In our first blog of the year, we welcome guest writer Alastair Milburn, Managing Director of Effective Communications, a Cardiff-based award winning PR and digital marketing agency and one of the Wales HR Awards sponsors.

As a category sponsor of the first Wales HR Awards, we wanted to let you know all about them and how you can get involved.

As you will know, Wales' most successful companies, whatever their size, have great staff at the heart of them - staff who are recruited, managed, trained, developed and retained by expert HR professionals.

We are really excited about these prestigious awards, which have been created by the Wales HR Network and are partnered by leading commercial law firm Darwin Gray and Acorn Recruitment. An annual event to reward and acknowledge excellence in HR, we are excited to see these awards going from strength to strength.

As well as being a great way to reward hard working staff, these awards provide an ideal opportunity to showcase your business as a leading employer of choice.

Deadline for entries is 31st January 2017, with a black-tie ceremony and dinner, hosted by the BBC's Sian Lloyd at The SSE SWALEC, Cardiff on Thursday 23rd March 2017.

There are eleven categories with an overall winner announced on the night. We appreciate the value of being involved in sponsorship and opportunities are still available for those of you who, like us, believe in the importance of excellence in HR.

Nominate an employee or colleague for their hard work in HR here:
www.waleshrnetwork.cymru/how-to-enter

The categories are:

• Independent HR Consultant of the Year
• HR Assistant/ Apprentice/ Trainee of the Year
• HR Team of the Year
• Best Use of the Welsh Language in HR
• Best HR Professional in the Education Sector
• Best HR Professional in the Manufacturing/ Science (including Life Sciences/ Biotec) Sector
• Housing Association HR Professional of the Year
• Best HR Professional in the Public Sector
• Best HR Professional in the Charity and Voluntary Organisations Sectors
• Best HR Professional in the Arts
• Best HR Professional in the Financial/ Professional Services Sector

You can submit more than one entry, but please fill in a separate form for each nomination. Do get in touch if you have any questions or would like support with your entry. Good luck!