Hall of Fame - Future of Work Award

The Future of Work Award recognises organisations that have done more than talk about innovation. They've embedded it. From flexible work practices and emerging technology to HR policies that reflect the true diversity of employee needs, these are the organisations that have taken a forward-thinking approach to work and made it part of how they operate every day.

This isn't about chasing trends. It's about thoughtful, strategic evolution that genuinely improves the way people work and the outcomes organisations achieve.

Past recipients have demonstrated that embracing the future of work isn't a disruption to business as usual. For them, it has become business as usual.

Is your organisation ahead of the curve? If your organisation has successfully evolved its ways of working and embedded new practices into its standard operating model, we'd love to hear about it. Find out more about the upcoming awards and how to apply.

Future of Work Award 2025

The Fonterra Engineering++ SWAT initiative was launched to address a critical engineering skills shortage at New Zealand’s seventh-largest employer of engineers. With a workforce of 1000 engineers responsible for significant capital, engineering and maintenance projects, the shortage threatened Fonterra's growth and operations. The SWAT team, comprising Engineering and People & Culture members, focused on attracting, retaining, and building engineering talent using a design-thinking approach.

Within six months, the team developed an Engineering Careers website, a Targeted Value Proposition and clear career pathways, significantly increasing applications and diversity.

The initiative has proven to be a cost-effective and sustainable model, enhancing Fonterra's engineering capability and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

Watch the Award Video 

Future of Work Award 2024, in association with Alex Hagan

The Port of Auckland underwent a significant transformation by implementing a culture strategy aimed at fostering strong collaborative relationships among management, unions, front-line workers, and the Taumata responsible for Maori outcomes. Central to this strategy – called Whanaungatanga – is the “High Performance High Engagement” approach to collaboration, which insists on respectful engagement and collaboration with all stakeholders. This cultural shift has been acknowledged by unions and other stakeholders as a significant change that has also supported marked improvements in safety, customer and commercial performance for the Port. This represents a remarkable turnaround compared to its state a few years prior.

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Future of Work Award 2023, in association with Alex Hagan 

In July 2022 ACC broadened its approach to hybrid and flexible working. The aim was to make work even better for our people while ensuring we continued to meet and exceed customer expectations. Based on consultation with our people, research into best practice and discussion with others facing similar post-COVID opportunities, we implemented our updated approach. While it’s early days, and this is the first step in a multi-phased piece of work, our people are telling us we’re on the right track – they appreciate the commitment to flexibility, the additional resources and the support to make this work. 

Future of Work Award 2022, in association with Alex Hagan

Far North District Council won the new Future of Work Award. A wellbeing pulse check during the first 2020 COVID-19 lockdown was the “pebble-in-the-pond” that led to changing their entire operating model – moving from a heavy commuter and highly office-based organisation to a smart and digitally enabled workforce where employees choose the workplace that fits their personal and domestic circumstances. A staff survey one year later (in June 2021) showed a profound improvement in the wellbeing and resilience of their people with seven times as many people reporting improved wellbeing for everyone reporting a decline. 

Innovation Award 2023, in association with Fuel50 

With the national gender pay gap currently at 9.2% and the gender retirement gap at 20%, Z Energy has made several innovative policy changes as part of a clear path forward to narrow these gap and achieve more equitable outcomes for women and other minority groups. 

Salary transparency, an innovative KiwiSaver offering, and systematic modelling of our gender pay gap are helping us to deliver on our objective to completely close Z’s gender pay gap (currently 3.4%) by FY24. Z is normalising remuneration negotiation, equipping our people with greater financial literacy, and encouraging greater agency across all demographics. 

Check out the Award Video

Innovation Award 2022, in association with MyHR

NZ Health Partnerships (NZHP) took out the HR Innovation Award for their bespoke ‘Package by Design’ employee reward and remuneration package system. By offering Package by Design, NZHP has been successful in appointing senior leaders and subject matter experts/specialists. These appointments would have been almost impossible due to competitive rates and commission structures characteristic of these roles in the private sector. 

Innovation Award 2021 

Jade Software won the HR innovation Award for their “Hybrid Way of Working” or HWoW initiative. Described as a reimagined way of working HWoW enabled Jade staff to define where they work from and have a level of flexibility on when they do their hours, to better enable them to balance their lives. 

Christian Dahmen Memorial Award for HR Innovation 2020, in association with Cornerstone OnDemand 

Canterbury DHB plan, fund and provide health services for over half a million New Zealanders. Orderly Mobile is a fully digital service which sees our orderlies armed with mobile devices, enabling them to accept, respond to and fulfil work requests on the go. Co-designed by orderlies, nurses and ward clerks, it was delivered in five weeks and provides full visibility of the nearly 1000 daily requests for this critical service. Commitment to making it better for their people is a key driver and they’re doing this by reimagining the way they work, embracing new technologies and transforming employee experience.

HR Innovation & Technology - Christian Dahmen Memorial Award 2019, in association with On-Brand Partners 

Short for ‘amplify’, amp is a platform that’s connecting Fonterra employees with new internal projects using a gig-economy type approach. It’s powered by a web-based app that enables employees to build a profile and match their interests, experience and expertise to listings of internal projects which they can then spend up to a third of their time working on outside of their day jobs. As well as supporting peoples’ career development and bringing in innovative ideas from more diverse groups, amp is helping Fonterra uncover hidden talent and harness the enormous breadth of skills across its workforce. 

Christian Dahmen Memorial Award for HR Innovation 2018, in association with On-Brand Partners 

Delivered by GHD, Smart Seeds is an annual innovation initiative for young professionals (YPs - defined as someone in the first 10 years of their career), focused on generating new ideas to tackle complex city challenges within an 11- week programme. Smart Seeds is about delivering new thinking to some of our cities biggest challenges, through collaboration amongst future and current leaders. The programme supports young professionals to learn and apply skills that unlock innovation, from ideation to delivery. Participants are taught to use a proven innovation framework which can be applied in their own workplace. They also build long-lasting professional networks with fellow participants and mentors from various organisations. www.smartseeds.org.

The Christian Dahmen Memorial Award for HR Innovation, in association with ON-Brand Partners! 

Cigna has been on a journey to innovate and develop our employer brand over the past year. Our attraction strategies had not been previously seen in NZ and are challenging traditional job advertising. Our goal was to humanise and personalise our brand by showcasing our managers and teams at the front of job advertising. We have further differentiated ourselves from others through using bite-sized customised video and giphy animations, and modern technologies such as Periscope live-streaming and 360 degree photos. As an employer, we have established an ‘innovation brand’ and are at the forefront of recruitment marketing in New Zealand.

Christian Dahmen HR Innovation Award 2016

NZLEAD itself is the initiative we are submitting for this award. The community represents a new and novel approach to addressing the challenges faced by HR professionals around New Zealand. We encourage communication, connection and collaboration within the profession by providing opportunities for people to interact, debate, share knowledge and resources through social technology. The impact of this has been greater innovation, thought leadership and learning in the NZ and international HR community.