Winners of the i4cp 2021 Next Practice Awards Announced

The recipients of the i4cp 2021 Next Practice Awards have been announced. Avanade, Ford Motor Company, T-Mobile, and Tiffany & Co. are recognized for leading-edge people practices that have positively impacted their businesses.

The winners were honored at the virtual i4cp 2021 Next Practices Now Conference.

The award-winning submissions centered on initiatives to drive digital innovation, upskill and reskill employees, and strengthen DE&I programs:

• Avanade—The digital transformation services company applied design thinking during the COVID-19 pandemic to transform diverse activities in growth and development into a 4-week digital experience called !nnovateFest. Inspired by music festivals, !nnovateFest has become the leading digital experience at Avanade, and a driving force for the company’s culture of growth mindset, innovation, and people development.
• Ford Motor Company—In response to significant disruption in its European markets, in part driven by a shift in customer behavior, moves towards carbon-neutral transportation, and demand for device integration, the 118-year-old company needed to both increase its agility and workforce capability and align its talent acquisition capability. Ford in Europe put into effect four priority sprints, covering skills, environment, innovation, and digitization, to reskill and redeploy personnel, compete for talent against tech companies outside the automotive industry, and instill a continuous learning culture.
• T-Mobile—Following the death of George Floyd and the growing racial tension in the U.S., T-Mobile created a program “Lead Magenta Next,” with the sole purpose of increasing the diversity of its leadership. The goal was to place underrepresented talent at the intersection of sponsorship, readiness, and opportunity. Among other successes, within two months of the end of the first cohort, 28% of participants were promoted.
• Tiffany & Co.—To reach its goal of becoming the #1 next generation luxury jeweler, the specialty retailer completely reinvented its approach to employee development. The company introduced a corporate university model that greatly expanded learning content and opportunities while also supporting an enterprise-wide culture renovation. Four months after the launch of TiffanyU, employee engagement had increased 3%, the Tiffany & Co. Inclusion index increased 4%, and other metrics reflected improvements as well.

The discovery of next practices—human capital strategies that are highly correlated with market performance, but that most companies have not yet adopted—is a primary focus of i4cp’s research. To that end, i4cp looks to its network of member organizations to uncover world-class examples of next practices in action. The Next Practice Awards showcase the design, implementation, and measurement of innovative people practices that effectively address business challenges.

Detailed case studies of the four winning next practices are available on i4cp.com and the leaders of these initiatives will also be interviewed at the i4cp 2022 Next Practices Now Conference (March 14-17, 2022) at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona. Limited space remains—sign up today to hear from the winners and other forward-looking thought leaders.