MAS Wins Gold at the 2023 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards

MAS has won two Gold awards in the 2023 Brandon Hall Group HCM (Human Capital Management) Excellence Awards for the MAS Protect Accreditation Programme.

The Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards recognise organisations that have demonstrated best practice for developing and implementing employee learning and development programmes.

MAS is delighted to have won Gold awards for excellence in two of the categories:

• Best Advance in Compliance Training
• Best Certification Program Learning

The MAS Learning team also won a Bronze award for excellence in the Best Learning Team category.

The category Best Advance in Compliance Training was specifically designed to address a compliance-driven learning objective. The MAS Protect Accreditation Programme was established to meet the requirements of the new Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services set by the Financial Advice Code Committee. The Code sets the standards of competence, conduct and client care for the whole financial advice industry.

To satisfy the regulatory requirements under the Code, MAS had to demonstrate that MAS Advisers had the required competence, knowledge, and skills equivalent to the New Zealand Certificate in Financial Service (Level 5). The MAS Learning team developed and delivered the MAS Protect Accreditation Programme to support our MAS Adviser network to demonstrate competency and knowledge to meet the new standards by March 2023.

Entries for the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards were evaluated by a panel of independent senior industry experts, along with Brandon Hall Group analysts and executives. Evaluations were based on the following criteria.

• Alignment to business needs and environment.
• Programme design, functionality and delivery.
• Adoption, integration, user experience, innovation and creativity.
• Overall effectiveness, impact and measurable benefits.

“I’m extremely proud that our MAS Learning team has been recognised for developing a ‘gold standard’ certification for the MAS Protect Accreditation Programme,” said Matthew Judge, MAS Chief Finance & Risk Officer.

“The MAS Protect Accreditation Programme brings together the learning MAS Advisers need to fulfil their role as Nominated Representatives and for MAS to meet its obligations under the Financial Advice Provider (FAP) licence.

“The process of pulling the Programme together was not easy, but it was important that our MAS Advisers understood the new regulatory requirements and were fully competent and capable of providing high-quality financial advice to Members.

“Through hard work and effective collaboration across the wider MAS team, we have been able to develop a world-class compliance programme to ensure MAS provides Members with the best possible financial advice.”

Find out more about the HCM Excellence Awards at the Brandon Hall Group website.