Gallup Exceptional Workplace Awards
The world's best workplaces are redefining work by showing what's possible when leaders focus on engagement, prioritize the employee experience and let employees excel by leveraging their strengths.
We elevate organizations that are committed to developing human potential.
And we designed these awards to do just that -- to celebrate clients who put the engagement and strengths of their people at the center of their business strategy and weave that commitment into their organizational culture.
These organizations continue to prioritize investing in their people by always listening, measuring and making decisions that lead to the same destination, no matter how unique the individual culture -- an exceptional workplace experience.
Gallup Exceptional Workplace Awards
Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award winners change the way people work around the world. They achieve this by focusing on the engagement and strengths of their people and investing in their development. Gallup created the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Awards to honor and recognize this commitment to developing human potential.
This award is given to a select few organizations. Winners are selected by our review panel and recognized for the impactful work they've done this year implementing strategic initiatives to further engagement and help employees thrive. Naming these organizations as winners for their standout strengths and engagement stories honors their commitment and effort and lifts them up as best practice examples of what's possible.
Winners weave employee engagement -- an employee's involvement in and enthusiasm for their work and workplace -- throughout each stage of the employee life cycle. From attracting potential talent to providing a positive exit experience for departing employees and every stage in between, these organizations embed engagement in their culture.
Strengths winners have workplace cultures that put the strengths of leaders, managers and employees at the core of how they work every day. These organizations achieve more by helping employees focus on what they do best, maximizing potential within teams and integrating strengths-accelerated development into their mission, vision and values.
What does it take to become a Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award winner?
This prestigious award is reserved for organizations that meet demanding standards for achievement in engagement and strengths development, strategically investing in their people to achieve organizational change.
Exceptional workplaces are always working toward their own unique, aspirational culture by being:
Strengths-Based
Engagement-Focused
Performance-Oriented
We designed the application process so organizations can share their journey with us via:
- long-form responses with tangible examples of how strategy made an organizational impact
- video conferences with a review panel
The application process and effort required reflect the magnitude of our winning organizations' commitment to their people. Recognizing organizations that make such a commitment is a task we take great pride in.
These world-class organizations truly make a difference for their employees every day.
Exceptional Workplaces Need Exceptional Managers
Managers matter. And their talent in the role (or lack thereof) directly affects how employees experience the workplace. Gallup data find that managers account for up to 70% of the variation in employee engagement scores.
Gallup created the Manager of the Year Award to honor managers' importance -- for the workplace at large and for the people they manage. Organizations invited to apply for the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award are asked to nominate one manager who consistently affects the overall employee experience and achieves high performance levels, retention and team engagement.
Current Winners by the Numbers
70%average engagement level
14-to-1average ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees
7xaverage ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees vs. the U.S. average
11xaverage ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees vs. the global average