Two National HR awards for PREM Group
Irish HR Awards
The team at PREM Group couldn't be prouder of our HR team on picking up two distinguished awards at the Irish HR Champion Awards. The awards which were held recently at the Guinness Storehouse were organised by event management company Blacksquare, with lead sponsors William Fry celebrate the hard work and dedication of HR teams – operating at the front line, delivering ambitious programmes, impacting business performance and transforming employee experience.
The Awards recognise the success, innovation and business focus of HR delivering the best strategies across various headings including: employee engagement, talent acquisition, corporate and social responsibility, employer branding, change management, wellness strategy, learning and development, diversity and leadership.
The ENGAGE Initiative
The PREM HR team scooped two accolades at the distinguished HR awards in Dublin including a team award under the Employee Engagement category for their superb 2018 initiative called ‘ENGAGE’.
The simple principle behind ENGAGE is that everyone, at every level within PREM Group has the potential to come up with ideas that could contribute to the success of the business. The aim of ENGAGE was to provide a platform to give life to those ideas, be they ideas about improving the work environment, customer experience, bottom line or PREM Group’s broad social responsibility initiatives – whatever the idea, there was a place for it through the ENGAGE initiative.
The programme is the brain child of our Group’s HR Manager (UK & Ireland), Sarah Marr and began in the early part of 2018 by inviting employees to submit ideas and suggestions on how business, services, products and employee wellbeing can be improved across the group.
35 teams were registered as participating in ENGAGE projects throughout the year with 8 teams making it to the final. The Aspect Hotel (now The Hoban) in Kilkenny came out on top and took the top prize for their project, ‘Tip Top Teams’, a project which focuses on employee wellbeing. With a combination of initiatives, the team managed to bring in a healthier living culture within the hotel. Examples of these initiatives included the introduction of subsidised gym membership, healthier staff meals, healthier free family days out and increased promotion of the company's Employee Assistance Programme. The impact on employees within the group was clearly demonstrated in a well-articulated presentation to the judges by team members Sebastian Wilczynski, Patrick O’ Neill, Ciara Lawlor and Caroline Whelan.
Irish HR Champion Award - Sarah Marr
Separately, Sarah Marr our Group HR Manager for PREM Ireland & UK won a ‘Judges Choice’ Irish HR Champion Award 2019. Submissions are not made for this award category. Sarah was chosen independently by the judges as a stand out leader in the world of Irish HR.
Speaking after the awards Sarah said, “I am with PREM Group for nearly 20 years and all of my learnings and training has happened within the company. PREM Group has given me wonderful and varied opportunities for learning throughout my career. This award is testament to the broad experience one can gain from working in a progressive, fast paced, successful company like PREM. I am thrilled and delighted with this award and want to extend my thanks to my own team and all of the management at PREM Group.”
Jim Murphy, CEO of PREM Group said, “We are very proud of the work that Sarah and her team have done. Their innovation with ENGAGE has led to a wonderful culture of inclusion within our organisation.”
We can say that this sentiment is echoed across the whole company - well done to Sarah and all the team!