There’s a golden glow on Translink employees this summer with the company winning two major accolades for its Personnel  and Organisational Development Programme. 

The public transport company was recently crowned winner of the highly coveted ‘Change Management Programme of the Year’ award at the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) awards in Belfast and was also awarded Investors In People Gold standard.

Translink scooped the top prize at the annual awards with its innovative ‘Translink Programme’, a development initiative which embraces on-going change, reform and continuous improvement of the business against a backdrop of reduced public funding and challenging economic environment.

The programme, created by HR Director Gordon Milligan, has had many successes since launching in 2010; most notably achieving the award of the IIP Gold standard. The Gold standard is the highest recognised accolade in the UK for business improvement through its people.

Speaking about the company’s success Translink’s Gordon Milligan said: “It’s a tremendous honour to win this award and it’s a testament to the hard work and dedication of all Translink employees in helping to make the programme a success. 

“The programme has had an incredibly positive impact on both our staff and business performance of Translink and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Group Human Resources for the part they’ve played in making it happen.” 

Translink employs almost 4,000 people who provide the services that resulted in 78 million passenger journeys over the past year - 1.5 million more fare paying passengers compared to last year.  The Translink Programme, the largest of its kind in Northern Ireland, is designed to help embed customer focused ethos, service improvements, enhance commercialisation of services and develop an employer brand which attracts, motivates and retains the best people.

The programme aims to develop “best in class” people management practices through the establishment of cross functional project teams to carry out research from world class organisations. This research is used to design and build bespoke solutions to be implemented within Translink.

The awards also saw Translink win a Highly Commended Award in the Building HR Capability for the Future category for its commitment to ensuring HR plays a vital role in enhancing business performance.

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