Regional Human Resource Director, West Africa & Ghana, Fanmilk Limited, Dr Hazel Pobewa Berrard Amuah, has been adjudged the HR Industry Personality of the Year at the third Africa Human Resources Innovation Awards (AHRIA), 2020.
Dr Hazel, who is the Former Country Director of Human Resources (HR), Guinness Ghana Breweries, did not only walk away with the HR Personality of the Year award, but was also honoured with another as One of Africa Top 50 HR Practitioners.
The honours were in recognition of her resilience, innovation, hard work, exemplary management practices, transformative leadership and her unique ability to raise leaders over the years, especially in the year that has been challenging for many organizations due to COVID-19.
AHRIA is an annual celebration of leading HR practitioners and organisations with topnotch HR models who have made sterling contributions to the corporate sector over the years, and is organized by Instinct Wave.
Commenting on the awards, she emphasized on the hard work factor that characterized her professional career, stressing on resolute leadership and ability to leverage on technology, adopting a robust HR Systems Application and Products (SAP) module to manage employee relations in her line of duty at Guinness Ghana Breweries among others.
“A lot of the efforts that has gone into the award has been for my work done at Guinness where we did an amazing job in making sure we leverage a strong HR- SAP system where everything HR is done in the system.
We also leveraged a strong engagement culture where employee voice counted in every decision making, how performance and career have to be driven and how the company functioned effectively. We also ensured that we drove a savings mentality and a zero-waste culture to help position the organization as an employer of choice,” she said.
Based on the backdrop, it did not come as a surprise when Guinness Ghana Breweries were announced HR Innovation Company of the Year-Consumer Goods and Excellence in Women Empowerment Strategy among other enviable awards.
She was excited that her two successors she worked with and developed at Old Mutual and Guinness respectively also bagged two awards as the Emerging HR Professionals of the Year 2020: Jehoshaphat Abaya and Audrey Achaw.
Also worthy of commendation, was the passion of Dr Hazel with which she spoke about Fan Milk, the footprints being laid, the team, their excellence in product development, transformation and belief in nourishing Africa after having spent just about six months in her new company.
