"We have been truly inspired by the stories we have heard about Kiwis helping Kiwis," Gadd said.
Employee Experience Awards - Organisation Size Categories winners
Small Category - Auror
Small-Medium Category - Redvespa Consultants
Medium-Large Category - Overland Footwear Group
The companies were judged on areas such as leadership, operations, environment and tools.
"[We] provide organisations with an opportunity to understand the reality of working in their respective organisations – how people really feel," Gadd says.
Human resource consultancy Humankind introduced the EX18 awards after IBM announced the end of the Best Workplaces programme in April.
"There is still a need to showcase great places to work," Gadd said at the time.
In its first year, the awards attracted organisations across multiple industries, and of varying sizes.
To find the winners, workers were surveyed and interviewed face-to-face to give judges a true understanding of the drivers behind employee engagement, and hear the stories about working in the participating organisation.
The awards were presented at a ceremony in Auckland, when stories were also told about the efforts some organisations had gone for their employees.
One found out an employee had multiple sclerosis and, knowing he loved the Warriors, the employee and his wife were flown to Auckland, kitted out in all the fan gear and taken to a corporate box to watch the game. At the end, he was presented with the match ball.
The organisation also promised the worker that no matter what, there would always be a role for him. When the time came for the employee to decide it was time for him to stop work, he asked to stay on the Social Club – and remains a member.
Lightspeed Graphics' operations manager, Steve Martin said the award was "a great honour".
"We're a nice example of a business collaboration between a Chinese company and a New Zealand company and very proud of that. We try to incorporate the best of both cultures and like to think that we can be used as an example moving forwards."
EX Diversity & Inclusion Award winner, The Warehouse Group, was "stoked" at their win.
"We have 12,000 employees and the diversity and inclusion is extremely important to us," chief people officer Evelyn Ross said.
The Group's head of people experience Olivia Dyet referred to the company's efforts around domestic abuse.
"One of the most important things that isn't easily discussed is around family violence. We really encourage difficult conversations because we understand that people need to bring their whole selves to work and we support them with that without repercussions and without impacting their role. We encourage the sharing of our policies and how we implement and embed that in our business."
Employee Experience Awards - Inspiration Awards
EX Practitioner of the Year - Shelley Matthews, Sudima Hotels
EX Initiative of the Year - Lightspeed Graphics
Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year -The Warehouse Group
Overland Footwear Group won in the Medium-Large Organisation category – after only deciding to enter the awards six months ago, said founder and CEO Shane Anselmi.
"We resource our people – asking them to tell us stories about people living our values on a weekly basis. As our people get engaged and we provide experiences, it really seems to rub off onto the environment of the stores and so we get such great feedback from customers about the experiences they receive."
Anselmi said values, purpose and meaning were important." The messages we give our people are that life often is not fair, we embrace the struggle. Get out of your comfort zone and give. I'm so proud of the team and how they do that."
