Honoring HR's Brightest Lights - human resources best actor awards - Brief Article - Column

Not long after I arrived at WORKFORCE last year, I started hearing about the Optimas Awards. I had two years of high school Latin, and so I vaguely knew that the award must have to do with the best in HR practice. (The word actually means "among the best," but Sister Francis Clare's lessons hadn't sunk in quite that deep.) It wasn't until summer, when the nomination flow went from trickle to steady stream, that I began to really understand what Optimas meant: HR practitioners were so proud of their work that they wanted to share it with us, and the rest of the human resources community.

As someone coming fresh to the awards, I thought the categories were impressive: they weren't "Best Training Program" or "Most Magnificent Achievement in Benefits Administration." They were broader, more thoughtful, and strategic: Competitive Advantage, Financial Impact, Global Outlook, Innovation, Managing Change, Partnership, Quality of Life, Service, Vision, and General Excellence. The awards honor creativity, gumption, and hard work that bring about business results, not the creation of programs for programs' sake.

Most of the Optimas submissions came to us through e-mail. But we received some entries in other forms: a packet from a resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, an elaborate videotape from a Canadian company, and several thick, impressive binders.

WORKFORCE contributing editor Jennifer Koch Laabs had the task--both onerous and exciting--of reading, sorting, and ranking the entries, picking the best of the batch, and asking the nominees some detailed questions to get more information about their work. Exactly what did that training accomplish? Was HR really the driving force behind that initiative, or did it arise in another part of the company? The nominees were diligent and detailed in their answers. The upshot? Our job became even harder.

By the middle of autumn, the selection committee felt like the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must feel: we were awash in entries that were full of talented players and fascinating scenarios. How to choose the Best Actors in a Human Resources Drama? Time to order more Chinese chicken salad and hash it out.

In late fall, we notified the finalists, and the fun began. "I have asked our employee assistance program to immediately schedule 'Nail Biting Prevention' clinics to help us through this final phase," one wrote. We were excited, too.

We realized that the winners had shared with us the strategies that could transform other companies. If you could take the excellence of The Container Store, the vision of Synygy, and the global outlook of General Semiconductor and combine them with the attributes of all the other winners, you could have an organization that was second to none. The entrants put heart and soul into their work, but this work could be reproduced by other HR professionals. As one winner pointed out, "It's not rocket science."

On December 14, we notified the winners and post their name at workforce.com. And now we're delighted to share their stories with you. The awards will be presented at the Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, on March 22. Even if you are not there with us, we hope you'll join us in applauding the work of some exemplary people. They really are among the best in the world of human resources.

COPYRIGHT 2001 ACC Communications Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group