Entries for NZ HR Awards closing soon

Nominations for the 2022 NZ HR Awards, which celebrates the achievements and innovations of the country's top human resources leaders, are closing soon.

MAS is the principal partner of the awards and is sponsoring two award categories: the HR Student of the Year award, and the Emerging HR Practitioner award.

MAS Chief Member Advocacy Officer Mike Davy says this is our first year working with HRNZ, and we're excited to be supporting the 2022 awards as the principal partner.

"The best and brightest of the human resources profession are being honoured at the awards, and MAS' support of HRNZ strengthens our commitment to elevating the industry as a whole."

Nominations close 1 November and winners will be honoured at an awards night, held in March 2022.

2021 winner "surprised and ecstatic" at recognition

Sona Valesyan, who won the Emerging HR Practitioner award this year, says winning the award was confirmation that her work was making a positive difference.

Sona is a capability advisor at Tonkin + Taylor and has been with the environmental and engineering consultancy for three years. She says she almost didn't apply for the award. 

"I had a lot of self-doubt before applying, but in the end I put in an application just before the 5pm cutoff on the final day to enter. When I got the email saying I was a finalist, I had to go back and read it a few times to make sure I understood it correctly."

Sona was "surprised and ecstatic to be a finalist", and felt complete disbelief when she won her category.

"Walking across the stage to accept the award was a thrill! It was great to celebrate with other HR professionals, and they really pulled out all the stops making it a special night."

The awards are a chance to recognise the hard work that goes on behind the scenes when working in HR in an organisation, says Sona.

"HR can be a slow-moving beast, you're constantly tweaking culture in little ways here and there. A lot of this can be unseen, so to be recognised by HRNZ for my work is just awesome."

Sona encourages anyone thinking about entering to put their name in the hat.

"The worst thing that can happen is you'll get a 'no', so I'd encourage everyone to take their shot. If I didn't apply, I never would've got this recognition. Now I can look at myself and say 'yeah, I did all that work and I did a good job of it'. It's such an epic feeling."