Australian HR Awards 2006 winners announced

Deloitte CEO Giam Swiegers was named the country’s best HR champion at the recent Australian HR Awards 2006.

Held on Friday 15 September in Sydney, the awards recognise excellence across the entire spectrum of HR, with organisations from around the country competing in 17 categories.

Sponsored by Aon Consulting and organised by leading HR industry magazine Human Resources, winners included organisations such as Cisco Systems, Sydney Ports Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers and GM Holden.

Attended by 500 guests, Citibank Australia chairman Ron Bunker presented the keynote at the gala awards ceremony while entertainer and comic Peter Berner was MC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers took out The MBA Connect Award for Best Graduate Intake Program for providing a good variety and depth of training and opportunities for graduates, while Sunstate Cement was recognised for its integrated and responsive strategy to business risk and objectives in winning The SageCo Award for Best Mature Age Workforce Implementation.

On an individual level, Alec Bashinsky, Deloitte’s national partner for people and performance, took out The HR Partners Award for Best HR Director for his high level of innovation and commitment, while Deloitte’s CEO Giam Swiegers won The ipac HR Champion - CEO Award for demonstrated commitment to HR in addition to leveraging the function to increase performance, profit and reputation.

“Winning these awards very much reflects the change management, people strategies and ‘can do’ attitude we have focussed on at Deloitte,” said Swiegers.

“Ultimately in professional services there is only one key differentiator - our people. With Australia’s political and industry leadership increasingly focussed on better managing, training and retention of the country’s skilled workforce, the Australian HR Awards 2006 are to be commended for their focus on best practice,” he said.

Bashinsky said Deloitte has worked hard to develop and enhance a range of people issues in the firm, with strategies for graduate and career development, cultural diversity, learning and development as well as executive coaching. A cost-saving program called ‘Find Like Minds’ has also saved the firm more than $1.2 million in recruitment costs over the past 12 months.

“Our focus has been on the high end value add HR strategies and partnering with our business leaders to achieve a stronger leadership and people focus within the firm. To me, this award is a confirmation that our people and performance strategy and execution is paying off and working more effectively internally within the firm,” Bashinsky said.

Developed in conjunction with leading academics and professionals from the HR industry, this year’s selection and judging process included employee opinion surveys in addition to a two-tier nomination and selection process in which all submissions were reviewed by a shortlisting and final judging panel.