HR Director of the Year Award

This award recognises the HR Director at an executive level, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership during the last 12 months. The individual should show clear and successful articulation of a compelling, unique and relevant employee value proposition. Effective implementation of bold, visionary, innovative people strategies, which directly contribute to organisational goals. Evidence of what they have done to improve the quality of HR operations and processes in the business

CEO of the Year Award

What defines the iconic winner of this headline category?

Fundamentally, a demonstrable record of accomplishment in prioritising the wellbeing and happiness of the people that make his or her company great. He or she will be widely respected and liked within the organisation, and will have an admirable reputation among peers and competitors. The winner will be a change management and employee engagement champion; a leader who enriches and inspires all those around them, while being instrumental in driving business performance.

Lifetime Achievement in the HR Industry Award

This is the highest honour and most coveted award at the FOHR Awards. This award recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the industry as a whole through visionary people management strategies and leadership. While we welcome nominations in this category, note that they are not reviewed by the judging panel. Rather, the recipient of this award will be decided in consultation with our advisory board.

Employer of Choice: Large Organisations

This award recognises the best big companies to work for, with 1000+ employees. At the core of any great organisation is an HR department whose innovative values create a productive and enjoyable place of work. As an employer of choice, your reputation precedes you and jobseekers view you as a desirable place to work. That is the first goal of any effective recruitment strategy – to be a first choice employer for top talent.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Employer of Choice: Small To Medium Organisations

This award recognises the best small-to-medium-sized organisation with 100-999 employees and R5-50 million annual turnover (or equivalent).

Best HR Strategic Plan

This award recognises the HR team that has driven and implemented the most innovative and successful strategic plan. The implementation of this strategy must have had demonstrable large-scale positive impact on the work environment.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Best Reward and Recognition Strategy

This award recognises excellence and innovation in employee reward and recognition programmes and initiatives. Recognition will be given to organisations that have closely aligned a rewards and benefits strategy to the business objectives in order to incentivise and enhance productivity. Organisations must demonstrate tangible evidence that shows how the reward strategy had a direct impact on employee engagement and subsequently, the organisation’s bottom line.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Best Change Management Strategy

This award recognises excellence in the area of shaping, managing and influencing organisational change; including mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and strategic or cultural change. Recognition will be given to organisations who discuss the completions of a successful people focused change program; shows outstanding communication, implementation and measurement strategy and statistics of positive employee satisfaction metrics pre and post organisational change.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Best Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

This award highlights the employee engagement strategy that has achieved the most impact on employee morale and performance across an organisation taking into consideration the inclusion of history, types and variety of programmes and activities used for employee engagement. Organisations in the category must demonstrate innovative strategies implemented within the last year and the impact of employee engagement on retention rates, and be able to show the alignment of engagement strategies with career development strategies. Other criteria include the balance between employee morale and engagement and return on investment.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Best Learning and Development Strategy

This award recognises and celebrates the HR team that has delivered the most outstanding organisational benefits by directly linking the training needs of their people to the business needs of their organisation. Applicants should indicate the amount spent on investment in the development of their people across an entire organisation, in particular via coaching and mentoring. They should outline the business case, strategy and how it was communicated to the workforce. They should also show evidence of the program success and workforce benefit.

Annual revenue must be above R35 Million per Annum.

Best Health and Wellness Strategy

This award recognises excellence in the area of corporate health and wellbeing by showing commitment to employee health and wellbeing. Applicants should discuss awareness policies and programs implemented as well as future programs planned to enhance and improve health and wellness for employees. The number of employees should be indicated as well as the schemes implemented and percentage involved against the total size of company. It is necessary to show the effectiveness of the programs, the management support and participation, the recorded impact on employee productivity and retention as well as the annual staff turnover rate.

Annual revenue must be R5 – R35 Million per Annum.