Qantas Wins Australian HR Team of the Year Award

10th Aug 2015

Australian flag-ship carrier Qantas Airways has won the annual Australian HR Team of the Year award. The ceremony was held at The Star Sydney last Friday night.

Qantas was one of 750 HR industry leaders and one of 19 award winners.

The award recognizes Qantas' HR team's crucial role in one of the largest turnarounds in the corporate history of Australia.

Chief HR officer at Qantas Airways, James Allan, said:

"It's been a lot of hard work, and it's a great team effort. I'm very proud of everyone inside the business but especially the HR team. They've been really resilient and I'm so proud."

Software company Atlassian went home with a total of three awards. Atlassian won Best Graduate Development Program, Best Recruitment Program and Australian Super Employer of Choice (for less than 1000 employees).

The Australian HR Champion (CEO) of the Year went to Lynne Jordan from Family Planning Victoria for her advocacy of robust HR practices in the organization.

Jordan said:

"I have a HR team of one, so many people services manager is about changing culture, about rewarding people and about flexibility in the workplace. It's all-encompassing and they do such a great job."

Amanda Towe, of Johnson & Johnson, won the Australian HR Director of the Year. Towe said she was 'overwhelmed' by the award:

"I think it's amazing to have such a big celebration, with the representation of all the great companies here. I think it's great for our external reputation as HR practitioners. It's also great for our internal reputation as well. We can leverage these accolades within our business to continue to grow the HR function."

Josh Cass of Aecom has one the Rising Star award. He said the following about the coveted award:

"If you look back a number of years HR has probably traditionally been more administrative. This has changed. I think of myself as a business person first and as we grow as a profession I think HR will only become more engrained as business partners."