Hall of Fame - Wellness Programme Award

The Wellness Programme Award recognises organisations that have gone beyond the basics to implement outstanding health, safety, and wellbeing initiatives that make a real impact on their people's lives at work. This award is for those who understand that employee wellbeing isn't a nice-to-have; it's a business priority.

Past recipients have shown what it looks like when organisations take their duty of care seriously, creating workplace environments where people feel supported, safe, and valued.

Does your organisation put wellbeing first? If your organisation has developed and implemented an initiative or strategy that has made a meaningful difference to employee health, safety, or wellbeing, we'd love to hear about it. Find out more about the upcoming awards and how to apply.

Wellness Programme Award 2025

DB’s WholeMe programme supports the wellbeing and DEI of our workforce of over 400 people. Their suite of development programmes, support services, benefits, and initiatives covers five interconnected wellbeing pillars: Internal | Mental | Physical | Social | Financial.

Over the past five years, they have seen significant increases in employee engagement measures relating to how our people feel valued, their ability to manage stress at work, find a balance between their work and personal lives, and access career coaching.

In 2023 WholeMe was highlighted as employee wellbeing best practice for the HEINEKEN global group of companies (around 90,000 employees). By putting their value of care for our people at the heart of WholeMe, the programme has helped make DB a healthier, safer place for our people..

Watch the Award Video 

Wellness Programme Award 2024

The founding philosophy of The Strand Veterinarian was “growing our veterinary professionals”.

Owners Dr Justine Alley and Dr Megan Alderson experienced firsthand the detrimental effect a career dedicated to caring had on themselves and their team.

With poor mental health and suicide common in their industry “wellbeing of our people” became a priority as they strived to prevent, protect, and promote their biggest asset, the veterinary professionals caring for the heartbeats at your feet.

With HR leader Amy Raine they developed, implemented, and analysed the effect of a wellness programme suitable for healthcare professionals with outstanding results.

Watch the Award Video 

Best Wellness Programme Award 2023, in association with Southern Cross 

Awhi Oranga is the gifted name for the Employee Support Centre. It was gifted by Dame Naida Glavish, meaning a safe place for our people to come for support. Awhi Oranga promotes a Mātauranga Māori hauora approach to health and wellbeing that supports the welfare and development needs of all our people, particularly our Māori and Pacific and those experiencing hardship, by removing barriers and empowering them in their aspiration to grow and thrive. 

Check out the Award Winner

Best Wellness Programme Award 2022, in association with Southern Cross

FirstGas Limited took out the Wellness Programme Award for their TIGER (Together, Integrity, Grow, Empower, Respect) programme. This initiative has given staff confidence that FirstGas is a place where people care for one another and where wellbeing is a priority, and they have observed a real groundswell of pride in the organisation because of the programme. Their continuous listening survey showed an average 8.4/10 employee score for wellbeing. This included 9.4/10 rating for ‘I feel safe at work’ and a 9.2/10 rating for ‘Someone at work cares about my wellbeing’. 

Best Wellness Programme Award 2021, in association with Southern Cross 

Chorus won the Best Wellness Programme in association with Southern Cross for the overhaul of their wellness programme, to develop a wellbeing support model focussed around Courageous kōrero, a dedicated intranet space, the development of a Mental Fitness Network (monthly support group) and participation in national awareness campaigns such as Pink shirt Day. 

Best Wellness Programme Award 2020, in association with Southern Cross 

LIC is building a culture of care in which their people can grow, thrive and be completely accepted for who they are, providing a strong foundation for performance and innovation. 

They created a health and wellness strategy incorporating physical, mental and social wellbeing and named it ‘Well Aware’. The flagship programme of that strategy, ‘Mental Wellbeing at Work’, is designed to specifically address mental health and wellbeing. They have seen outstanding results and shifts in behaviours, knowledge and employee engagement as a result of this programme, which has only been operating since June 2019.

Health, Safety & Wellbeing Award 2019, in association with Southern Cross 

Every hour of every day, 365 days a year, the New Zealand Defence Force is contributing to the defence, security and well-being of New Zealand. It is our goal to maintain well-trained and equipped armed forces that can react to crisis at short notice. We work in partnership with many other government agencies, helping people and protecting our territory and oceans. The work we do is challenging both physically and mentally, creating an organisation with a broad range of complex risks. Made up of 9000 Regular Forces, 2000 Reservists and 3000 Civilians – together we are a Force for New Zealand. 

We strive to put our people's wellbeing at the centre of everything we do, supporting them to thrive within our unique working environment. Our initiative was a targeted programme of work specifically focussed on improving the mental health and wellbeing of our people. This programme of work turned strategy into tangible outputs: new policies, practices, projects, and accessible tools and resources. This was in response to evidence that our people weren't seeking help when needed, and were experiencing increasing rates of mental ill-health. As a result, we saw improved mental health and wellbeing, as well as an increase in help-seeking behaviours. 

Award for Health Safety and Wellbeing 2018, in association with Southern Cross Health Society 

We recognised the literacy levels and cultural diversity of our people, so Spotless developed the Koru Journey, signifying the passage to engage, educate and foster the health, safety and wellbeing knowledge of our people. The focus of the Koru Journey is to cross the cultural divides by ensuring the new safety practices are grounded and our people understand. The Koru – Is a symbol synonymous with New Zealanders, particularly Māori and Polynesian cultures – the foundation for creating a new safety culture of continuous learning engagement, of health, safety, and wellbeing through the Koru Journey.

Award for Health Safety and Wellbeing 2017, in association with Southern Cross Health Society 

Post Haste Limited is the parent company of Post Haste Couriers, Castle Parcels, NOW Couriers and Pass the Parcel. A nationwide brand with staff totalling in excess of 500 people it has long held the belief that the wellbeing of its employees is paramount to staff retention and is the catalyst in the achievement of a strong performance. The success of the business is solely in the hands of healthy and motivated individuals who feel valued and cared for within the organisation. In this regard Post Haste have strived to provide a safe working environment that also promotes good health and wellbeing. 

"The Movement” was an initiative set up within Post Haste to encourage and motivate staff to help themselves to a life of sustained wellbeing. Many of the tasks within the business are predominantly sedentary and in this regard it was seen as important for the wellbeing of staff to find ways to motivate them into a better healthier lifestyle. The basic goal of “The Movement” is to provide the incentive and the tools to improve their health, wellness and work life balance. We believe this will encourage them to make better choices for the benefit of themselves and their families/whānau. 

Health, Safety and Wellbeing Award 2016

In 2009, acknowledging deteriorating Māori health statistics, employees at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa initiated an internal research project to consider development of a unique wellbeing programme to suit the needs of our people. The result was a holistic wellness model known as Te Punga Oranga. The model focuses on wellness from a holistic point of view and forms the foundation of our wellbeing programme – Tau Ora (positive health and wellbeing). Tau Ora dovetails into other health and safety initiatives run throughout our organisation to encourage fitness and health, to combat workplace injury and illness, and to promote wellness and wellbeing Talent Development Management: Waitemata District Health Board.