The finalists already known! How the first selection stage of the All-Ukrainian award for HR professionals went

At the end of March, a new award for HR professionals – HR PRO AWARDS 2021 – appeared in Ukraine. 

It is intended to recognize the team and personal achievements of HR representatives that will contribute to improving the level of professional practices in Ukraine. Very soon, the HR community will know the authors of the best projects in the nominations and names of HR Influencer, HR of the Year, Future Star, and CEO of the Year. 

The first stage of the award is already over. All of those interested have applied for participation, and a team of experts has carefully evaluated the applicants in each nomination. Announcing finalists is next in line! 

We invite you behind the scenes of the Award to tell you how the first stage of the competition was held and how we managed to unite all the participants in the process in the online space. Acting as an automation partner of the All-Ukrainian Award, SMART business took over the implementation of a digital Portal for participants, where everyone has the opportunity not only to submit an application and track its status but also to keep all the information about the competition at hand.  

The portal is built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM platform). The SMART business team has taken part in the development and technical implementation of the idea. Also, it has created the front-end and back-end of the Portal and is providing the organizers with support at every stage of development and implementation.

So, on March 25, participants started submitting their applications. 

To apply for participation, regardless of the nomination, everyone could register on the Award Portal, where a Personal Cabinet was automatically created for them. 

It was here that the journey to victory began: in the Personal Cabinet, the Participant filled out That Very Application. The system automatically generated a Participant Card, where the Moderator controlled the correctness of its filling and recorded the status: “Under consideration,” “Approved,” “Adjustment needed.” Participants received notifications about the status of the application in their Personal Cabinet and had the opportunity to edit it within the deadline.

“During the first stage of the Award, 30 experts evaluated more than 130 applications in 11 nominations! Just imagine this number of unique participants! Considering this number, it was extremely important for us to create a unique UX for each of them. This means that the rules and conditions for participation must be clear, the stages and evaluation criteria must be transparent, and digital solutions must be convenient and practical. Therefore, it is so important that all stages of the Award are implemented on the digital portal. Our requirements were implementing the logic of each stage of the Award, the speed of the system, as well as an intuitive and attractive user interface. Together with SMART business, we have created such a digital space in which each participant feels their involvement, remains confident at every stage and gets an individual experience of participating in the Award,” Kateryna Kovalevska, Organizer, Chief Producer of HR Pro Awards 2021, Head of HR PRO Association.

On June 1, Experts for the first selection marched into game! 

For each Expert, a Personal Cabinet was also created, and after registration in the system, nominations were assigned where they evaluate participants and projects. In the Personal Cabinet, the Expert sees all applications by nominations that the system filters for them, as well as the status of each application that they evaluated. 

All expert evaluations, as well as logs (expert actions), are imported to an excel file, which is checked by an independent Auditor and in which the average rating of the participants is determined. The auditor evaluates not the criteria but the mechanics and “mathematics,” monitors the correct entry and display of the evaluation results. After passing the audit and based on the average rating, the Finalists are determined. They become the participants of the next stage.

“I always advocate the importance of transparency in evaluations. Therefore, I believe that the automated Award system with an external audit, independent HR experts from various fields, and a history of actions on the site are important components of a large puzzle that will guarantee an objective result. As a user of the Portal, I confirm the transparent nominee evaluation system, which testifies to the professional approach to the research methodology. Technology and automation foster an unbiased evaluation, and a step-by-step methodology ensures that the best ones are identified,” Irina Prudnikova, Expert, СЕО, ANCOR Ukraine. 

On July 2, the Finalists of the first All-Ukrainian annual Award for HR professionals HR Pro Awards 2021 were announced. 

The Finalist tracks their status in the Personal Cabinet. Got a notification that you have been “Selected as the Finalist?” Then it’s time to complete the application, attach the necessary multimedia files and detailed project descriptions for further participation and evaluation. 

The supplemented application is re-moderated for compliance with the criteria and completeness of the information. The moderator can accept the application and change its status, as well as upload a document for preview and feedback. 

“The opportunity to join the HR Pro Awards jury team allowed us to assess the situation on the market “live” because companies submit the projects they are proud of and in which they have invested most time, efforts, and hopes. An important feature of the Award is an extensive expert jury, no conflict of interest in the evaluation process, and a phased submission of materials. This significantly saved the time and effort of nominees and experts. The well-prepared evaluation platform deserves special attention: such technological support made the evaluation process simple, fast, and transparent,” Natalia Gorbenko, Expert, Global Head of Talent Management, Luxoft.

After changing the status, the Finalist will automatically receive a notification. If the application needs to be finalized, the nominee is offered to contact the organizer to clarify the details and then replace and re-submit the file in the Personal Cabinet. 

It seems that the most interesting part goes next because from August 9, the jury will begin to evaluate the selected finalists. We will not reveal all the cards. Just one.

Similarly to the first stage, the jury will evaluate all competitive applications. The organizers choose the jury members from among the Experts who evaluated the nominees at the first stage. In the Personal Cabinet, the Jury will evaluate each Finalist according to an updated scale and a predetermined methodology. 

“Technological, transparent, and user-friendly – this is how I’d characterize the Award’s Portal. 

Firstly, HR Pro Awards is a modern young award, so it is quite expected that it is technologically “in the spirit of the times” and all stages are digitized as much as possible. 

Secondly, it is important for experts, participants, and organizers that the selection and evaluation of the nominees are transparent and objective. The Portal provides the jury with access to categories of applications and nominations that do not overlap with their personal interests. Automation makes it possible to make the application, selection, and evaluation processes audited: all actions and changes are logged in the system. 

And finally, HR Pro Awards is not only a competition but also a significant event for the Ukrainian HR community. Therefore, during development, we wanted the Portal to be user-friendly and maintain positive emotions,” Ievgen Belobrov, Automation Expert, Product Owner SMART HCM & LMS.

SMART business is proud of its involvement in such an important project for Ukraine and the HR community. We readily consider the wishes and feedback of all users of the Portal in order to improve the user experience, create a high-quality product and scale it to an international level! 

“It is important for us to act as a partner of socially important projects in which we believe and the values of which we share. The All-Ukrainian HR Pro Awards is just that. Due to the Award, companies have the opportunity to tell how they improve communication with employees, how they increase the transparency of their goals and actions, and what contribution they make to the development of the team. The focus of the Award is on people, the company’s response to their needs, and creating opportunities for them. I am sure that participation of many companies, presentation of unique HR projects, and their unbiased evaluation on a digital platform will give a tangible impetus to the development of HR processes in organizations of our country,” Natalya Onyshchuk, Expert, a Managing Partner of SMART business.

All details on nominations, projects, evaluation criteria, the composition of experts and jury, and the timing of the project can be found on the Award’s website. The winners in each category will be announced on November 11, 2021.