Tiffany & Co., Prisma Health, F5, and Avanade Selected as i4cp Next Practice Award Finalists

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)—a leading global human capital research firm, is pleased to announce the first four finalists in its 2021 Next Practice Awards competition. Exclusive to i4cp, next practices describe innovative strategies strongly tied to excellence in market performance but not yet leveraged by most organizations.

Finalists in Phase One of the two-phase 2021 competition include Tiffany & Co., Prisma Health, F5, and Avanade. All were chosen for demonstrating creative workforce practices that positively impact business results.

Four more finalists will be chosen from Phase Two of the competition, which concludes July 30th. Winners will be selected from the full slate of finalists and honored at i4cp’s Next Practices Now Conference, taking place virtually in November, and on stage at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona.

Phase One finalists’ entries in the 6th annual awards competition centered on initiatives to strengthen succession planning, build extensive and inclusive development programs, and drive digital innovation:

• 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.
• Prisma Health—The 30,000-employee not-for-profit healthcare system innovated a more organized, comprehensive, and robust approach to clinical education to align learning to organizational purpose: Inspire health. Serve with compassion. Be the difference. The new education model enabled Prisma Health to consolidate, standardize, and expand how it equips team members “to help people live their healthiest lives.” Changes resulted in an estimated $4.8 million in cost avoidance and $3.8 million in vendor costs, while driving greater speed and consistency in learning delivery—particularly helpful in expediting training on COVID-19 related topics.
• F5—The global technology company shifted its historical focus on succession planning to  “progression planning,” signaling a stronger focus on advancing talent. The principles defining this innovation strategy led to a solution which partners leaders with HR business partners, talent acquisition leaders, and diversity and inclusion leaders to look at differentiating role characteristics, key experiences for successors, availability of internal talent, and more. While the ultimate success of the approach will be determined over time, F5 already is seeing strong indicators of success.
• 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.

Because discovery of next practices is a primary focus of i4cp’s research, the company looks to its network of member organizations to uncover world-class examples of those practices in action. The Next Practice Awards showcase the design, implementation, and measurement of innovative people practices that effectively address a variety of compelling business challenges.

Detailed case studies of the four Phase One finalists are now available, and some of the leaders of those initiatives will be interviewed on stage at i4cp’s 2022 Next Practices Now Conference.

i4cp is accepting entries in Phase Two of the competition through July 30, 2021. Finalists will be announced upon completion of judging. For eligibility and requirements, visit i4cp’s Next Practice Awards page.