Tag: Optimas Awards 2019

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2019 Optimas Award Winners for Partnership

The Partnership award recognizes organizations that have developed or implemented a program in partnership with another constituency, either within the organization or outside of it. Here are the winners for 2019:

Gold: Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is a nonprofit conservation organization based in Columbus, Ohio. It aims to lead and inspire in connecting people and wildlife.

Its facilities include a zoo, water park, safari park and golf course, employing about 2,000 people each year. Its Edge Program initiative partners with the Ohio Department of Education and the governor’s office to recruit high school students to work at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

“The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is very proud of the partnership with the Ohio Board of Education and being one of the pioneer employers to assist with this very important initiative. We are delighted to offer Ohio high school students an opportunity to develop job readiness skills,” said Carman Wirtz, senior vice president of human resources.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium does this by specifically filling a mentorship requirement in the Readiness Seal, a formal designation that high school students can earn on their diploma by demonstrating the professional skills that are required for success in the workplace. The Edge Program sets up supervisors with students that work together every day, and are responsible for providing feedback on a variety of readiness skills.

Throughout their employment with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, students in the Edge Program will receive feedback and at the completion of 300 hours of work, have official forms signed and submitted to their high school. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium seeks to be not only a partner in fulfilling requirements for the Readiness Seal, but active partners in developing the skills and eventually the careers of young people in the state of Ohio. For its partnership with the Ohio Board of Education and commitment to educational and community development, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is the 2019 Optimas Award Gold winner for Partnership.

“The Columbus zoo and Aquarium is very proud of the of the partnership with the Ohio Board of Education.”

~Carman Wirtz, senior vice president of human resources

Silver: DPI Specialty Foods

DPI Specialty Foods is a specialty food distributor, supplying perishable and non-perishable food products across five continents in varying temperature ranges. DPI also provides sales and other services to food providers, retailers and independent operators across the United States.

Through its partnership with Ceridian’s Dayforce human capital management system, DPI was able to achieve higher levels of consistency, transparency and reliability from recruitment through onboarding and retention. This partnership has streamlined numerous DPI Specialty Foods’ processes, particularly onboarding, as well as collecting data-driven insights and providing more visibility to employees to create a more connected, engaged and satisfied workforce.

For this partnership, DPI Specialty Foods is the 2019 Optimas Award Silver winner for Partnership.

Go here to read about the rest of the Optimas winners for 2019.

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Introducing 2019’s Optimas Awards Winners

Let’s leave the 2010s with a bang.

Now in its 29th year, the Workforce Optimas Awards celebrate HR’s success at solving some of the biggest business challenges of our time. Each year, the Optimas Awards are given by Workforce to recognize human resources and workforce management initiatives that achieve business results for the organization.

Clemson University’s talent acquisition team blended high-tech and recruiting by using virtual reality alongside its campaign to build a national pool of candidates. The Panda Restaurant Group Inc. sought to strengthen its leadership pipeline through a new training program that caters to the different ways in which employees learn.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, our Gold winner for Partnership, worked with the Ohio Board of Education in a recruiting and mentoring program with a noble goal: making high school students workplace-ready. Not only does this aid young people looking for real-world experience, but it also aids the state in shaping young professionals who are well prepared when they enter the workforce.

After winning two awards in Managing Change and Vision in 2018 and one award for Recruiting in 2016, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has finally brought home the General Excellence award for its Student Poster Symposium. The fierce competition for STEM talent meant that the national security laboratory is constantly looking for new ways to provide opportunities for and create relationships with high-level tech talent. This past year the organization took its annual student symposium to the next level.

 

Congratulations to all our 2019 Optimas Award winners!

General Excellence Winner

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Benefits

Gold: O.C. Tanner
Silver: HVFCU
Bronze: Cumberland (Wisconsin) School District

Business Impact

Gold: Mercer Consulting (India) Pvt Ltd
Silver: Turner

Corporate Citizenship

Gold: Ultimate Software
Silver: Tata Consultancy Services

Global Outlook

Gold: Valmont Industries Inc.
Silver: Turner 
Bronze: Philanthropy U 

Innovation

Gold: Teachers College, Columbia University
Silver: Riverside Healthcare
Bronze: DailyPay

Managing Change

Gold: LaSalle Network
Silver: Tata Consultancy Services

Partnership

Gold: Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Silver: DPI Specialty Foods

Recruiting

Gold: Clemson University – Human Resources (Talent Acquisition)
Silver: Interim HealthCare
Bronze: CDW

Training 

Gold: Panda Restaurant Group Inc. 
Silver: AbbVie
Bronze: Tata Consultancy Services (Emerge)

Vision

Gold: Turner 
Silver: Sagicor Group Jamaica Ltd.

 

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2019 Optimas Award Winners for Innovation

The Innovation award recognizes organizations that have developed an innovative workforce management strategy that addresses a fundamental business issue. Here are the winners for 2019:

Gold: Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College at Columbia University is a graduate school of education, health and psychology in New York City and has served as the faculty and Department of Education of Columbia University since its affiliation in 1898. It functions on the founding idea that education alone cannot correct society’s problems.

Teachers College seeks to maximize the opportunities of all people while focusing specifically on supporting under-resourced communities with physical and nutritional health, education, special education, conflict resolution and spirituality through its curriculum.

The No Code to Low Code app development initiative brought app design to noncoding professionals and entry-level talent about to enter the workforce in various industries. The initiative explores how noncoders can design apps for web or mobile health apps. With the growing need of businesses, and various industries including health, to meet their clients and patients where they are at — on their mobile phones — there is a dearth of coders.

Offering subject-matter experts the opportunity to develop their app ideas with no code and low code will not only empower these experts but also help combat the lack of coders, reduce cost and offer faster app deployment, according to the Teachers College Optimas Award application.

The overarching goal was to provide future health workers with a better understanding of how to apply learning theories in a practical manner accompanied by design strategies used for mHealth via mobile phones.

“All of this was in pursuit of maximizing mobile health learning and for promoting technological skill development in their work and life in the mobile era, utilizing technology for the benefit of staff and people as patients,” said Dominic Mentor, director at Teachers College.

For its work in technological advancement and innovation through the use of the From No Code to Low Code initiative in the mobile health field, Teachers College of Columbia University is the 2019 Optimas Award Gold winner for Innovation.

Silver: Riverside Healthcare

Riverside Healthcare is a health care system serving the needs of individuals and communities in central Illinois. As part of the Riverside Healthcare system, Riverside Medical Center — a 312-bed hospital — provides a full scope of inpatient and outpatient care and is a nationally recognized Level II trauma hospital focusing on heart care, cancer care, neurosurgery and orthopedics.

Studies have shown that long-term, high-touch care in the health care profession can ultimately result in provider burnout if not sufficiently identified, addressed and managed. In an effort to effectively affect provider burnout through a more preventative approach, the Riverside Healthcare Well In Mind Employee Support Program has implemented the Focused Provider Rounding initiative to complement the current infrastructure of well-being programs. This workforce management initiative provides the health care organization’s doctors and advanced-care providers with the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to address the signs of provider burnout, improving the working experience of the entire staff.

For the Focused Provider Rounding initiative, Riverside Healthcare is the 2019 Optimas Award Silver winner for Innovation.

Bronze: DailyPay

For its work through The DailyPay Benefit initiative, DailyPay is the 2019 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Innovation.

Go here to read about the rest of the Optimas winners for 2019.