The Alexandria, Va.-based International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) sponsors several recognition programs at the national level for outstanding service, contribution, and accomplishments in the public sector human resources field. This year, the city of Norfolk, Va. Human Resources Department was chosen by the IPMA-HR Executive Council to receive the IPMA-HR Agency Award for Excellence – Medium Agency. Nancy Olivo from the City of Norfolk accepted the award on behalf of the Norfolk HR Department.

Norfolk, founded in 1682, serves more than 230,000 residents. Human resources, with 4,000 employees, is a centralized department serving employees in the executive, cultural facilities, arts and entertainment, development, finance and business services, fire-rescue, human services, information technology, libraries, nauticus, neighborhood preservation, planning and community development, police, public health, public works, recreation, parks and open space, utilities, and zoo departments. HR provides services to employees at all levels of the organization.

It was in 1998 that Norfolk’s HR department employees developed a vision for the future: “…to be a strategic business partner through aggressively implementing our strategic role in delivering and developing our city’s human capital and by moving beyond ‘paper pushing’ to making value added business contributions.”
“The success of Norfolk Human Resources is achieved through the development of a team of professionals who are committed to public service and their profession, who own the vision, values and mission of the department and who are willing to step out of the box in exploring new ways of serving their customers,” wrote Nancy N. Olivo, director of human resources for the city of Norfolk, in the nomination form. “Human resources staff have worked tirelessly to ensure that fundamental human resource service is accomplished concurrently with the improvement of current processes and implementation of new programs. The vision will continue to guide and inspire change.”

The IPMA-HR Agency Awards for Excellence recognize the overall quality, accomplishments, and contributions of an agency personnel program that exceeds the normal operation of a “good government personnel program.” The award is based on agency program initiatives, accomplishments, and contributions within a three-year time period. Awards may be given in the small agency, medium agency and large agency categories, based on the number of employees covered by one’s human resource program.
In addition to the Agency Award for Excellence – Medium Agency, an Agency Award for Excellence – Small Agency, and an Agency Award for Excellence – Large Agency, were given out this year. The city of Tamarac, Fla. and the Montgomery County, Md. Office of Human Resources, respectively, received those awards.