Hewlett-Packard Singapore
The GMP Group Award for Fair Employment Practices
Standard Chartered Bank
Grass Roots Asia Pacific Award for Best Reward and Recognition Strategies
Chevron Corporation
NTUC LearningHub Award for Best Training, Learning and Development
Deutsche Bank AG- Asia Pacific Head Office
Zurich International Life Award for Best Retention Strategies
Daimler SE Asia
Hudson Award for Champion of HR
Yena Lim, Managing Director, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
M H C Group Award for Outstanding Contribution to HR
Tommy Ng, Senior Vice President of Corporate Services, SMRT Corporation
Suntec Singapore Award for Best Corporate and Employee Citizenship
The Bodyshop International (Asia Pacific)
Best Business Continuity Practices
Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
Best Performance Management
Singapore General Hospital
Best Talent Development Strategy
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Best Change Management Practices
Unilever Asia
Best Graduate Development Practices
Standard Chartered Bank
Best Mature Workforce Practices
Alexandra Hospital
Best Leadership Development
Singapore Police Force
Best Work-Life Harmony
Sony Electronics Asia Pacific
Best HR Young Gun
Daphne Wee, Manager HR Policy & Planning, People Matters Department, Ministry of Manpower (MOM)