HR Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

Awards
HR Brilliance Awards
HR Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

October 12, 2025

HR Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

2019 HR Brilliance Awards - Winners Announced!

The Brilliance Awards highlights a commitment to excellence among practitioners and consultants in a range of fields.

By entering these awards, organisations make a public statement that they are willing to stand up for best practice and be judged by their peers. Within their entries and out of their success, there are lessons from which we can all learn.

Yet again we are grateful to the organisations who have put themselves forwards but also to the judges who are leaders in their fields who have taken the time to review entries.

Consistently, simplicity emerged as a key theme in this year’s winning entries. Clear objectives and disciplined execution were the hallmarks of the submissions that caught the judge’s eyes in 2019.

Brilliance in Employee Engagement

Brilliance Award Winner: Burgan Bank

A clearly defined strategy for the whole HR organisation has delivered impressive results in terms of employee engagement, business performance, more effective hiring processes, better retention and lower staff turnover. A focus on values and a drive to recruit more effectively in the local labour market, have paid dividends in terms of brand awareness and overall cost effectiveness.

The judges were most impressed by the way the whole function was involved in delivering engagement and the focus on delivering business value. The HR organisation delivered on some ambitious goals. adopted a 360 approach, from the values to the HR systems and the focus on business partnership.

Gold Award Winner: everis

The Talent & Culture team set out to improve long term retention by focusing on delivering an excellent experience for staff at five key moments on their employee journey. The judges commend the use of research and co-ordinated communication as well as the emotional intelligence at the heart of the programme.

Silver Award Winner: MagicLab

Responding to the employee engagement survey, the HR team at MagicLab delivered senior leadership support for an impactful and creative approach to wellbeing and social engagement. The Judges were impressed by the clarity of the business objectives and the importance placed on listening to staff.

HR Team of The Year

Brilliance Award Winner: South Western Ambulance Service

South Western Ambulance Service has been through some challenging times and their HR team has stepped up to deliver some important and highly successful initiatives. The judges were impressed by the team’s overall employee centric approach.

Starting from a cultural study, the team defined clear priorities which included listening to colleagues. Their overall 360 degree approach has been supported by a strong focus on employee communications.

Gold Award Winner: Civil Service HR Casework supplied by MoJ

In a world of multiple stakeholders, the work of the MoJ team in resolving cases more efficiently and providing improved access to line manager coaching impressed the judges. In particular, the emphasis on coaching was commended, as it makes for sustainable improvement which is reflected in their service satisfaction data.

Silver Award Winner: Kibar Holding

With its very sizeable structure, the efforts of Kibar Holding’s HR team to build a Kibar culture and consistent set of practices across their 20 companies caught the judges’ attention. With a clearly defined vision and set of targets the team displays an approach which is active, participative and successful.

HR Professional of the Year

Brilliance Award Winner: Halah Mohammad El Sherbini, Group Chief Human Resource and Development Officer, Burgan Bank

The judges were impressed by Ms El Sherbini’s visionary leadership demonstrated by her team’s excellent delivery. Her nomination shows that she is an impressive professional at the top of her game who knows how to use the digital world’s dynamics and technology for leveraging the efficiency of human resources and people strategy.

Particular mention was made of how she has increased local recruitment and retention.

Gold Award Winner: Ann Roberts, HR Director, MagicLab

In a short space of time, Ms Roberts has achieved a lot. The judges commended her business acumen and influence on MagicLab’s strategy and results using HR as a leverage point.

Silver Award Winner: Arnold Dhanesar, Group Chief Talent Officer, Zurich Insurance ltd

The judges were impressed by the steps Mr Dhanesar has taken to deliver both strong people and financial results whilst supporting strategic transformation. In particular, his clear roadmap and emphasis on HR fundamentals stood out.

Brilliance in Recruitment and retention

Brilliance Award Winner: Badak LNG

Indonesia’s Badak LNG has consistently driven up its employee retention rate by a powerful focus on training and development. Its internal academy ensures that candidates for promotion come from inside the company and an attention to employee satisfaction data has dramatically reduced attrition related to engagement issues.

Gold Award Winner: Kibar Holding

The Judges wanted to commend the work that Turkey’s Kibar Holdings do to prepare university students for their graduate application process. The mix of social media outreach and face to face contact has significantly improved the firm’s ability to recruit and retain talent.

Silver Award Winner: Places for People

Places for people have focused on uniting a very diverse and dispersed employee base by using a strong employer brand. The result has been a drop in recruitment costs and a growth in internal recruitment.

Brilliance in Innovative use of Technology in HR

Brilliance Award Winner: Capgemini

Cap Gemini’s work to improve the efficiency of its recruitment processes impressed the judges who praised the choice of a web-based solution which brought interactivity and speed. Of particular note was the impact which the technology made to the quality of the candidate experience which is so important in attracting the best people in a highly competitive marketplace.

Gold Award Winner: Travis Perkins

The judges commended Travis Perkins’ work to improve processes around HR analytics and to place real and useful insights into the hands of stakeholders. Importantly, users are now able to draw out their own reports and make decisions based on KPIs that matter.

Silver Award Winner: Mundipharma IT Services

Mundipharma grabbed the Judges attention for their use of technology to drive engagement in a diverse and dispersed workforce. A strong platform, intelligently used delivered tangible results.