1. Best Crisis Management and Leadership
In the face of dramatic contextual jolts, HR deliverables of talent, leadership, and organisation become even more pivotal. Winning entries are those that clearly indicate how HR helps leaders make bold business decisions, instil confidence with all stakeholders through clear crisis communication, and have a robust business continuity plan in place to ensure the business stays afloat.
2. Best Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Equal opportunity employment goes beyond numbers and quotas, to unlock inclusive policies that do not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training or promoting whatsoever. The winning entry should demonstrate that the organisation has taken active steps in recognising and celebrating all forms of diversity, not limited to race, gender, age, sexuality, culture and physical capabilities; and has put in place policies for inclusion across the workforce.
3. Best ESG Programme
This category recognises HR teams who have helped drive and incorporate sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors as an organisational imperative. Judges will be looking for how the ESG strategy was used to enhance organisational culture, pride and loyalty amongst employees.
4. Best Executive Coaching Programme
This category recognises HR teams that have designed executive coaching programmes tailored to help senior executives become adaptive, innovative and more agile business leaders. Focused on rewarding HR teams that have either organised in-house transformational coaching or collaborated with external vendors, the programmes that shift behaviours and mindsets while fuelling business growth will win.
5. Best First-Time Manager Programme
Organisations that provide robust support to help individual contributors transition to become first-time managers and instil confidence when diving into their new role will be shortlisted as finalists. Judges will crown teams whose programmes set new managers up for success in their new role, by equipping them with the tools, knowledge and behaviours that they need to build and motivate their team.
6. Best Graduate Training Programme
This award recognises the efforts of organisations in developing high caliber graduates that are either recent school leavers or those with one-two years of work experience. The judges will determine the success of the organisation by its ability to display success in grooming young talent to become future leaders through an accelerated learning environment, formal training, purposeful business opportunities and professional development.
7. Best Holistic Leadership Development Strategy
HR and leadership functions are under extreme pressure to proactively prepare organisations for the long road to recovery. With that, this category looks at leadership development strategy as a whole, the effectiveness of the various programmes, and the business benefits accrued as a result of developing high-quality leaders. As such, leadership programmes that focus on communication skills, soft skills training and more will rise above the rest as winners.
8. Best HR Communication Strategy
Leading organisations are able to deliver a gold-quality employee experience by capitalising on the wide array of internal and external communication channels. HR teams that have transformed the business through their effective and transparent communication strategy should enter. Winners of this category are those that have leveraged on social media and other innovative practices to reliably communicate key messaging to various stakeholders, to keep them highly engaged on the progress of business decisions.
9. Best Management Training Programme
Focused on grooming high potential talent across various career stages from early, mid to top-level for leadership positions, judges are on the lookout for effective and all-rounded management training programmes. Entries that showcase how relevant and consistent management training has enabled the talent to execute business strategies, and contribute to long-term success will be frontrunners in the judges’ eyes.
10. Best Succession Planning Strategy
Managing succession has come more into focus than ever before. Judges are on the lookout for the future-focused practice of identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform certain functions and then developing and executing a plan to prepare multiple individuals to potentially perform those functions.
11. Best Women Leadership Programme
This category celebrates organisations that advocate for a collaborative, positive and open approach to women empowerment and leadership. Entries that highlight how the organisation supports and nurtures a growing pool of talented female professionals, while pushing to become an equal opportunity employer in all aspects of rewards, performance and development will take home this award.
12. Most Inspiring Leader – Individual winner category
Recent times have seen some of the most challenging socio-economic times and brought with them a real test of leadership. This category is a remarkable opportunity to recognise a leader who has demonstrated leadership at any level, from the frontline to C-suite, and has stepped up to help individuals and teams navigate personal and business challenges. Inspirational leaders who showcase how they leverage on their ambition and vision to spark confidence in others, motivate, engage and drive high performance will win.
*Prerequisite: In order to be eligible for this award, the company of the respective candidate must have entered at least 2 other categories at the Employee Experience Awards 2024. This is to support their claims to the judges with examples of work the candidate had been involved in leading or overseeing.