HR Innovation Awards
Nominations for 2025 are now closed. Awards will be presented virtually this summer.
This award honors transformative thinking in higher education HR, recognizing a new and innovative HR team, project or program that resulted in significant and ongoing organizational change within an institution. In their nomination, the recipient team, project or program will have demonstrated how they faced an issue on campus and successfully implemented a creative and unique solution resulting in lasting organizational change. CUPA-HR will make a $5,000 contribution to the recipient’s institution.
We ask that recipients be willing to share information about their innovation, either in a CUPA-HR publication or conference presentation.
Criteria
- The innovative model/team is unique, effective or both;
- The innovative model/team is in practice (that is, implemented) at the institution and has been received in a positive manner;
- The innovative model/team has led to improved performance of the institution, the unit in which the innovation resides or the human resources department;
- The nominee’s institution is a member of CUPA-HR.
Eligibility Note: Individuals who are employed by the association, individuals who serve on the CUPA-HR national board of directors, and the institutions of those directors are not eligible to be nominated or selected for awards during their terms of service.
Nomination Guide
Use this guide to draft your nomination submission prior to entering the information in the online form. Once you have started a nomination, you can return to it at any time before the March 27 deadline by going to the My Award Nominations page in your CUPA-HR account (please note, however, that the form cannot be saved mid-page). You can also edit a submitted nomination before the March 27 deadline. Spelling/grammar checks are not available in the online form.
Past Recipients of the HR Innovation Awards
In 2023, CUPA-HR’s Awards Committee and National Board updated the criteria for the Innovation Award. These changes resulted in the merger of the HR Excellence and Innovation Awards.