A night to celebrate

The 24th year of the NZ HR awards attracted over 450 attendees, who came together for the night to connect and celebrate success across the HR industry.

Organised by HRNZ, in association with Principal Partner MAS, the NZ HR Awards are the pre eminent accolade for human resources management in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The Awards provided the perfect opportunity reflect on, appreciate and celebrate all the hard work across the profession over the past 12 months, and recognise excellence across numerous awards categories.

Special Awards

HR Person of the Year

The HR Person of the Year Award is selected from the individual award winners, for the most impactful contribution to the HR industry in Aotearoa. Winner of the Leadership Award, Laura Warren, also came away from the evening as HR Person of the Year.

Laura has shown outstanding leadership in the HR profession in New Zealand. As Deputy Chief Executive: People, Culture & Safety at Otago Polytechnic, she leads across a broad HR spectrum daily. Laura contributes locally and nationally to best-practice, people-focused strategies and workplace culture.

She is known for her pragmatic, authentic and engaging approach and her positive impact in both strategic and operational plans and decisions. Laura is an active part of the HRNZ community and held the role of President for HRNZ’s Otago Branch for the past three years.

HRNZ Supreme Award

Z Energy won the HRNZ Supreme Award for greatest overall leadership in HR practice. Also winners of the Innovation Award, Z Energy came away on top thanks to their hard mahi on closing their organisation’s gender pay gap. Salary transparency, an innovative KiwiSaver offering and systematic modelling of their gender pay gap, have helped Z Energy, deliver their objective to completely close their pay gap by FY2024.

The Outstanding Service Award was presented to Kirsten Patterson DistFHRNZ, CEO at the Institute of Directors. Kirsten (KP) has a background in HR, which catapulted her into a successful career in governance and working as a chief executive. Despite her new career focus, KP maintained her support and association with HRNZ. She continues to help in shaping the profession via presenting and contributing as mentor, chartered assessor and awards judge.

Individual Award Winners

The Individual Awards recognise leading HR professionals across Aotearoa. These are professionals making a meaningful difference, championing change and leading HR best practice.

For her excellence in her role as an Associate, ER/HR Consultant and Licensed Private Investigator for Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, Kerry Tattersall was the recipient of the HR Professional of the Year Award. Outside of her work, Kerry contributes to HR through her role as Branch President of HRNZ’s Hawkes Bay Branch, and as an assessor for Accreditation with HRNZ. “Kerry’s strength lies in the ability to slice through communication knots to enable a positive outcome by the power of restorative practices and coaching techniques.”

The Emerging HR Practitioner of the Year Award identifies emerging HR talent and was awarded to Jason Cook, HR Manager at Mt Pokaka Timber Products. Jason finds his work extremely rewarding. “The HR profession allows me to critically think about solutions to challenges faced by my organisation.”

Another up-and-coming HR star is Rebecca Jackson, who was named HR Student of the Year. Rebecca is beginning a career in HR, after

recently completing her studies of Human Resource Management at Massey University. In 2022, Rebecca was an HRNZ Student Ambassador and a valuable member of the Manawatu Branch Committee. We look forward to seeing the great things Rebecca does in the future!

The winner of the inaugural Wellbeing Leadership Award was Sarah Mason, the National Wellbeing Manager at Fulton Hogan. Sarah has led the implementation, evaluation and development of Fulton Hogan’s hugely successful nationwide wellbeing programme, which has achieved increased awareness and understanding of wellbeing in the workplace.

The Academic Impact Award was also introduced for the first time at this year’s awards. This award went to ‘job crafter’ Deepika Jindal. Deepika is a reflective academic, who is passionate about HRM, and strives to add value to her students, the University of Auckland and the wider community.

Mana Tāngata Award Winners

The Mana Tangata Māori HR Awards recognise individuals or organisations who incorporate bicultural HR practices into their work, enacting tikanga Māori.

For their emerging work on bicultural practice, Te Whatu Ora, Waitaha me te Tai o Poutini won the Emerging Māori HR Award. Te Whatu Ora recognises that by improving the diversity of their staff, they can better serve their patients. “If our patients can see themselves, they are more likely to have a positive experience in our system.” They have designed a three-stage tikanga-based recruitment process that is based on core values: whanaungatanga, arohatanga and manaakitanga.

As a leader in enacting tikanga Māori in the workplace, Otago Polytechnic – Te Kura Matakini ki Otago, were awarded the Leader Māori HR Award. In close partnership with the Office of the Kaitohutohu (KTO), their People and Culture team has been on a journey of developing bicultural competency that has enabled a significant shift in their thinking and practice that is more culturally responsive and inclusive for Māori.

Organisational Award Winners

The Organisational Awards recognise leading HR teams and organisations across Aotearoa that are shaping workplaces through championing change and leading HR best practice.

The Talent Acquisition Award went to Tonkin + Taylor, for their ‘Suits me to a T+T’ digital recruitment campaign. With borders shut and a highly contested pool of talent, T+T created dynamic web-based domestic and international recruitment campaigns. Their No. 1 goal was to achieve the impossible: fill a list of 75

specialised vacancies. Despite huge challenges, they have made 138 new hires from January to September 2022, surpassing pre-COVID-19 hiring levels.

The Learning and Development Capability Award went to Southbase Construction, for their Competency Framework initiative, which focused on providing their people with an easy-to-use guide on how to perform key construction management tasks. People appreciate that the framework clearly shows how they meet expectations and provides feedback on performance.

The Diversity and Inclusion Award went to Education Perfect, for their EAL (English as an Additional Language) initiative, which focused on making their workplace a more inclusive place for non-native English speakers who make up 22 per cent of their workforce. As a result of Education Perfect’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee and their initiative, 91 per cent of non-native English speakers agreed “I feel that my manager cares about me and supports my specific needs as a non-native English speaker”, and 75 per cent responded positively to the prompt, “as a non-native English speaker, I feel included and valued at Education Perfect”.

Te Whatu Ora, Te Toka Tumai won the Wellness Programme Award for their Awhi Oranga (Employee Support Centre) initiative. The call centre was implemented in 2020 during COVID-19 when support for the people of Te Toka Tumai was crucial. Awhi Oranga has enabled Te Toka Taumai to support their workforce during a critical time in the industry. This initiative has provided practical, meaningful support to all their workforce, and particularly those who need it the most.

The Technology Award went to Tompkins Wake for their initiative involving the digitisation of their HR systems and operations to ensure they were efficient and fit for purpose. They started the major overhaul in 2019, and by researching and investing in new software and developing new systems and processes, they have been able to improve communication between their offices and staff.

My Food Bag won the Organisational Change and Development Award for their ‘Secret Sauce’ initiative. Their ‘Secret Sauce’ defines their values and behaviours and, in turn, the symbols and rituals to support a high performing culture. Their efforts have increased retention by more than 50 per cent as well as generated a strong lift in engagement.

The Future of Work Award recognises organisations that are paving the path to the future of work. This award went to ACC for their Sustainable Hybrid Working initiative, which aimed to make sure that work was better for their people, while continuing to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Another new award, Building Sustainability through People Award was awarded to Mitre 10 New Zealand Ltd for their sustainability initiative. Taking a human-centred approach to sustainability has improved awareness and engagement around sustainability at all levels and has resulted in an exciting cultural shift within their business.

Having facilitated 73 topical events over the year, Auckland Branch were the well-deserving winner of the HRNZ Branch of the Year Award for 2023. Auckland Branch have seen consistent growth thanks to their proactive engagement with membership, their connection in building and fostering relationships, and their focus on career development. “We hope our members have gained a great deal from our collective efforts.”