Konica Minolta announced it has received two 2024 Merit Awards for Human Resources. The Merit Awards is an independent awards program that recognizes global industries and the markets they serve, based on submissions that address leadership, innovation, positive work environment and more, and are judged by industry executives, Merit Awards staff, members of the media and consultants.
Konica Minolta’s North America Talent Acquisition team received the Gold Merit Award for Excellence in Recruitment Strategy. Together they created a concerted effort to meet the needs of the business and drive down costs by implementing a faster hiring process that used less expensive resources to operate. The plan involved three key strategies: significantly reduce the use of external recruiting agencies, streamline and improve transparency to the business to accelerate the hiring process and improve the candidate experience to increase acceptance rates.
The plan’s goals included driving down the average apply-to-hire time and reducing the use of external agencies, all while improving both hiring manager satisfaction and the candidate experience. Other results included:
- Average days to hire 40 days faster than targeted.
- Use of external agencies fell to 3.2 percent of all hires, surpassing the target of fewer than 10 percent of hires from an agency.
- Offer acceptance rose to 94 percent from 90 percent YOY.
- Hiring manager satisfaction achieved 75 percent in 2024, up from 62 percent in 2023.
- Candidate experience satisfaction rose from 81 to 87 percent YOY.
“These are truly remarkable results, and I want to thank and congratulate our North America Talent Acquisition Team for their outstanding efforts that resulted in this accolade,” said Vicky Ringwood, senior vice president, chief human resources officer, Konica Minolta. “Like so many other companies, Konica Minolta has faced difficult and ongoing challenges to find and hire employees since the pandemic. Additionally, we are seeing dramatic shifts in today’s employment marketplace – including hybrid work models – and our Talent Acquisition Team has made a real difference for our company as we look to the future.”
Konica Minolta’s Human Resources team also received a Bronze Merit Award in the Employee Recognition and Rewards Program category for its KM Kudos Program, the company’s rewards and recognition program. It enables all employees to recognize each other and provides points to non-sales teams for their outstanding achievements. Recipients can redeem their points in a variety of ways – for cash, gift cards and even charitable contributions.
The goals established for the program included enhancing manager appreciation, improving collaboration while breaking down silos within the company and reinforcing integration while using existing budgets in addition to providing a common design and delivery platform and streamlining operational efficiency. The KM Kudos Program succeeded in activating the company’s values to drive performance and transformational change:
The monthly recognition-giving and receiving average grew to 83 percent vs. the 80 percent benchmark.
The monthly recognition-giving average increased to 68 percent vs. the 58 percent benchmark.
Employees now receive an average of 3.5 recognitions per month, reinforcing strong day-to-day performance and demonstrating Konica Minolta’s values.
KM Kudos now helps colleagues celebrate each other’s accomplishments, big and small, and enables employees to see how they contribute to Konica Minolta’s culture, core values and mission. The program allows leader-to-employee and peer-to-peer recognition.
“Prior to putting this new program in place, regular thanks and recognition were the exceptions,” stated Ringwood. “Today our employees throughout North America are supporting our strong day-to-day performance and demonstrating our company values through the KM Kudos Program. Going forward, we’ll continue to celebrate performance, using this program and monthly town halls to reinforce the behaviors, competencies and achievements that enable our company’s transformational efforts.”
About Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.’s (Konica Minolta) journey started 150 years ago, with a vision to see and do things differently. The company innovates for the good of society and the world. The same purpose that kept it moving then, keeps it moving now. Konica Minolta aims to partner with clients to Give Shape to Ideas by supporting their digital transformation through its expansive Intelligent Connected Workplace portfolio. Its business technology offerings include IT Services, intelligent information management, video security solutions and managed print services, as well as office technology and industrial and commercial print solutions. Through its ongoing work, the company is fortunate to be continuously recognized for its products and services. This includes, but is not limited to being included on CRN’s MSP 500 list numerous times; named a finalist in the IT Software Category by The World Technology Awards; recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys and presented with Keypoint Intelligence’s BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year and BLI 2021-2023 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand Awards for its bizhub i-Series.
