UHR Awards - how to apply
Please note that the nomination process for the UHR Awards 2023 ran from Thursday 2 February to noon on Tuesday 28 March. Nominations are therefore closed for this year and additional information provided on this page is therefore intended to help anyone scheduling a nomination for 2024.
The UHR Awards winners will be announced on Wednesday 10 May at UHR's 2023 Conference.
It’s great to be able to launch the UHR Awards 2023. As you know, a key UHR aim is to enable HR innovation and learning from each other, and to build our professional skills base: these awards give a great opportunity to do this, and to highlight creativity and success. We want to show the sector and the HR professionals beyond HE that our HR practitioners introduce cutting edge practices that have real impact, and which enhance organisational culture and performance within UK universities. The UHR Awards are a great opportunity to encourage and motivate the HR team, even in preparing an entry – and even more so if you win. Make sure your team gets the recognition you deserve.
This year we have new awards categories and have made changes to our criteria to take account of this. The new categories are for achievements in reward and recruitment; in wellbeing; and we also have a new HR Star Award for an individual that has made an exceptional difference. The nominations form can be downloaded below and you have until noon on Tuesday 28 March to return your nomination. Please note that there are two different forms this year, one for the new HR Star Award, and one for the other awards, so please be sure to use the right one. We look forward to hearing from you!
The winners of the UHR Awards 2023 will be announced at the UHR Conference 2023 - thankyou to all involved in making our conference a success each year, including this year's Premium Partners Notion-STAR and NTT Data Business Solutions.
Awards categories and criteria
There are seven UHR Awards – here are the categories and criteria.
- Business effectiveness and organisational performance: this has driven and demonstrably enhanced organisational performance and competitive advantage, demonstrating new ways of working.
- Culture change and organisational development: this has achieved transformational culture change or greater staff engagement, or involved collaborative work with another organisation, enabling the university effectively to meet future challenges and uncertainty.
- Equality, diversity and inclusion: this has improved equality, diversity and inclusion in the organisation, and brought demonstrable improvements to performance or engagement.
- Reward and recruitment: this has demonstrably improved the ability of the organisation to recruit or reward staff effectively, particularly in the current challenging climate.
- Wellbeing: this has enhanced the wellbeing of staff, and through that, improved the workplace and the student and/or staff experience.
- HR Star: A new award to recognise a member of HR staff who has been a valued member of the team and gone above and beyond their role and made an exceptional difference to the organisation through what they have done, or the way they went about it.
- Exceptional HR: for exceptional achievement by an HR team - our "Team of the Year" category.
Why should you enter?
At a recent Showcasing Good Practice event, an illustrious panel of former winners gave us their top ten reasons to enter for a UHR Award.
- HR teams need to be seen as credible within our institutions and public recognition of our work from our peers helps us to be trusted to do difficult things
- Public awareness of awards helps to promote careers in higher education HR. Some think of us as a backwater when we are often at a cutting edge. The awards help us highlight that
- The awards promote projects and approaches that you can use or adapt in your own institution. They are a great source of ideas for all of us
- There’s a genuine internal team morale boost associated with winning a UHR Award
- We can’t always talk publicly about the work that we do so this gives a way for meaningful recognition to be gained
- The UHR Awards will give you a platform on a subject that you are knowledgeable and passionate about: that’s good for your own network and collaboration. There is real value here for those willing to share ideas
- That platform might help you influence the sector more widely. Some of the best UHR Award winners have gone on to influence via UUK, EHRC and others
- Winning an award is good for your team’s reputation within your university, and indeed for the wider university too
- An entry will help you focus on the data you have that demonstrates impact – that discipline will help you on other projects
- An awards entry will give you space to reflect on the nature of the achievement. It’s fine and it’s valid to be proud of good work.
Timeline
The deadline for entries is noon on Tuesday 28 March 2023.
Winners will be announced during the UHR Conference 2023.
Entry form
Nominations can be made on a form which is a simple Word document - it can be saved and returned to as you gather your evidence for the nomination and we often find the best entries come from those who have given themselves thinking time as they prepare, and involved more than one colleague in the process. Please note this year there are two forms, one for the HR Star Award, and the other for the other categories. Please download your nomination for below.
Evidence of measurable achievement and impact should be clearly demonstrated, as the purpose of the awards is to be able to spread good practice that actually produces results. It’s important that your entry is a project, initiative or combination of activities that has already been implemented and had a real effect, rather than a good idea with potential that hasn’t yet made a demonstrable difference. Any UHR member HEI, regardless of size or type can enter, but it’s vital to provide evidence of your activity being cutting edge or innovative in the way it’s been implemented, and of its impact. The nomination form for the HR Star Award is simpler and asks how the individual is making an impact and a difference to their team.
Who will judge the entries?
A range of people with experience and knowledge of good people management practice within and beyond higher education.
Previous winners
