"This was an opportunity to reflect on what we had done and benchmark ourselves against other employers from other sectors," she said.
"It was a bit hard putting ourselves out there so to speak but the value of the process has made it very worthwhile and winning, well that really was the icing on the cake. It really affirms the efforts every one is putting in across the whole business."
The award recognises excellence in the contribution that human resources makes to the strategic and operational goals of a business through the implementation of initiatives that connect human resource functions through all business activities.
In describing the BEL Group initiative, the HRINZ Award judges said, "BEL's Good, Better, Best is an initiative that has brought together original thinking and overlaid this across proven HR tools in order to support the delivery of clear, consistent performance messages across the BEL Group team in Central Hawke's Bay.
"It also shows people their pathway for progression within the BEL Group, helps them understand their current capabilities relative to business needs, and articulates the skills and behaviours they need to be successful at different levels within the dairy farming industry. Good, Better, Best does this in a way that supports individuals taking greater responsibility for their own development needs and career goals."
BEL Group entered the awards on the back of encouragement from its HR consultant Lee Astridge, of No8HR. She believes that BEL Group is "showing true leadership in their willingness to tackle tough HR issues and drive business performance through their people performance with pragmatic approaches. They demonstrate real tenacity at seeing a change through and this sets them apart."
BEL Group was awarded one of three Distinction Awards for their efforts along with KPMG and Sky City. These three distinction award winners then went through a judging process with a national judges' panel and the overall winner was announced at the HRINZ Annual Awards dinner held at the Beehive in Wellington.
"It was a wonderful experience to attend such a first class function at the Beehive with a room full of talented people whose business focus was people leadership," Dalton said.
BEL Group entered their Good, Better, Best initiative which Dalton described as a framework that identifies 12 skill sets and four behaviours across all roles in BEL Group.
"It clearly states KPI's for each skill set and behaviour across three performance standards - good for our minimum expectations while better and best are pitched at the top five per cent of NZ Dairy Industry performance. Roles across the business are then connected with the best of one role flowing into the good of the next role in the career progression," she said.
She said it was very exciting when BEL Group was announced the national title winner.
"I felt very humbled to be accepting the award and very proud of the team," Dalton said.
"The fact that this was not a dairy industry award but a national business award is also very exciting. It gives us confidence that what we are doing."
The judges felt the BEL Group entry had a real impact on everyone in the organisation from a strategic level down to the operational level.
"The framework was well thought out and targeted at developing a performance-focused organisation, linking to business goals, and developing capability," they said in their summary.
Dalton said the Good, Better, Best framework had become the central focus of all those involved in BEL Group and their business work.
"We use it as the foundation of our performance review and management processes, it is part of our recruitment suite and it also sets the scene for all our training and development work," she said.
"While we have other business initiatives in place, focused on business growth and performance, Good, Better, Best is what really connects our daily operations with our strategic vision and connects our business from on-farm to senior management and business leadership."
The HRINZ Initiative of the Year was sponsored by Winsborough Ltd which has provided BEL Group with the opportunity to participate in some assessment and review processes with their leadership team.
"It is a wonderfully generous prize they have provided and we are looking forward to working with them," Dalton said.