2024
Best apprenticeship scheme
Boeing
With the global aerospace industry facing a shortage of skilled aviation professionals, and a predicted need for more than 700,000 maintenance technicians worldwide by 2035, Boeing knew it had to develop a pipeline of highly skilled technicians to meet the increasing demand for services and plug the skills gap. The result is the “impre...
Highly Commended: Mitie
Shortlist: British Airways
Shortlist: Defence Equipment and Support
Shortlist: LABC - Local Authority Building Control
Best change management initiative
Bank of Ireland
In 2022, the Bank of Ireland completely reimagined and redesigned its performance management approach, delivering significant cultural change for 10,000 employees in a way described as “brave” and “a leading example of good practice in performance management conversations” by the PMAs judges. Before the Thrive initiative was developed ...
Highly Commended: npower Business Solutions powered by E.ON
Shortlist: ClickTech Solutions
Shortlist: Health Education Improvement Wales with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Shortlist: Mitie
Shortlist: Norican Group
Shortlist: Tesco Bank
Best CSR/ESG initiative
MONY Group
The PMAs judges hailed the Moneysupermarket.com Group (MSMG) a “worthy winner of a very competitive category” thanks to its partnership with suicide-prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm).The partnership began in 2022, when 46 per cent of MSMG staff voted to partner the charity. Initially a two-year collaboration, ...
Shortlist: Bellway
Shortlist: Millennium and Copthorne Hotels
Shortlist: Navigator Gas
Shortlist: SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK
Best digital/technology initiative in HR/L&D
Bank of Ireland
In 2021, the Bank of Ireland’s (BOI) annual employee engagement survey found that less than half of colleagues (44 per cent) felt they were provided with the resources and opportunities to develop the skills they needed to thrive in a digital environment. The organisation recognised that a lack of data-led insights in areas such as car...
Shortlist: KPMG UK
Shortlist: Sonova AG
Shortlist: Starbucks & Attensi
Shortlist: Texthelp
Shortlist: Vodafone Group
Best employee experience initiative
Elis UK
The Covid-19 pandemic hit rental and laundry company Elis UK, whose customer base spans the hospitality, workwear and healthcare sectors, hard. Some employees were furloughed due to a significant fall in customer activity and, while the organisation “believed we were supportive, we didn’t know for certain how employees were feeling”. T...
Highly Commended: npower Business Solutions powered by E.ON
Shortlist: Centrick
Shortlist: Equiniti
Shortlist: UK Health Security Agency - Health Protection Operations Group
Shortlist: Wigan & Leigh College
Best equality, diversity and inclusion initiative (EDI)
Murphy
This holistic EDI programme was lauded by the judges as having an “excellent alignment of objectives, initiatives, annual targets and measurements to strategic goals”. J Murphy and Sons’ People and Social Value Strategy was born out of a skills shortage in the construction and engineering sector, and the civil engineering company’s aim...
Highly Commended: Transport for Wales
Shortlist: Care Quality Commission
Shortlist: HSBC with VIVIDA
Shortlist: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Shortlist: Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Shortlist: MONY Group
Best flexible working initiative
Phoenix Group
Phoenix Group, a long-term savings and retirement business, sees its approach to flexible working – termed Phoenix Flex – as a “key enabler to our purpose and cultural ambitions”. As a business, it hopes to “help people secure a life of possibilities” and wanted to reflect this when developing its flexible working offering post-pandemi...
Shortlist: BDO UK
Shortlist: Domestic & General
Shortlist: Sea Salt Cornwall
Shortlist: stc Group
Best health and wellbeing initiative - private sector
Equiniti
In January 2023, shareholder, retirement and remediation services provider Equiniti introduced Peakon, a new employee engagement platform, which enabled employees to provide feedback on a monthly, rather than annual, basis. The initial health and wellbeing results – one of three core sections of the survey – showed a score of eight, we...
Highly Commended: Tara Group
Shortlist: Arla Foods
Shortlist: Mott MacDonald
Shortlist: Omnicom Media Group
Shortlist: Tesco Bank
Best health and wellbeing initiative - public/third sector
RSPCA
Praised by the awards judges as “really inspiring”, the RSPCA’s three-year Wellbeing Plan was launched after a 2019 staff survey found that only 37 per cent believed the organisation cared about employee wellbeing (and only 39 per cent agreed that the RSPCA helped colleagues achieve a good work-life balance). These findings – together ...
Shortlist: City Health Care Partnership
Best HR/ L&D & OD team of the year - private sector
Equiniti
The PMAs judges were impressed by the Equiniti team’s “undeniably strong” results and demonstration of “great resilience” in the face of the entire transformation of the company’s HR function. Equiniti also came out on top of two other categories: the Best People Analytics Initiative and the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative – Priva...
Highly Commended: Royal Mail Group
Shortlist: First Bus
Shortlist: Tesco Bank
Shortlist: Vodafone Group
Shortlist: WiseTech Global
Best HR/ L&D & OD team of the year - public/ third sector
City of Bristol College
In late 2022, City of Bristol College faced seven days of strike action and turnover stood at more than 23 per cent. Sickness was high and morale was low. The college had faced financial cuts and quality pressures from Ofsted, which had given it a “requires improvement” rating for more than 10 years. The organisation, by its own admiss...
Shortlist: Booster&Development
Shortlist: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Best HR/L&D & OD consultancy
EY Lane4
Crowned the “ultimate, unanimous winners” of this category by the PMAs judges, leadership development consultancy EY Lane4 delivered a leadership development programme for transport company First Bus that “clearly demonstrated an impressive, multilayered approach to achieve clearly defined outcomes”.Leadership Lab was a senior leadersh...
Highly Commended: Project X Partners
Shortlist: Amanda Collins Consulting
Shortlist: Executive Coaching Consultancy
Shortlist: Insight HRC
Shortlist: Let's Talk Talent
Shortlist: Mindset Practice
Shortlist: People Station
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Best HR/L&D & OD supplier
NKD
Australia Post was undergoing a transformation. Faced with declining mail volumes, rising parcel demands and evolving customer expectations, it launched its Post 26 strategy, a comprehensive plan for modernisation. The organisation partnered NKD and developed Our AP Way, a programme that built the foundations for delivering on the broa...
Shortlist: TalentPredix and Samsara
Shortlist: WildHearts Talent
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Best L&D initiative – private sector
Pandora
Global jewellery brand Pandora introduced its Phoenix strategy for sustainable growth in 2021 but, to support its growth trajectory and ambitious financial targets, the company’s board concluded that investing in leadership would be key.An innovative leadership and development programme was needed to involve all of Pandora’s 3,750 lead...
Shortlist: ATG Entertainment
Shortlist: British Airways
Shortlist: BusinessFourZero
Shortlist: Citation
Shortlist: PowerON Platforms
Shortlist: Seasalt Cornwall
Best L&D initiative – public/third sector
The Government Property Agency
To get future ready, the Government Property Agency (GPA), an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, set up The GPA Skills and Specialisms Learning Programme to “raise capability” and “develop core and specialist skills required by all our people”.The long-term project’s aims include: being pan-agency and fully inclusive of all employ...
Highly Commended: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Shortlist: Acivico Group
Shortlist: BBC Cymru Wales
Shortlist: Humberside Police
Shortlist: Jobsplus
Shortlist: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Shortlist: National Highways
Best organisational development or design initiative
SPL | Saudi Post
When an employee engagement survey showed that 40 per cent of staff lacked clarity on their career development – particularly people in roles significantly different to those of their colleagues in the same unit – postage and logistics company SPL knew it had to clarify its talent pipeline. The subsequent initiative, Your Path to Succe...
Highly Commended: Pandora
Shortlist: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Shortlist: Equiniti
Shortlist: Landmark Group
Shortlist: Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Shortlist: The Government Property Agency
Best people analytics initiative
Equiniti
Equiniti’s implementation of monthly engagement tool Peakon and its use of the findings to drive meaningful, transformational change across the business was lauded by the PMAs judges – who also crowned Equiniti winner of the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative – Private Sector, and Best HR/L&D & OD Team of the Year – Private Sector – ...
Highly Commended: Dubai Police Headquarters
Shortlist: BDO UK
Shortlist: Crown Prosecution Service
Shortlist: EY
Shortlist: Virgin Media O2
Best resourcing initiative
Just Group
Having outsourced its talent acquisition (TA) function, financial services organisation Just Group recognised – following both internal and external feedback – that there was room for improvement. A full end-to-end diagnostic was completed to fully understand the talent acquisition function’s capability and performance in line with del...
Shortlist: Circle Health Group
Shortlist: Citation
Shortlist: Daisy Corporate Services
Shortlist: Manchester Metropolitan University
Shortlist: Tesco Bank
Best reward or recognition initiative
Seasalt Cornwall
Clothing company Seasalt Cornwall’s award-winning overhaul of its reward package was catalysed by the organisation’s rapid growth, expanding from a small family business to one employing 1,300 people in more than 70 retail stores. The company believed its employees “deserved a reward package that reflected this growth and achievement, ...
Highly Commended: Dubai Police Headquarters
Shortlist: Bank of Ireland
Shortlist: Manchester Metropolitan University
Shortlist: Savola Foods Company
Shortlist: SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK
Best talent management initiative
Bupa Arabia
When employee pulse surveys at Bupa Arabia, an associate business of the worldwide healthcare organisation, threw up consistently negative sentiments around lack of growth, promotions and pay concerns, it embarked on a talent management initiative praised by the PMAs judges as “well rounded” and demonstrating a real commitment to peopl...
Highly Commended: Apadmi
Shortlist: Bank of Ireland
Shortlist: Centrica
Shortlist: Network Rail
Shortlist: Royal Academy of Engineering
Shortlist: Shared Services Connected
Michael Kelly outstanding student award
Rose Watkins Jones, Impression Digital
In December 2022, Rose Watkins Jones – described by the judges as a “credit to the profession” – introduced a tool called My Manual, a living document to help employees at Impression, a digital growth agency, discover and communicate their working styles, motivations and individuality to help everyone work better collaboratively.The ne...
Shortlist: Jan Kozak, Envista
Shortlist: Jestina Mpofu, Wiltshire Police
Shortlist: Molly Keers, PwC
Shortlist: Nataliia Dziuba, HRM-BA
Outstanding HR or L&D Apprentice Award
Claire Kimberley, Serco
Claire Kimberley’s introduction of a Neurodiversity for Managers L&D initiative at Serco, a global organisation that partners organisations to deliver a range of government services, was born of the fact “there had previously never been any training materials on this topic [within the organisation], particularly for managers who are su...
