The 2012 Employee Benefits Awards took place at The Artillery Garden at the HAC in London on 31 May.

Hosted by Jason Byrne on behalf of Employee Benefits magazine and celebrating the best in benefits, just 24 winners were selected from 100 finalists.

More details and photos will be added to this article in the coming week.

Full details of all the winners and finalists will be published in the Awards Book with the July issue.

The 2012 winners are:

Grand Prix (sponsored by Towers Watson)

Winner: McDonald’s Restaurants

Benefits team of the year (sponsored by Vebnet)

Winner: Kraft Foods (entered by Benefex)

Runners-up:

Aviva (entered by Aon Hewitt)

Cancer Research UK

Linklaters

Marks and Spencer

Employee benefits professional of the year (sponsored by Standard Life)

Winner: Debra Corey, group compensation and benefits director, Merlin Entertainments

Runners-up:

Neal Blackshire, benefits and compensation manager, McDonald’s Restaurants

Adam Brooke, UK employee benefits manager, JP Morgan

Jim Cowan, head of benefits, The Royal Bank of Scotland (nominated by Aon Hewitt)

Chris Coyne, head of reward and HR services, City and Guilds

Thomas Humphris, head office HR and UK reward director, Informa

Jane Vivier, reward and recognition manager, Cancer Research UK

Employee benefits specialist of the year

Winner: Francis O’Mahony, head of employee share plans and share registration, BT

Runners-up:

Patrick Watt, head of health and wellness (EMEA and India), Goldman Sachs International

Lesley Williams, group pensions director, Whitbread

Carol Young, pension manager, Heineken UK

Most effective benefits strategy in a public or voluntary sector organisation

Winner: YHA (England and Wales)

Runners-up:

City Health Care Partnership CIC

University of Lincoln

Most effective alignment of reward strategy to business strategy for organisations with fewer than 1,000 staff

Winner: Barbon Insurance Group

Highly commended: YHA (England and Wales)

Runners-up:

D Young and Co (entered by Thomsons Online Benefits)

Sanden International Europe

Towry

Which?

William Grant and Sons

Most effective alignment of reward strategy to business strategy for organisations with more than 1,000 staff (sponsored by JLT Benefit Solutions)

Winner: McDonald’s Restaurants

Runners-up:

Everything Everywhere

GE (entered by Towers Watson)

JLT Group

Kraft Foods (entered by Benefex)

Roche (entered by Mercer Marsh)

WorldPay (entered by Vebnet)

Most effective travel strategy for business and perk car drivers

Winner: Santander (entered by Zenith)

Most effective healthcare and wellbeing strategy for employers with fewer than 1,000 staff (sponsored by Axa PPP Healthcare)

Winner: Capital One

Runners-up:

Hood Group

Next Jump

Most effective healthcare and wellbeing strategy for employers with more than 1,000 staff (sponsored by Westfield Health)

Winner: Zurich Insurance,

Highly commended: The Random House Group

Runners-up:

KCOM Group

Legal and General Assurance Society

Most effective absence management and rehabilitation strategy

Winner: Serco (entered by Jelf Employee Benefits)

Runners-up:

Browne Jacobson

ICAP (entered by Bluefin)

KPMG

Schaeffler UK

Most effective pensions communications strategy (sponsored by Friends Life)

Winner: Electronic Arts (entered by Thomsons Online Benefits)

Runners-up:

Amey (entered by Aon Hewitt)

Heineken

LeasePlan UK (entered by Lorica Employee Benefits)

Paratus AMC (entered by Jelf Employee Benefits)

Svitzer UK (entered by Hargreaves Lansdown)

Verizon (entered by Johnson Fleming)

Most effective pensions change strategy (sponsored by Premier Benefit Solutions)

Winner: Svitzer UK (entered by Hargreaves Lansdown)

Most effective strategy to encourage workplace savings (sponsored by Wealth at Work)

Winner: BT (entered by Wealth at Work)

Runners-up:

Liberum Capital (entered by Jelf Employee Benefits)

Most effective motivation or incentive strategy

Winner: Merlin Entertainments

Highly commended: Marks and Spencer

Runners-up:

American Express

BSkyB

Computacenter (entered by AYMTM)

O2 (entered by AYMTM)

Whitbread

Most effective use of a flexible benefits plan (sponsored by Mercer)

Winner: Kraft Foods (entered by Benefex)

Highly commended: GE (entered by Towers Watson)

Runners-up:

Carlsberg (entered by Edenred)

CPPGroup

Equiniti

SJ Berwin (entered by Bluefin)

Most effective use of voluntary benefits plan and staff deals (sponsored by Edenred)

Winner: Specsavers (entered by Asperity Employee Benefits)

Highly commended: Surrey County Council

Runners-up:

CSC (entered by Next Jump)

GKN UK (entered by BHSF)

Marks and Spencer

McDonald’s Restaurants (entered by Asperity Employee Benefits)

Most effective all-employee share scheme strategy

Winner: Asda Stores (entered by Computershare)

Highly commended: Marks and Spencer (entered by Equiniti)

Runners-up:

BT Group (entered by Equiniti)

MoneySupermarket.com

Virgin Media

Whitbread

Most effective reward of benefits strategy for staff based outside the UK

Winner: American Express

Runners-up:

BNP Paribas (entered by KPMG)

Howden Group

Merlin Entertainments

William Grant and Sons

Most effective benefits communications strategy for employers with more than 5,000 staff

Winner: Kraft Foods (entered by Benefex)

Highly commended: E.On (entered by Benefex)

Runners-up:

Greene King (entered by Buck Consultants)

Home Retail Group (entered by Personal Group)

Lloyds Banking Group

RSA Insurance Group

Most effective benefits communications strategy for employers with fewer than 5,000 staff (sponsored by Personal Group)

Winner: Bromford

Runners-up:

Steria UK (entered by Bluefin)

Trader Media Group

WorldPay (entered by Vebnet)

Most effective benefits strategy for working parents and carers (sponsored by Co-operative Employee Benefits)

Winner: The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Runners-up:

Bradford and Airedale Health Authorities

Mayer Brown International

Most effective total reward strategy (sponsored by Aon Hewitt)

Winner: Sainsbury’s

Highly commended: Three UK

Runners-up:

BlackRock Investment Management (UK) (entered by Thomsons Online Benefits)

Three UK

Towry

University of Lincoln

William Grant and Sons

Most effective use of total reward statements

Winner: Tesco

Runners-up:

BMW (UK) (entered by Vebnet)

John Lewis Partnership (entered by Edenred)

Prudential UK and Europe

Sainsbury’s

Zurich Insurance

Congratulations to all the winners.