Winners of the 2018 APS Workplace Excellence Awards were announced last night at a Melbourne gala event, held to recognise Australian businesses boosting success with psychology.
“Business leaders recognise the value psychological science brings to finding solutions to problems, but it can be difficult for leaders and HR professionals to know what really works,” says APS CEO Frances Mirabelli.
“The Awards showcases what Australian businesses can learn from in an increasingly uncertain climate.”
Seven winners were announced across various categories, including excellence in leadership development and coaching, organisational development, talent management and workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
Australian industry spends $666 billion a year employing 11 million people. Companies are calling on psychologists to help them harness the potential of their people, who are their most valuable assets.
Heather Ikin, Chair of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists, says that focussing on the people at the heart of business is key to Australia’s success in the globalised marketplace.
“Innovation, design and performance through people, rather than at their expense, is how we will successfully navigate challenges such as uncertainty and automation,” she says.
“Organisational psychologists specialise in working with leaders and HR professionals in organisations to support them in devising strategies to develop, motivate, change and inspire in ways that deliver on multiple bottom lines.”
Now in its fourth year, the Workplace Excellence Awards were established by the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and the APS College of Organisational Psychologists.
The Awards are open to any Australian business, organisation, or individual in the public or private sector with a workplace initiative that is consistent with one of the seven award categories.
2018 Workplace Excellence Awards winners
- Category: Emerging Directions in Organisational Psychology
Winner: Revelian
Revelian responded to growing market demand for innovative personnel selection methods by developing a world-first, game based cognitive ability assessment tool for high stakes selection, now used throughout the world.
- Category: Leadership Development and Coaching
Winner: People Measures
People Measures designed the 2017 Viva Energy Female Emerging Leaders Development Program to address unconscious gender bias and establish a pipeline of female leaders at Viva Energy.
- Category: Organisational Change
Winner: RACQ
RACQ’s ‘Us Collaborating’ culture initiative was designed to encourage an organisational culture based on collaboration.
- Category: Organisational Development
Winner: Allianz Insurance
Getting back to work soon after a work-related injury or illness is critical to the recovery process. Allianz Insurance developed a person-centred claims management approach, with improved outcomes for injured workers
- Category: Performance and Capability Development
Winner: Australian National University (ANU)
ANU demonstrated outstanding approaches to the development of employee knowledge, skills, capabilities, and attitudes, geared towards improving individual and organisational performance.
- Category: Talent Management
Winner: Foreseen Potential and Black Sheep Capital
Within the Venture Capital industry many Start-ups will fail, leading to lost investments. Foreseen Potential designed an Entrepreneurial Assessment process, to enable Black Sheep Capital to better understand Entrepreneurial risk.
- Category: Workplace Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Winner: Attorney-General’s Department SA
Recognising the need to address increasing psychological injury claims workers’ compensation costs, a wellbeing program targeting the cause of stress and psychological injury was developed, significantly reducing the cost of mental health claims.
For more information, including details of category finalists, visit:
www.workplaceexcellenceawards.com.au/
The APS College of Organisational Psychologists (COP) is the professional association of psychologists who specialise in working with organisations, teams and individual employees to improve their motivation, effectiveness and productivity. For more information, visit the COP website.
For more information, or to arrange an interview call the APS Media team on 03 8662 3358 / 0435 896 444, or email. Find the APS Media team on Twitter: @AustPsych
The APS is the largest professional organisation for psychologists in Australia, representing more than 27,000 members. The APS is committed to advancing psychology as a discipline and profession. It spreads the message that psychologists make a difference to people’s lives, through improving psychological knowledge and community wellbeing.