Kenexa Best Workplaces 2013: How the Awards work

Participation in the Kenexa Best Workplaces Survey 2013 was high with 243 firms providing about 39,000 employee responses. Photo / Getty Images

Now in its 14th year, participation in the Kenexa Best Workplaces Survey 2013 has continued to remain high. This year, 243 participating organisations provided almost 39,000 employee responses, making it the largest survey of employee engagement in New Zealand.

Best Workplaces is run in association with the New Zealand Herald, and supported by Kiwibank, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), and the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. The survey is run annually and is available to organisations across all sectors between May-August.

Key objectives

1. To provide organisations with information which will assist them to build great workplaces and enhance their customer service delivery.

2. To identify key drivers which impact employee engagement.

3. To provide benchmarks of workplace climate and employee engagement in New Zealand.

4. To identify characteristics that differentiate "Best Workplaces" employers from the rest.

5. To determine levels of workplace climate and employee engagement within a variety of organisations and provide base information in order to select the winners of the Kenexa Best Workplaces Awards.

Eligibility

Organisations must achieve a minimum response rate which is dependent on the number of staff they have - as follows:

• 20-49 employees: 80 per cent and minimum of 20 responses.

• 50-399 employees: 70 per cent.

• 400-plus employees: 65 per cent.

How winners are chosen

Kenexa, an IBM company, collects and collates all responses and then within each size category, organisations are ranked based on their overall performance index (PI). The five size categories are:

• Small: 20-49 staff.

• Small-Medium: 50-149 staff.

• Medium-Large: 150-399 staff.

• Large: 400-749 staff.

• Enterprise: 750-plus staff.

There are 10 finalists in each of the Small and Medium-Large categories, 15 in the Small-Medium category, five in the Large category and three in the Enterprise category. From each category, the organisation ranked first is awarded the "Best (Small, Small-Medium) Workplace". The overall winner is then selected from the five winners.

A Most Improved award is also given in each size category to the organisations which have made the biggest improvement in their overall performance index between this year and last.

Five and 10-year league

These awards are to recognise sustained achievement in the Kenexa Best Workplaces Awards.

To be eligible for the Five-Year League award, an organisation must have been a finalist for five out of the past six years.

For the 10-Year League award an organisation must have been a finalist for 10 of the past 12 years.

The survey

The survey comprises 60 core questions which are grouped around 13 themes:

1. Common purpose.

2. Quality and performance focus.

3. Communication and co-operation.

4. Well-being.

5. The person I report to.

6. My team.

7. My job.

8. Learning and development.

9. Performance and feedback.

10. Reward and recognition.

11. Overall perceptions.

12. Taking action.

13. Final thoughts.

• More information at www.bestworkplaces.co.nz