Awards
The Public Appointments Service has received many prestigious awards, all of which have been a testament to our staffs dedication and professionalism.
50 Best Companies
The Public Appointments Service was proudly placed in the top 50 best companies to work for in Ireland for four years in succession, 2004 to 2007. The list of companies is compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute Ireland to recognise organisations that provide a great working environment for employees.
The top companies are chosen by evaluating employee feedback on the workplace culture and looking at our people policies, practices and philosophies. The criteria by which we were assessed, included Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie.
We are particularly proud of this award as we strive to ensure that our staff are happy and challenged in their jobs. "As service suppliers, we have to constantly improve our service," according to Martin Bourke, Personnel Officer, Director of Corporate Affairs. "This means paying attention to our own employees and encouraging them to achieve higher standards. Our staff members are close to our customers and we value their contribution to the overall effort. It makes good business sense to involve employees in the decision-making process."
Excellence through Accessibility Award
Excellence through Accessibility seeks to promote and reward a clear focus on and commitment to continuous improvement in accessibility of public services at all levels in participating organisations. To do this the award encourages the development of policies, practices and relationships to ensure that achievements in accessibility are sustainable and meaningful to customers.
The Excellence through Accessibility award scheme acknowledges those Departments and Agencies under their remit that have taken steps to make their services more accessible. Through the Award NDA hopes to support the achievement of maximum accessibility of public services for people with disabilities in Ireland. The awards are presented to pioneering public bodies that reach high standards in accessibility across key aspects of their services including buildings and facilities, publications, websites, customer services, human resources and procurement procedures.
The award winners and all participating public bodies were benchmarked against a broad range of standards covering each aspect of their services. The EtA awards are decided by an independent approvals board that is chaired by James McClean, Chairperson of People with Disabilities in Ireland.
Excellence Through People - Platinum Accreditation
The Excellence Through People accreditation is Ireland’s national standard for human resource development. Its two main objectives are to encourage the development of employees to their full potential so as to maximise their contribution to the specific needs of the organisation and to show recognition for organisations that have achieved this standard.
The award is achieved by organisations that have best practice Human Resource Systems in place, particularly in the area of staff training and development, communication, and staff involvement in the decision making processes in the organisation.
The assessment involved a lengthy analysis of our Human Resource Systems and interviews with staff from across all grades and sections, in order to discuss their personal experience of opportunities for development and involvement in the organisation.
The criteria under which we were assessed were:
- Business Planning and Quality Improvement
- Effective Communication and People Involvement
- Leadership and People Management
- Planning of Learning & Development
- Training and Life Long Learning
- Review of Learning
- Recruitment and Selection
- Employee Wellbeing
We achieved platinum accreditation which is the highest award available and were delighted to achieve this level of award.
National Advertising Awards
The Public Appointments Service recently won the Irish Independent Award for 'Excellence in Recruitment Advertising'. This top award for our Champion for Children campaign leading to the recruitment of the Ombudsman for Children. It gained recognition for breaking the mould in recruitment advertising and changing the way recruitment advertising is presented. The campaign was extremely successful and led to the successful appointment of Emily Logan as the first Ombudsman for Children in Ireland.
O2 Ability Award 2005
The O2 Ability Award recognises business excellence and best practice in the employment of people with disabilities. The programme involved the Public Appointments Service undergoing a rigorous audit by a team of independent assessors ultimately leading to an award for best practice in recruitment and selection and overall category winner for Environmental Accessibility.
According to Caroline Casey, founder of the awards programme, “These Awards are about recognising organisations who understand that diversity is good for business. The Awards aim to promote examples that others can follow and give organisations an environment to learn and improve. They are primarily business Awards where we recognise organisations that strategically endeavour to make equality part of their overall success.”