ine organizations, including a global design firm, a major energy company and a state transportation agency, have been selected as the winners of the 2009 Optimas Awards, given by Workforce Management in recognition of workforce management initiatives that directly affect business results.
This year’s winner in the General Excellence category is the U.S. Navy, whose portfolio of workforce initiatives showed the range of its efforts to attract, train and retain a skilled, diverse workforce of 300,000 that increasingly encompasses women and minorities. The General Excellence award is given to the organization whose workforce management initiatives have met the standards established for at least six of the other nine Optimas categories.
This is the 19th year for the Optimas Awards. Past winners have included organizations of every kind—global public companies, city governments, federal and state agencies, not-for-profits and small family-owned enterprises.
“For nearly two decades, Workforce Management has been honoring organizations with exceptional workforce initiatives that clearly show a measurable, bottom-line success in response to the organization’s business needs, issues or challenges,” says Workforce Management editor John Hollon. “And the 2009 winners uphold this standard yet again. We’re proud to be honoring a diverse group of organizations whose outstanding businesses show that when it comes to innovative workforce practices, they truly are among the best.”
As in past years, the winning organizations have faced a variety of challenges and answered them with creative initiatives that have one thing in common: a belief that the organization with the best workforce wins. Among the winning entries were talent strategies, training and development efforts and the Navy’s inventive online, open-market bidding system for difficult-to-fill assignments.
Here are the winners of the 2009 Optimas Awards. Read their full stories in the December issue of Workforce Management magazine and online.
General Excellence: U.S. Navy, Washington
Competitive Advantage: DaVita, Lakewood, Colorado
Financial Impact: Discovery Communications, Silver Spring, Maryland
Global Outlook: Raytheon Professional Services, Dallas
Innovation: Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Watertown, Massachusetts
Managing Change: Gensler, San Francisco
Partnership: PSEG, Newark, New Jersey
Service: Missouri Department of Transportation, Jefferson City, Missouri
Vision: Sodexo, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Ethical Practice: No 2009 winner
Applications for the 2010 Optimas Awards will be accepted beginning March 30, 2010. The application deadline is July 15, 2010. If you have questions about the awards, please contact Carroll Lachnit, executive editor.
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