Deficits mount. Layoffs multiply. The stockmarket swoons. For many HR stalwarts, the word challenges has taken on newurgency. Against the backdrop of a splintered economy, Workforce isespecially honored to present this year’s Optimas Awards to 10organizations that have triumphed during very trying times.
Since the first Optimas Award winnerswere honored 12 years ago, the level of excellence in the HR field has soared.HR has leapfrogged from its role as manager to leader, administrator tostrategist, functionary to player. The Workforce Optimas Award 2002recipients meet and surpass our original criteria for distinction. Each one hasfaced obstacles. Each has implemented new and even radical changes. All haveproven their excellence with measurable business results.
This year’s winners range from the NationalImagery and Mapping Agency, which scrapped lumbering policies and morphed itselfinto a highly responsive, flexible new organization, to the province of NewBrunswick, Canada, which transformed itself from a dying old-world economy intoa technological power zone.
For the rest of the year, we will spotlight anhonoree every month. We are proud to introduce this year’s Optimas Awardclass, an outstanding collection of industry leaders that inform, illuminate,and inspire us all:
| General Excellence: SYSCO Corporation | Competitive Advantage: WellPoint Health Networks |
| Financial Impact: NCCI Holdings, Inc. | Global Outlook: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu |
| Innovation: Province of New Brunswick | Managing Change: NIMA |
| Partnership: Blue Valley School District | Quality of Life: Camping World |
| Service: Health Partners | Vision: Acxiom Corporation |
 | General Excellence: At SYSCO, subsidiary companies only buy HR programs that achieve results. That means HR has to figure out what they need -- and what will affect the bottom line. |
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 | Competitive Advantage: WellPoint's Human Resource System identifies key succession candidates, allowing it to quickly promote from within. Management builds on its strengths, and the company saves millions of dollars in recruiting and retention costs. |
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 | Financial Impact: A new system brought gains in efficiency and productivity that helped the company battle back from near extinction and offer multi-million dollar price breaks and rebates to its owner-customers. |
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 | Global Outlook: HR at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu revamped an international career development program, added assessment tools, and then marketed the program to candidates and executives. |
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 | Innovation: The province of New Brunswick breathed new life into a dying economy by creating 20,000 new technology jobs and trained residents for them. |
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 | Managing Change: National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) The National Imagery and Mapping Agency had to merge the personnel structures of the nine different federal offices and agencies from which it was fashioned. What NIMA’s HR leaders created was nothing less than revolutionary. |
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 | Partnership: The Blue Valley School District found a creative solution to the turnover rate among new teachers |
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 | Quality of Life: The company's Multi-Location Crewmember program lets RV-loving employees take their jobs on the road. |
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 | Service: When there's fast, effective training to be done, Health Partner's Organizational Learning Center is on the job. It has saved the organization money, allayed fears of change, and made the transition to a new $3 million data-processing system a success. |
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 | Vision: At Acxiom there are no fancy titles. Everyone's office is the same size, and nobody worries about going through the proper channels. The results? Phenomenal growth and a contented workforce. |
