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Want to win an Xref Engage award? Here’s what it takes

10/10/2024
6
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So, you’ve seen some big names like Knox Grammar School, City of Karratha, and Charles Sturt University recently win an Xref Engage award, and you believe your organisation has what it takes. 

How can your organisation be the next Xref Engage Award winner? Here’s a helpful guide…

What are the Xref Engage Awards?

Xref Engage first launched the Change Champion Award, followed by the Best Workplace Award. Both awards aim to bring recognition to those organisations who foster employee wellbeing within their workplace. 

For organisations that win the awards, a key step to fostering workplace effectiveness is to seek employee feedback through an Employee Engagement Survey. Then, award-winning organisations review employee feedback, measure employee engagement and, where possible, implement strategies for change to improve company culture and the work environment.  

There are two types of Xref Engage Awards

  1. Best Workplace Awards
  2. Change Champion Awards

Best Workplace Awards

The Best Workplace Awards recognise organisations that have achieved exceptional levels of employee engagement and satisfaction and demonstrated effective management practices.

Change Champions

The Change Champion Awards recognise organisations that achieve exceptional improvements in work practices and employee engagement over time. Change Champions lead initiatives that create measurable and meaningful change in the workplace.

A recent history of notable winners

Some recent stand-out winners of the Best Workplace and/or Change Champion awards include:

2024 

Knox Grammar School - winners of a Change Champion Award 
“Feedback from our recent surveys conducted through Xref Engage has shown a remarkable improvement in our overall employee wellbeing. Specifically, our change scores indicate an impressive 8.4% improvement. Being part of this exclusive group highlights our ongoing commitment to enhancing the experience of our staff and underscores the effectiveness of our initiatives.”

2023 

Windgap - winners of both Best Work and Change Champion Awards
“These awards reflect the positive changes Windgap has made to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction, and demonstrate their sustained effort to listen to its employees for the betterment of the organisation.”
UniQuest - winners of a Change Champion Award
“With an average improvement of 15% across all questions in their 2023 Staff Survey, UniQuest are bettering the workplace for staff and supporting key organisational outcomes. Team members have witnessed significant effort by UniQuest leadership and can see how changes are steering UniQuest in a very positive direction. These practice improvements have led to more positive outcomes for staff as well as greater confidence in UniQuest’s performance as an organisation”. 

2021

Cancer Council Victoria - winners of both Best Work and Change Champion Awards
“The results of their latest employee engagement survey showed a very high level of staff satisfaction (84%). Cancer Council Victoria’s overall survey scores also showed a significant improvement of 8.65% since their previous engagement survey in 2019.”
Twilight Aged Care - winners of a Change Champion Award
Twilight’s transformation has led to excellent satisfaction with services (98%) and strong levels of staff engagement (87%).”

How are the winners selected?

Each year, a careful selection process measures how eligible organisations have accomplished significant improvements or attained outstanding levels of employee engagement and satisfaction. 

Best Workplace selection criteria

When selecting a Best Workplace, the Xref Engage team seek organisations that have first run an Employee Engagement Survey using Xref Engage. When the results of the survey are finalised, organisations must achieve a staff satisfaction score of over 80% or outperform the industry benchmark by 10% or more.

Change Champion selection criteria

Change Champions must run two or more Employee Engagement Surveys through Xref Engage. The results of both surveys are compared, and organisations with a big positive improvement, according to the criteria mentioned below, are awarded a change champion award. 

Winners are selected within three categories:

  1. Enterprise category (organisations of 1,000 or more staff – achieving 3% change or higher).
  2. Large category (organisations of 200-999 staff – achieving 5% change or higher).
  3. Small-Medium category (organisations of less than 200 staff – achieving 8% change or higher).

Is there a deadline to be considered for an award? 

No. Winning businesses can be selected at any point in the year. There is no deadline to be considered for the Xref Engage Awards. Additionally, there is no requirement to submit an application to be considered. All organisations that complete an Employee Engagement Survey using Xref Engage are considered. 

Typically, the decision for whether an organisation wins an award occurs as soon as an Employee Engagement Survey closes. 

It is possible to win both awards.

Tips to increase your chances of winning

The best way to be a winner is to take care of your employees and work towards fostering performance, engagement and wellbeing in the workplace. Then, use Xref Engage to conduct an Employee Engagement Survey. 

For a Change Champion Award, organisations must run two or more Employee Engagement Surveys as so to compare improvements from one survey to the next. 

For a Best Workplace Award, organisations must run a single survey and meet the criteria discussed above.

Choose employee engagement survey questions that focus on uncovering your people's needs. If you require, our expert team can offer guidance on questions that will be most revealing for your organisation.

From there, you will reveal trends and identify strengths and areas for improvement. Look to implement initiatives to help increase employee job satisfaction. 

By making gradual, consistent improvements, your team will see organisational change in a natural way.

I’ve already run an Employee Engagement Survey, what’s next?

Once you’ve run your employee engagement survey with Xref Engage and found out more about how your employees feel about your workplace culture and their overall employee experience, we will reach out to let you know if your organisation is an award winner. So keep a look out for an email from our expert team. 

Next, if you do win, we’ll walk you through the best way to promote your achievement! Xref will feature you in a LinkedIn post and your logo will appear on our website alongside other winners. We will organise to send you a trophy and certificate!

Two trophies sit on a green background Best Workplace and Change Champion

It’s important to note that you may not get an award for your first survey but that’s okay! Ask your dedicated Xref Engage consultant for feedback on what makes an award-winning organisation.

Your driver for conducting a survey should be to uncover areas that need your attention. In many cases, organisations have run their first survey and uncovered areas they did not know needed improving. 

By taking steps to make change and running a subsequent survey many organisations have improved employee sentiment around workplace satisfaction and have later become an award-winning organisation. 

Final thoughts

The Xref Engage Awards continue to celebrate those leading the way in fostering exceptional levels of employee engagement, wellbeing and organisational progress.

By conducting regular employee engagement surveys, leaders can gain in-depth insight into what motivates their people. But it shouldn’t just be about winning an award. Highly engaged employees directly contribute to high performance and strong business outcomes. 

Strong employee satisfaction comes from the changes and improvements your organisation makes, based on information obtained from your survey results.

If you are looking for a way to understand your employees better and improve results for your organisation, book your free Xref Engage demo today.

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