University staff honoured at 2023 NZ HR Awards
16 March 2023
Staff members from across the University were honoured at the recent NZ HR Awards.
Staff members across Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland were honoured at the 2023 NZ HR Awards last week, with the Business School’s Dr Deepika Jindal and the University’s Organisational Development team getting a chance to shine.
Deepika was named the winner of the first-ever Academic Impact Award, while the Organisational Development team, led by Pip Ball, were finalists in the Learning & Development Capability category.
The awards are organised by Human Resources New Zealand (HRNZ) and celebrate the best in Aotearoa New Zealand’s HR community, recognising both individual and organisational achievements. This year marked the 24th outing for the awards and over 400 HR professionals gathered for the occasion.
New this year is the Academic Impact Award, celebrating the connection and contribution of academics to the HR profession and awarded for the very first time to Deepika. Deepika was honoured for her teaching and service relating to human resource management in New Zealand, and her commitment to helping shape the future HR workforce.
Both HR practitioners and line managers have a key role to play in enabling job crafting conversations and empowering employees to bring their authentic selves to work, which is a win-win for both individuals and organisations.
“Receiving this award affirms to me that what I’m doing is adding value and I am able to make a difference through the work I do,” she says.
Deepika’s research interest is focused on the topic of ‘job crafting’ – the ways in which leaders can support employees to shape their roles to be more closely aligned with their own needs and abilities. Deepika first came across job crafting in 2013 while researching for a potential PhD topic.
“I had this ‘a-ha’ moment when I realised that I had been crafting my job and career all my life although I never knew such a construct existed. So, job crafting became one of the key constructs for my doctoral research,” Deepika says.
“When employees actively shape the boundaries of their jobs, they find more fulfilment and meaningfulness in their work. Both HR practitioners and line managers have a key role to play in enabling job crafting conversations and empowering employees to bring their authentic selves to work, which is a win-win for both individuals and organisations.”
The University’s Organisational Development team was also recognised as finalists. Their category (Learning & Development Capability) focuses on excellence in training and development initiatives that have contributed significantly and strategically to organisational capability outcomes.
They were nominated alongside Fonterra Farm Source and the night’s winners, Southbase Construction.