Eighteen companies scooped Good People Management Awards

Eighteen companies were commended today (Thursday) for their outstanding performance in good people management at the Labour Department's presentation ceremony for the Good People Management Award (GPMA) 2000.

The awards were presented by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa; the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mrs Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fan; and the Commissioner for Labour, Mrs Pamela Tan Kam Mi-wah, respectively.

Launched by the department for the second year, the GPMA aims to promote, encourage and benchmark companies in achieving good people management.

Delivering the welcoming address at the ceremony, Mrs Tan said, "This year, 180 companies joined the competition, which represents a 51 per cent increase when compared with last year's figure. Such overwhelming response demonstrates that employers in Hong Kong are increasingly aware of the importance of good people management."

"Managing human resources effectively is crucial in this ever-changing and challenging century if enterprises are to maintain their competitive edge. How to effectively manage human resources to enable enterprises to capture business opportunities ahead of others is another important issue." She said. 

Mrs Tan emphasised that apart from commending good people management practices, the GPMA provided a good opportunity for enterprises to share experience.

"It is an undisputed fact that employees are important assets of a company. Good people management will help enhance its productivity and competitiveness.

"The successful examples today will shed light on ways to meet the future challenges for human resources personnel," she said.

Mrs Tan also took the opportunity to encourage employers to adopt employee-oriented management practices that are fair, equal and law-abiding. This would contribute to harmonious labour relations and sustainable economic development in Hong Kong.

The GPMA has a total of 18 awards for winning establishments. Eight awards were presented to those employing 500 or above people, while the other 10 went to establishments with an employment size between 101 and 500 and those with employing 100 or fewer people. 

All the contestants were first shortlisted by way of a self-assessment process in which they were requested to complete the checklist in the application form indicating the measures they have adopted in five major aspects: recruitment, selection and offer of employment; staff training; safety and health at work; employer-employee communication and termination of employment.

In addition, the participating companies were requested to make a 20-minute presentation of the salient points of their submissions and to supply additional information to the panel of judges.

The panel of judges included the Reader of the School of Business of the University of Hong Kong, Dr Ng Sek-hong; the Professor of Management Department of Marketing of the City University of Hong Kong, Dr Leung Kwok; Legislative Council Member, Mr Leung Fu-wah; Labour Advisory Board Members, Mr Ho Sai-chu, Mr Yeung Kwok-ki and Mr Poon Siu-ping; and the Chairman of the Hong Kong Industrial Relations Association, Mr Garek Hui.

 Apart from the presentation ceremony, the Department also organised a Seminar on Prospect and New Strategies of Human Resources Management today. The speakers were the Vice-president of Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management, Mr K.T. Lai; Human Resources Manager, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, Mr K.S. Yeung; and Solicitor, Baker and M'kenzie, Mr Anthony Paul Jacobsen.