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Written by Morry Morgan
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One of the highlights on the HR calendar is the annual China STAFF Awards. Held since 1998, the awards aim to promote and recognise individuals and companies whose dedication to the HR profession are acknowledged by their peers. The last awards, now in their 11th year, were in November last year. Network HR takes a look at who is being recognised as the leaders in China’s human resources community.
It is billed as the biggest HR event of the year, and the 11th China STAFF Awards turned out to be one of the most memorable in history. David Kelly, country manager for CCH China, had hinted that this year the awards would highlight a sea-change within the HR community. “As the awards see their anniversary we look back in honor and respect at how far the HR profession has come,” said Kelly. “Not only have HR practitioners, like you, managed admirably well in a challenging environment of rapidly changing and growing organisations with continually mobile talent, but you have developed the industry’s professionalism to a point where you are a critical contributor to your organisation’s decision making.”
Many of the companies represented at the awards were leading multinationals, from Germany, Holland, the UK, and the USA. A handful of locally grown companies were also present, but clearly in a minority.
Once again the awards involved a panel of external judges to assess the nominees based on industry submissions and independent reference checks, plus supplemental questions put forth by the panel. Judges included Peter Yu, Human Resource Director of KPMG China, Sean Kuan-Thye, managing director of Human Resources Service, China and APAC HR Services Centre, FedEx Express, and Human Resources Head of Alcatel-Lucent China and RU East Asia,
Ma Jie.
“As the panel, we adhered strictly to the criteria according to the China Staff Awards rules to make sure we had a fair competition. One of the top criteria we looked for was business results, and for service providers we also looked for reliability,” added Kuan-Thye.
Shock!
The sea-change struck early in the evening, with the announcement of the first award - the MRI China’s HR Team of the Year. Of the nominees - Airbus China Limited, Atlas Copco (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd., International Nutrition Co., Ltd., Sanofi-Aventis China, TBWA\Group\China, Boehringer Ingelheim Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., CPCNet Hong Kong and Cibonet Company Limited – none were deemed to have passed the stringent evaluation
process.
“This was one of the most difficult decisions for the panel,” explained Human Resources Head of Alcatel-Lucent China, Ma Jie. “Actually all of the entries did a good job, but in this category, we needed to recognise the efforts by the HR team to work with other functions and also the angle should be standing aside from the HR function, putting yourself in the position of the business. So we needed the side from the business. Unfortunately, none of the participants had
100% fulfilled this requirement in their entries.”
“ ...none were deemed to have passed the stringent evaluation process ”
This fault start was a strong reminder to all in attendance that that the field of HR still needs to shake off some of it’s Administration department past, and become a louder voice at the boardroom table.
Thankfully the awards proceeded without further incident, and the energy in the ballroom began to build. Airbus China Limited’s HR Director Benedicte Hersen was deemed the U21 Global’s HR Director of the Year, beating Pauline Teo of Accor Hospitality Greater China, Lynn Xiong of International Nutrition Co., Ltd., Sherry Zhang of Medtronic Medical Appliance Technology & Service (Shanghai)
Ltd., Catherine Lo of CPCNet Hong Kong Limited and Cibonet Company Limited’s Ronald Ho. “I’m very happy and honoured to be here today. We’ve done a lot of things in HR at Airbus, and this was more a motivation for the team to take part,” stated Hersen. Hersen’s has since presented her experience this year at the China Economic Review Summit Human Resource Management 2009 Conference.
Is bigger better?
David Kelly believes that this is the first year that locally grown service providers have outshone, on mass, their larger, international competitors. Rather than going to international law firms, this year’s Labour Lawyer of the Year award went to Jiang Junlu of King & Wood PRC Lawyers. The Peking University adjunct professor is known for his deft handling of the revamped labour laws, which took most of China by surprise in 2008, and also for his regular contributions to the local community. Jiang beat international law firms Baker & McKenzie’s Dr. Andreas Lauffs, and Simmons & Simmons’ Matthew Durham and Fiona Loughrey.
The Recruitment Firm of the Year also went to a small, local firm, Wang & Li. The company’s founder, Larry Wang, is a relative quiet achiever, having spent over 12 years assisting companies hire and develop international-caliber professional talent in Greater China, but only entered the China STAFF Awards in 2008. Larry’s success at the awards were attributed to his other talent which is writing. He is a published author, with The New Gold Mountain, and Know the Game, Play the Game, books that speak directly to today’s maturing generation of “homegrown” mainland professionals. Wang & Li beat fierce competition from China Team International, Career International, J.M. Gemini, Antal International Business Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., 104 Human Resources Consultancy (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and MRI China Group.
Training Firm of the Year once again went to ClarkMorgan Corporate Training. While ClarkMorgan is one of the largest corporate training companies in Greater China, it is a home grown, originating in Shanghai in 2001. This local company too, beat off international competition from the French language training giant Auralog, to win back-to-back awards from the previous year. “We’ve got incredible trainers, some wonderful support staff. Seven years ago we set up in Shanghai and we had no idea we would have such impact,” said ClarkMorgan co-founder, Andy Clark.
“We’ve got incredible trainers, some
wonderful support staff.”
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