The Workforce Optimas Awards are a celebration of the power of human resourcesmanagement. Annually, Workforce recognizes HR programs that have made theirbusinesses better. The winners are selected in 10 categories: General Excellence,Competitive Advantage, Financial Impact, Global Outlook, Innovation, ManagingChange, Partnership, Quality of Life, Service, and Vision. The winning programsare profiled in the March issue of Workforce magazine with additional informationprovided at Workforce online.
It is with great pleasure that Workforce celebrates the winners of Optimas Awards 1999:
 | GeneralExcellence: HR has developed a landmark tool that's helped prove the correlation between employee satisfaction and profits. |
 | CompetitiveAdvantage: Buckman Laboratories Int'l, Inc. Buckman's employees can enhance their performance at any time, from anywhere. |
 | FinancialImpact: HR built an in-house staffing agency, saving $12 million in recruiting costs in a single year. |
 | GlobalOutlook: A global mindset helps shift emphasis from one area of the world to another during economic downturns, while still investing in the future. |
 | Innovation: No decision-making hierarchies, no pre-determined channels of communication, and no defined jobs. |
 | ManagingChange: A devastating fire destroyed three Malden buildings - HR created a special center to inform and retrain 1,400 displaced employees. |
 | Partnership: Seventeen corporate partners have teamed up to exchange training material, share knowledge, and jointly fund new programs. |
 | Qualityof Life: Fannie Mae offers a wide range of benefits to help employees balance the demands of work and family. |
 | Service: HR has created 12 job families that embrace the company’s 3,830 different jobs. |
 | Vision: Cessna’s 21st Training Program has become a model welfare-to-work initiative. |
