HR success stories to apply here

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and People Management magazine are calling on all organisations who have made an impact on their business through good people management and development to apply for this yearís award; launched today, 29th January.

The award is open to every type and size of organisation that can demonstrate how they have used a people management initiative to overcome a particular business issue. Previous finalists have shown a variety of outstanding and innovative solutions that have had a direct impact on their business performance including programmes to assist continuous improvement and lifelong learning, re-location, recruitment and retention and outsourcing.

BMW Group Plant Oxford was last yearís award winner. HR Director, Heike Schneeweis said, Winning this prestigious award has been a tremendous boost for all our employees as it has recognised their support and dedication to this aspect of our cultural change programme. The project is ongoing and the CIPD accolade will certainly help to motivate everyone during the year.

Since receiving the award, weíve had a great deal of interest in our programme from other BMW Group plants and companies outside the automotive sector.

BMWís Working in Groups project, involved the development of self-steered teams across the plantís manufacturing areas. These teams tackled production problems themselves, broke down traditional hierarchical structures and in 2002 saw the plant exceed its target production volume by 60% (an additional 60,000 MINIs) and deliver cost savings of 6.3 million directly as a result of ideas from employees.

Past award winners have featured within national newspapers such as The Guardian and Financial Times. People Management Award 2002 winner, the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), saw its New Ways of Working programme, featured on BBC 2ís Newsnight programme, as a direct result of winning the award.

For information on the award and to request an entry pack, organisations can contact the CIPD award hotline on 020 8263 3840 or award@cipd.co.uk