Award Criteria

1. The Award shall be given to an individual, or a team of two or more individuals, whose work, in the opinion of the WFPMA Board, constitutes an outstanding contribution to the practice and profession of human resource management and development at an international level.
    
2. An ‘outstanding contribution’ will be one that is readily recognized by HR professionals all over the world for its intrinsic excellence, and which can be shown to have had a significant impact on the fortunes of one or more employing organizations, to have advanced the international state of knowledge and understanding of people management and development and/or to have influenced the profession and its practice internationally.
    
3. The Award may be made in respect of research, teaching, writing or organizational practice which has gained international reach and recognition.
    
4. The Award may be made in respect of a single activity, piece of work or program subject to paragraph 2 or in respect of a series of initiatives or body of work over a period.
    
5. The Award may relate to contribution within a single organization, provided that knowledge and information about the activity or program is subsequently disseminated widely and recognized internationally.
    
6. In approving recipients for the award, the Board shall keep in mind the desirability of recognizing people who provide role models for the profession, who demonstrate personal and professional leadership, who set standards for others and for the profession, and whose professional expertise is applied and recognized both within and beyond their local or national communities.
    
7. The Award may be made once in any period of two years, but the WFPMA may decide not to make an award if no suitable recipients are nominated.
    
8. No member of the WFPMA Board or Associate Member Representative is eligible for nomination while holding such a position.

Selecting Recipients

9. The responsibility for recommending an individual, or group of individuals, to receive the Award is delegated by the WFPMA Board to a Selection Panel.
    
10. The Selection Panel is chaired by the Immediate Past President of the WFPMA and comprises the Presidents of the Full members of the WFPMA and the Associate Representative on the WFPMA Board.
     
11. The Selection Panel shall decide how it operates. It will not normally meet in person but may do so if its members are gathered for some other purpose. It will not normally interview candidates for the Award.
     
12. The WFPMA Board shall provide sufficient resources for publicizing the Award, and for calling for nominations of possible recipients. The Selection Panel will be provided with administrative support from the WFPMA Secretariat.
     
13. It is expected that the Selection Panel will use ‘search’ techniques to identify and gather information about possible recipients of the Award. In this activity, they may seek advice or assistance from regional or national associations and/or other third parties.
     
14. It is expected that the Selection Panel will seek evidence to support nominations: in the case of practitioners and consultants from the organization(s) in question, whether employer or client, and from other countries or organizations which have benefited from the nominee’s work; in the case of academics, teachers and writers, from companies which have benefited from the work in question, and preferably organizations from more than one country.
     
15. The deliberations and decision processes of the Selection Panel, and the names and identities of any candidates who are considered but not selected for recommendation for the Award, remain confidential to the members of the Selection Panel. Potential recipients will not normally be aware they are being considered for the Award.
     
16. The Selection Panel may recommend not more than one recipient or group of recipients of the Award in any two-year period. The recommendation may be made at any time, but no later than six months before the date of the next WFPMA World Congress.
     
17. The recommendation of the Selection Panel shall be accompanied by sufficient information to provide the basis for an Award citation.
     
18. A recommendation made by the Selection Panel may be accepted or rejected by the WFPMA Board, but the Board may not substitute its own nomination for the recommendation of the Selection Panel. If a recommendation of the Selection Panel is rejected, the Selection Panel may make a further recommendation.

Making the Award

19. Following the WFPMA Board’s acceptance of the recommendation of the Selection Panel, it is the responsibility of the WFPMA President to communicate this decision to the proposed recipient and seek his/her/their acceptance. The winner(s) will also be required to attend the WFPMA Congress to accept the Award or, failing that, to participate in a video of the Award presentation.
     
20. The decision shall not be made public until the Award is presented at the next WFPMA World Congress.
     
21. The Award recipient(s) shall be a guest of the WFPMA for the World Congress. The host organization shall provide full complimentary Congress registration for the recipient, and the WFPMA shall provide an economy class round trip fare (between the recipient’s home country and the Congress venue) and meet actual and reasonable accommodation expenses.
     
22. The Award takes the form of a sculpture which is provided by the WFPMA. There is no monetary award.