HR Department of the Year Award Recpient-

Mike George, CEO & President
Thomas Clardy, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

QVC, Inc is a $6.5 billion company headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. QVC has 18,000 employees worldwide. There are 11,200 employees in the US with 3,400 in Germany, 2,200 in the UK and 1.200 in Japan.

QVC was founded in 1986 and today is the number one television shopping service in sales, profits, and reputation in the United States. QVC's worldwide headquarters are in West Chester, PA with distribution and telecommunication centers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Florida.

QVC is a virtual shopping mall that never closes. QVC is a place where customers can, and do, shop at any hour, at the rate of two customers per second. Themed programs are telecast live 24 hours a day, seven data a week, to 87 million households in the United States.

QVC's company vision is to 'Change the Way the World Shops." In order to do this, the Human Resources team is charged with attracting, retaining, and training the best people. A key component of this strategy is the ability of the Benefits Department to provide an above market benefit plan with an average market cost. The recent double digit growth of healthcare costs makes this goal all the more critical to attain, yet also all the more challenging to accomplish.

Shifting the rising healthcare costs to employees or reducing the quality of our plans are simply not acceptable options for QVC. Therefore, the QVC Benefits team has created a strategy to reduce healthcare utilization of preventable conditions by employees and their dependents. By influencing our workforce to live a healthier lifestyle, QVC realizes long term financial savings while helping employees and dependents enjoy a higher quality of life. With this higher quality of life comes the prevention of some chronic lifestyle related diseases and the costs associated with treating such conditions. QVC will realize direct savings from these reduced healthcare costs, as well as indirect savings though a more engaged and productive workforce.

The Healthy Lifestyles Club is a program that rewards employees for attaining and maintaining certain personal health goals through a combination of education and one-on-one medical care. It a chance for them to take charge of their health, develop a relationship with their physician, and earn a monetary reward once they meet their targets.

QVC's Healthy Lifestyles Club is focused on targets and success. At QVC, they have a culture where employees feel that the company cares about them. The Benefits team has created a homegrown, customized program that taps into that culture and leverages it to foster success in this program. When employees are given the right tools, information and direction to perform well in their job, they raise to a high level a performance. QVC and the Benefits team have provided all of these, as well as a supportive environment, to have employees attain a healthy lifestyle.

Although The Club is just over 1 year old and still in Pilot mode, 33% of eligible employees have enrolled in the program. Projected savings in healthcare costs is over the next 5 years exceeds $9 million. An innovative program such as this exemplifies the QVC environment, and is just one reason why QVC believes that they have an exceptional HR Department, and wish to receive the designation, "HR Department of the Year".

For more information on the 2007 Awards Program, including how to apply or how to become involved in the program, please visit www.hrawards.org. Thank you!