Finalists for the Humankind Employee Experience (EX) Awards have been announced, celebrating New Zealand’s best places to work, with trends of purpose, wellbeing, technology, and ‘doing more with less’ highlighted.
For the Workplace Awards, which recognise organisations that are delivering a great experience to their employees based on survey and interview feedback, there are eleven finalists for 2019. They include well-known names Xero, Overland Footwear, and Sharesies, and the EX spotlight has also shone on StarNow, Lysaght Consultants, Trineo, ZX Security, Smudge Apps, IT Partners, Real Steel, and Cake Commercial Services.
For the Employee Experience Initiative of the Year Award, finalists are Spark, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Xero, and Worksafe. For the Employee Experience Designer of the Year Award, finalists are Brooke Roberts from Sharesies, Kirsti Grant from Auror, and Ryan Ghisi from Xero.
Purpose
Associate director employee experience at Humankind, Leighton Abbot, said that a great employee experience starts with doing meaningful work for an organisation with a clear purpose.
“Some of the most enthusiastic people we spoke to told us about how they felt that the work they did each day was worthwhile and made a difference,” said Abbot. “They might be helping customers directly on the shop floor, or be part of team of people who design apps, or providing an essential service that others might know little about – but they knew that what they do is important.
“A number of our finalists have made some great commitments to be a force for good in their industries and for New Zealand, which makes working for them more rewarding.”
Wellbeing
A recurring theme across finalists this year were initiatives to support physical and mental health.
“Going well beyond ‘Mental Health Awareness Week,’ some of our finalists train team members and managers in mental health first aid, openly discuss topics like depression and domestic violence, and constantly talk about the importance of everyone looking out for each other.”
Initiatives to support physical health in the workplace also featured heavily, such as organising regular group fitness or meditation, onsite gyms, and offering time during the working day to devote to fitness.
Managers in the finalist organisations were also found to be much more likely to have regular, meaningful conversations with their team about their work, training, and careers.
“The commitment in these organisations for managers to really know how people are doing and what makes them tick leads to people feeling better supported at work, and able to achieve their goals,” said Abbot.
“Our finalists do a great job at bringing their teams together to keep everyone informed, to celebrate successes, and to enjoy each other’s company. They recognise that work is a big part of life.”
More with Less
In tough trading conditions, Abbot said many of the leaders of organisations who participated this year also spoke of the need to do more with less.
“Our finalists seem to have a great understanding of how to keep people positive, and are focused on doing more of the things that enable and inspire people to perform. More support is given to employees in challenging times, as they know that their people are also likely to be facing pressure in their personal lives as well,” said Abbot.
Technology
The Humankind Employee Experience team also found that digital experiences have greatly improved in recent years.
“We used to hear much more about tech being expensive, unstable, slow, and just frustrating – but for many of our workplace awards finalists, their tech was described as great,” said Abbot.
Environment
“Many of our finalists understand how a person’s working environment such as the office or factory floor affects their experience, and so effort is placed in designing workplaces that people can be proud of, and also helps them do their job.
“We have seen these efforts range from quite expensive to much more cost-conscious, with the results being that people look forward to spending time at work.”
The Workplace Awards, part of the Humankind EX Awards programme
The Workplace Awards assess what it is like to work in an organisation across four dimensions; Purpose, Relationship, Enabling, and Performance experiences. All employees of participating organisations were invited to respond to a 30-question survey across the four criteria, and then hour-long interviews were conducted with a random selection of employees. All participating organisations received a customised written report highlighting their EX strengths and opportunities. Finalists in the Workplace Awards achieved outstanding feedback from employees, and showed a strong commitment to continuous improvement.
Workplace Award winners will be announced alongside the winners of the EX Designer and Initiative of the Year Awards, which celebrate individuals and organisations taking an employee centric approach to improving workplaces, on 14 November in Wellington at the Humankind Employee Experience Awards Evening.
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