Each year, Momentum Media acknowledges its ‘Champions’ – team members who have worked especially hard over the previous 12 months to achieve excellence, while also living the Momentum values of trust, fairness, curiosity, reliability and courage.
The Momentum Media 2019 Champions were identified according to both the outcomes they achieved and the way they achieved those outcomes.
The Momentum Media ‘Champions’ program has evolved over the years.
In the early days of the business, at the end of each year, awards were presented in a relatively informal fashion to recognise people who had gone ‘above and beyond’.
When Human Resources Manager, Kieran Smith, joined the company in 2017, he decided to infuse the process with greater rigour.
“When I arrived at Momentum a couple of years ago, I found it was a bit more like a popularity contest rather than rewarding the value people bring. It tended to acknowledge the ‘party-starters’ rather than the quiet contributors,” Kieran said.
“So, we looked at each team and asked ‘Who, out of your team, has been outstanding? Who needs to be recognised and why?’”
“We then found, however, that rewarding one person from each team became a bit prescriptive. So, in 2018, we announced a single, overall Momentum Media Champion.
“Then we tweaked it again for 2019, in consultation with department heads, to say ‘Let’s have fewer rules and have as many Momentum Media Champions as we’d like to acknowledge’.
Kieran opened it up for people to nominate their own champions. And a few people stood out, each with multiple nominations. Department heads then had the final say about who they wanted to recognise.
In both Sydney and Manila, department heads were able to recognise champions – as many as they wanted from within their teams – based on what they saw, along with nominations from others. There were no minimum or maximum numbers.
In the end, the Champions announced for 2019 were Joe Vince (Partnerships Manager), John Kohne (Client Experience & Support Manager), Jeng Rancudo (Data Entry Administrator), Demii Kalavritinos (Marketing Executive), Myluck Castaneda (Web Developer), Janelle Baguioro (Digital Designer), Erika Sauler (Sub-Editor), Tarryn Kerr (Event Manager) and Grace Ormsby (Journalist).
“It’s really all about what the Champions do and how they do it,” said Kieran.
“It’s not just about achieving outcomes, such as the sales you bring in or the number of stories you write. It’s also about how you go about it as well.
“We want people to work across departments, contribute and add something more to the whole.”