Unilever Asia rose comfortably to the pole position at the annual HR Excellence Awards 2015, held in Singapore last night, going home with 11 trophies, including the coveted Grand Winner’s prize.

Over 300 senior HR and C-suite leaders from across the region came together to celebrate the biggest HR industry awards in Asia, held at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.

Competition was tough but the consumer goods giant trumped the other finalists, with 10 gold wins.

These were for excellence in compensation and benefits; diversity and inclusion; innovative use of HR technology; talent management; employee development; graduate development; training, learning and development; leadership development; HR team of the year; and the HR grand winner’s prize.

Unilever also bagged a bronze win in employer branding, where the category gold was won by Deloitte & Touche LLP, and the silver by the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office.

Check out the full list of winners here.

Check out the pics of the event here: [more photos on our Facebook page]

Singtel proved to be a strong contender, with nine trophy wins through the night, and gold victories for the categories of excellence in HR social media; cross-border HR programmes; and for mature workforce practices.

One of the new categories introduced this year was the HR Young Talent of the Year, for HR professionals who have demonstrated excellence contribution to the function in less than five years’.

This big prize was awarded to National Environment Agency’s (NEA) Kang Wan Lin. NEA walked off with four more trophies last night, including a gold win for excellence in CSR practices.

The other new category was excellence in HR strategic plan, where the gold went to SMRT Corporation, with the silver shared by NEA and SATS Ltd, and the bronze going to Mitsubishi Corporation.

As a matter of fact, SMRT Corporation and Yahoo both finished strong, with four trophy wins each.

Yahoo’s Vineet Gambhir were awarded the distinguished HR Professional of the Year trophy, while the firm won gold for excellence in employee engagement, and two silver awards for excellence in CSR practices and leadership development.

Kadence International impressed the jury, winning the SME Employer of the Year award for the second consecutive year, apart from a silver win in the excellence in recruitment and retention category.

Other high scoring employers at the Awards included ANZ Banking Group, Ministry of Manpower, DBS Bank, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Building and Construction Authority, and National Kidney Foundation.

The winners also included IPG Mediabrands, Venture Corporation, SilverNeedle Hospitality, BNP Paribas, HSL Constructor, and Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow.

All winners were carefully determined by a panel of eminent and senior HR practitioners from the corporate and public sector. For full details on the jury please see here.

A total of 64 trophies were awarded to the region’s best in HR.

The Awards were supported by silver sponsors Riverchelles and Wentworth People; and category sponsors Forum Corp Singapore, Goldbell Car Rental, Power2Motivate, Sirota.

Partners also included official beer partner Peroni Nastro Azzuro; and official wine partner Choice Wines.

Photo: Grand Winners Unilever Asia