Judging New Zealand’s best place to work

Best Places to Work announced the finalists for the 2024 Awards as determined by judges from within the New Zealand business community this week. 

Award categories include diversity and inclusion, tools and tech, wellness, and community and regional impact. For a full list of finalists, see here. 

Each business should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved, says John Fraser-Mackenzie, Chief Executive of EMA, the foundation partner of the awards. 

So, what were the judges looking for? 

The companies were marked on eight pillars: trust in leadership, connection, environment, innovation, wellbeing, connection with team, performance and growth, and tools and tech.

Mike Bennetts, executive coach with Taumata Advisory Limited, author, board director and speaker, was responsible for judging the large (400-plus employees), medium-to-large (150-399), and small-to-medium (50-149) categories. 

Bennetts was drawn to being a judge as he felt it presented an opportunity to learn, as well as to contribute to bettering New Zealand’s workplaces. 

“I’m very committed to human workplaces. The more we can prompt conversations, prompt learning, and recognise excellence in establishing and curating human workplaces; that’s got to be good for New Zealand,” he says. 

While judging Bennetts noticed the high-scoring survey responses came from companies practising what he calls “modern workplace practice”, including the objectives and key results framework (OKRs), and digitisation. 

“It was clear to me that improvements or excellence came from a focus on leadership rather than management. It’s what I would call human workplaces. 

“Management is about managing risk, reducing volatility, increasing predictability, whereas leadership helps people contend with the unknown. It sets direction, establishes context.” 

A company can lead its way to being the best place to work, but it can’t manage its way there, he says. 

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The smaller the better

Good leadership was more evident to Bennetts among the smaller workplaces entered in Best Places to Work, which had, on average, higher scores than the larger companies, Bennett says.

He credits that trend with startups often having an inherent agility.  “It goes against the narrative that bigger is better,” he says. 

“Startups just aren’t burdened by legacy, so they are able to use modern work practices, they are more digitally enabled, and so on.” 

What struck Bennetts the most in the judging process was that wellbeing was the lowest-scoring pillar “by a long shot” for every company. 

“Perhaps this is one where the need for it has grown far beyond the company’s ability to deliver on that. We’re catching up,” he says. 

Meanwhile in the micro category for workplaces of 20 people or less, judge and Futureful founder Izzey Fenwick, noticed a strong shift towards wellbeing, with “more EQ coming through from organisations”.

“There was a huge amount of human-centred, emotional intelligence around wellbeing, support, and leadership coming through these submissions, which I thought was insightful around the sentiment of the workforce at the moment,” Fenwick says.

“I don’t know whether a post-COVID workforce has really honed our thinking around people, not just humans as a unit of resource.” 

Fenwick was drawn to judging the programme as changing how people work is the foundation of her startup, Futureful. 

“As we spend so much time at work, our work satisfaction and wellbeing are directly linked to our life satisfaction and wellbeing,” she says.

She sees a similar ethos between Futureful and Best Places to Work, describing it as a “match made in heaven,” and, she says exceptional workplaces should be celebrated as a way to show others what the standards should be. 

“I really believe that not all organisations are created equal. The effort that some put in is so exponentially greater than the effort others put in.” 

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A distinctly New Zealand way

Carolyn Banks, judge for the small workspace category, was also drawn to judging by the potential it offered to help businesses grow and develop. While representing EMA in this instance, Banks also runs the Venus Business Women in New Zealand network. 

“The thing I love about Best Places to Work is giving businesses encouragement. But it’s not just asking the business owners, it’s asking the employees. The proof is in the pudding.

“You can see that some companies are giving it a really good go but they’re not quite getting it. Their staff are recognising it; they just need to come together a little bit more,” she says. 

An eye-opener for Banks is the innate “Kiwi-ness” she sees present in the companies. “We’re at the bottom of the world, so we’ve got to be a little bit cleverer. It’s resilience, it’s grit, it’s keeping up and keeping going, it’s not giving up.

“For a lot of business owners, particularly over the last couple of years, it’s been hard work. People I know have literally put their financial future, their businesses, on the line to keep it going, to look after their staff. That needs to be rewarded as well, or recognised.” 

She hopes to see these Kiwi values carried through in future Best Places to Work judgings. Our New Zealand values should be our competitive edge, she says. 

While only some businesses could be finalists, Banks says all the companies which entered are leaders. 

“A lot of businesses talk about looking after their people. But these businesses put their money where their mouth is; they invest in their people and try to help them progress in their careers.”

Seeing people as people, not just employees, is good for the greater New Zealand economy, Banks says. 

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This story is brought to you by Best Places to Work. Caffeine is a media partner for the programme, covering best practices in New Zealand startups, from pay transparency to diversity, equity and inclusion. Find our content here. 

‍For more information about the Best Places to Work programme, please visit https://www.bestplacestowork.nz/awards/2024