Human Resources Awards Blog

Accenture Services Ltd of India won a Stevie® Award for Human Resources Department of the Year in the HR awards categories of The 2011 International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards  program. (The 2012 IBAs are now open for entries. We invite all organizations and individuals worldwide to submit entries by the April 11 early-bird deadline for discounted entry fees; you can request your entry kit here.)

Accenture Services is a global management, technology services, and outsourcing company. In 2010, Accenture's human resource department implemented a new initiative- The Human Capital Strategy - to support workforce engagement and strengthen business.  The human resource award winning department focused on six strategies:

1. Recruit Talent
One major focus of the HR department was hiring talented employees. The new initiative allowed the HR department to:

• Source 6 resumes every minute,
• Conduct 170 interviews per hour, and
• Offer 2 new employee orientation sessions each day.

2. Develop Leadership
As part of The Human Capital Strategy, Accenture's human resource awards winning department placed a large focus on developing the talent of its leaders. Accenture now offers tailored development programs, certification programs for new managers, and hosts business information seminars to strengthen leadership.

3. Give Back to Employees
In addition to offering educational opportunities, the team introduced personal development programs including employee recognition programs, free career counseling, and vacation balance sharing to keep employees engaged.

4. Focus on Client Needs
The Human Capital Strategy also places a strong emphasis on client needs through employee development. The HR award winner was able to:

• Increase  market facing capacity by staffing 40% additional senior executives,
• Provide a  sales academy to employees to increase customer satisfaction and sales,
• Deliver technology boot-camp for targeted employees, and
• Collaborate with leading universities/institutes to deliver higher education programs.

5. Integrate Global Offices
The Human Capital Strategy was not only adopted in the India office but globally as well. The HR strategy provides cross-business career opportunities, promotes integration across geographies, and encourages employees to take advantage of internal social media platforms as means to connect with other employees.

6. Update Processes
The HR department of the year also restructured several processes including performance excellence methodologies and the HR organization structure. In addition to these changes, Accenture was able to hire more than 200 new employees and advance more than 125 current employees.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company, with nearly 245,000 employees serving customers in more than 120 countries. Accenture collaborates with organizations and governments across the globe to help them become high-performance businesses through their unparalleled services, business capabilities and research methods. During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, Accenture generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion.

Aygaz of Istanbul, Turkey, received the Stevie® Award for Human Resources Team of The Year in the HR awards categories of The 2011 International Business Awards. (Entries are now being accepted for The 2012 International Business Awards, the world's premiere business awards program. Get your entry kit here and submit entries by the April 11 early-bird deadline for discounted entry fees.) Here we look at the steps the HR Team took to pull Aygaz and its subsidiaries together under a “one company” vision.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Aygaz is the main provider of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in Turkey, and is one of the largest LPG providers in Europe. In addition to producing and selling gas appliances, Aygaz has a subsidiary portfolio ranging from liquid petroleum gas trade to electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and maritime logistics. Led by Yagiz Eyüboglu, Aygaz's General Manager, the HR team was charged with adopting a single management policy to accommodate their numerous subsidiaries.

Integration
The human resources awards winning team at Aygaz seized the single-management policy as an opportunity to derive extra benefits through an integrated HR management within the new structure. The aim was to create synergy in HR through a shared vision and to provide benefits for all the new group’s stakeholders.

“One Company” Approach
The Aygaz Group’s HR processes were overhauled with the participation and contribution of all its subsidiaries.  The resulting “One Company” shared vision of HR processes followed five steps: 

1. Recruitment Process
The first step was improvement of the recruitment process. Interviews were integrated for similar vacant positions. This saved time for the HR team and provided candidates with information about different positions within the Aygaz Group. (The HR team also integrated their recruitment process with an internal job-posting system within the Koç Group of Companies, of which Aygaz is one.) This has allowed employees to manage their own careers, and in turn led to reduced employee turnover and increased employee motivation.

2. Training Program
Costs were significantly reduced through an integrated training program, while the average training time per employee increased. (In 2009, the average number of training hours per employee per year was 18; in 2010, this increased to 21 hours; and the current training time per employee is 25 hours.)

The HR team also designed an orientation program that provides information about all the group’s companies to more rapidly integrate new employees into the company.

3. Performance Management
The integration and “one company vision” necessitated an overhaul of the performance management system. This system now enables top management to share its objectives with all employees—and at the same time recognizing their achievements. Since 2009, all personal scorecards have been prepared in conjunction with Aygaz Group goals.

4. Compensation
Compensation management policies were also reviewed. New adjustments meant that Aygaz determined salary levels of employees by considering similar positions at other companies in the group. An “Equal Pay for Equal Work” policy was adopted.

5. Internal Mobility
Internal mobility has been actively encouraged and employees are now given the opportunity to move to other positions in the group without losing any of their rights.  A Social Activity Club was also launched to increase interactivity between Aygaz and its subsidiaries.

A Better Place to Work
By 2010 employee turnover at the Aygaz group had dropped to 2.5%, compared to the average rate of 9% in Turkey. 

The steps taken by the human resources award winning team to serve the bigger picture have resulted in Aygaz winning the Turkish Personnel Management Association’s Best Practice Award in Human Management in 2010.

About Yagiz Eyüboglu:
Yagiz Eyüboglu is the General Manager of Aygaz. Eyüboglu started his professional life as a Management Trainee at Arcelik in 1991. In 1993, he was transferred to Koç Holding Headquarters, where he worked for more than 10 years, finishing as a Financial Coordinator. Between 2004 and 2009, Eyüboglu assumed several different responsibilities within the Koç Group including CFO of Arcelik, CEO and Board Member of Beko Elektronik, and Human Resources Director of Koç Holding. Eyüboglu is a member of several boards, including the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations and the Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries. He is also the Chairman of LPG Assembly at The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey and is Vice President of the World LPG Association.

About Aygaz:
Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Aygaz manufactures and sells LPG devices and distributes LPG as auto gas, cylinder gas, and bulk gas to customers in 81 Turkish provinces as well as exports LPG devices to 22 countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Listed as Turkey’s 7th largest industrial company by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Aygaz delivers gas cylinders to over 100,000 homes, and more than one million vehicles travel with Aygaz’s auto gas product, Aygaz Euro LPG+ every day. Aygaz has more than 15,000 personnel working at its headquarters and at its facilities and dealerships around Turkey. The organization sees these employees as key to delivering its promise to consumers to provide quality products and services—and to the community to use sustainable business practices.

There are several human resources awards categories for organizations and individuals to choose from in The 2012 American Business Awards. (Request your entry kit for the 2012 ABAs and it will be emailed to you right away. The second early-bird entry deadline is December 14.)

Here are three award categories that are specifically labeled as HR awards:

• Human Resources Department of the Year
• Human Resources Team of the Year
• Human Resources Executive of the Year

Submissions to the HR awards categories require:

• An essay of up to 500 words describing the nominee's accomplishments since January 1, 2011.
•  A biography of the nominee or the leader of the nominated department or team of up to 100 words.
• Optional (but highly recommended):  a collection of supporting files and web addresses.  These materials can be uploaded to our server to support your entry and provide more background information to the judges.

Other human resources awards categories include:

• App Awards categories include Professional Education and Training
• Live Event Awards categories include Best Internal Recognition/Motivational Event and Best Sales Meeting
• Video Awards categories include Internal/Employee Communications, Motivational, Orientation, and Training, among others
• Web Site Awards categories include Best Training Site and Best Video Site

Improve your chances of winning an HR award:

• Connect with us online! Join us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn for the latest ABA updates.

• Download our newly updated 10 Tips for Winning HR Awards in the 2012 Stevie® Awards tipsheet.

Looking for more human resources awards? Contact us at help@stevieawards.com and we will help direct you to more categories!

We've just updated our 10 Tips for Winning HR Awards in the 2012 Stevie® Awards tipsheet. Get it here.

There are several opportunities to win human resources awards for organizations including categories for individual executives, teams and departments.

Our 2012 HR tipsheet will help you to choose the categories and competitions in which you'll have the best chance of winning a 2012 Stevie® Award. The programs are:

• The American Business Awards℠ (Entries are now being accepted. Request your entry kit here.)
• The International Business Awards℠
• The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service (Entries are now being accepted. Request your entry kit here.)
• The Stevie Awards for Women in Business 

In addition to HR categories such as Human Resources Department of the Year, Human Resources Team of the Year, and Human Resources Executive of the Year; we have expanded categories to honor HR work in competitions including best website awards, live event awards, video awards, and many others.

Download our 10 Tips for Winning HR Awards in the 2012 Stevie® Awards tipsheet and learn how you can honor your human resource executives, departments, and teams. 

After you've downloaded our tipsheet, let us know which tip you found most helpful!