2008 SHRM Human Capital Leadership Awards

Benchmarks for Change

Award winners offer best practices when it comes to dealing with major business transitions.

SHRM resource: SHRM Human Capital Leadership Awards

• Two financial institutions merge, creating the need to start from square one when it comes to human resource processes as well as culture and branding.

• A drug-industry acquisition gets handled like a merger, and business leaders charge HR professionals with making 2,000 management appointments in less than nine months.

• The well runs dry for recruiters in Kansas City, Kan., so a huge retailer turns to English-language training as a way of attracting job candidates from the area’s Hispanic community.

• A financial organization bonds disparate, far-flung employees by creating a dynamic social networking site that serves their human resource, business, educational and personal needs, thereby building the company’s corporate culture and increasing employee productivity.

The HR professionals in these diverse companies illustrate grace under pressure in their responses to the dramatic changes taking place around them; they demonstrate best practices in communication, total rewards, recruitment and management. For these accomplishments, they earned the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 2008 Human Capital Leadership Awards. The winners, described above:

Human Capital Business Leader of the Year Award, for a senior HR professional who helps execute performance-improving organizational strategy: Lisa B. Peters, chief human resources officer, The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., New York City.

Strategic HR Leadership Award, for an HR department that plays a key role in driving an organization’s performance and reputation by leveraging its human capital: Merck Serono International S.A., Geneva, Switzerland.

Competitive Workforce Award, for an HR department that responds successfully to key workforce trends and needs: Nebraska Furniture Mart, Omaha, Neb.

Innovative Business Solution Award, for an HR department that successfully develops an innovative and ethical solution to an organizational challenge: Capital One, McLean, Va.

The leadership awards winners were selected from 130 applications from public and private organizations worldwide. Applicants need not be SHRM members. Entries were reviewed by a 12-judge panel consisting of HR executives, business leaders outside human resources, educators and SHRM executives.

To learn more about the eligibility requirements and the nomination process for the 2009 awards, please visit the SHRM Leadership Awards web site at www.shrm.org/leadershipawards. Applications will be accepted starting in spring 2009.

2008 Human Capital Leadership Awards Winners and Finalists

Competitive Workforce Award

Finalists: Aon Corp. ; Southco