San Gwann, Malta, 7 January 2008 – GFI Software, an international developer of network security, content security and messaging software, today announced it has won the ‘Excellent HR Initiative Award 2007’, organised by the Foundation for Human Resources Development (FHRD). GFI has also been presented with an award by the Centre for Labour Market Studies of the University of Leicester for demonstrating HR Best Practice.

GFI won the Excellent HR Initiative Award 2007 for its organization of the highly successful GFI Job Fair in 2006. This initiative was awarded because it met a number of stringent criteria, as it was in line with GFI’s business strategy and required the involvement of people from different areas within the organization that, in turn, led to an increase in motivation, empowerment, performance and quality. Ultimately, the initiative contributed positively to the organization's overall performance.

“We are extremely proud to have won this award. GFI's practices were found to stand out in terms of creative HR ideas, our emphasis on experiential learning in our implementation of the Job Fair, as well as our accent on openness and communication. This is of great encouragement to us and will add further fuel to our goal of doing the best job we possibly can,” Angelica Micallef Trigona, HR Manager at GFI said. “No such award can be achieved without great teamwork in place, and credit goes to our entire GFI team for this wonderful achievement.”

The CEO of the Foundation, Ms Maria Pia Chircop, said: “These awards not only recognize excellence in HR but they serve as a developmental tool to help HR practitioners to gauge the way they are doing things and continue enhancing their operations. Moreover, HR practitioners need to go beyond their remit and embrace new challenges to gain more credibility and to make the difference in their organizations. There is no competition between companies in these awards, as companies are only recognized if they meet the criteria set by FHRD."

She added: “Our mission at the FHRD is to promote best practices in human resource management and development and to raise the level of the profession in Malta. For GFI and the other awardees, recognition means they have reached a relatively high standard and it should encourage them to continue improving and be more innovative.”

The awards ceremony was held on Friday, 7 December.