A mark of purpose, integrity, and people-first performance

Best Places to Work™ Certified is a powerful way to demonstrate your ongoing commitment to your people and a high-performance workplace culture.

It recognises workplaces that excel in employee experience, using a combination of data-driven insights and practical, values-led practices.

The programme reflects BPTW™’s mission to float all the boats higher by lifting workplace standards across Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Supporting continuous improvement

The journey to becoming BPTW™ Certified starts with your people. Credible, employee-led insights into your workplace culture from the BPTW™ Annual Survey are matched against your practices, policies and embedded people-first behaviours.

Support is available at every stage: from developing, progressing, excelling, and mastery, with a scalable, inclusive improvement pathway and resources for organisations of all sizes and stages.

A clear standard of workplace excellence

BPTW™ Certified is awarded to employers who meet defined benchmarks in employee engagement, and recognises proven, people-first practices across the BPTW™ pillars of workplace excellence.

Organisations that meet or exceed the benchmark thresholds are BPTW™ Certified for 12 months.

BPTW™ Certified practices

Leadership & Purpose

Trust in leadership, clarity of purpose, and values in action.

Culture & Team Connection

Inclusive culture, psychological safety, strong relationships, and belonging.

Wellbeing

Practical wellbeing supports flexibility, and safe, healthy work.

Innovation & Technology

Tools and practices that enable smarter, ethical, and AI-ready work.

Performance & Growth

Fairness, recognition, autonomy, capability building, and career growth.

Sustainability

Responsible, long-term impact for people, community, and planet.

The value of BPTW™ Certified

Trust and credibility

Proof that your culture and workplace experience is strong, and getting stronger.

Recognition

Be recognised amongst your community with an official BPTW™ Certified badge.

Talent advantage

A powerful tool for employer branding and recruitment.

Pathway to excellence

A clear framework for improving people-focused strategies and productivity.

Competitive advantage

Helps win talent, clients, partnerships and potential investors.

Awards advantage

Diamond tier and above may be advanced to the BPTW™ Awards shortlist (conditions apply).

How BPTW™ Certified Works

Our robust certification programme is open to New Zealand organisations with 10 or more employees, across any industry sector.

Certification is based on a combination of the BPTW™ Annual Employee Experience Survey results and confirmation of workplace practices and policies.
It is valid for 12 months.

Step One: Employee Feedback

Measured via the BPTW™ Annual Survey
Minimum 60% employee participation required
Overall engagement score determines the certification tier.
Diamond tier requires a mid-year Pulse survey.

Step Two: Practices & Policy

Confirm alignment with BPTW™ Certified key practices and policies
Supporting documentation uploaded

BPTW™ Certified Tiers

FAQ

BPTW™ Certified vs BPTW™ Awards: What’s the difference?

BPTW™ Certified: A benchmark of best practice. Validation for all organisations meeting high standards. Based on survey results and confirmation of workplace policies or practices

BPTW™ Awards: Recognition of best in class. Judged across workplace size categories with detailed submissions, customer feedback, and performance results.

What policies or practices are required to be confirmed as part of the certification process?

Organisations will be asked to confirm and show the existence of core practices, and policy areas. These may vary slightly by organisation size, but include:

Practices:

Trust in Leadership + Connection to Purpose
Culture & Environment + Team Connection
Wellbeing
Innovation + Tools & Technology
Performance & Growth
Sustainability

Policies:

Human resources
Legal and compliance
Health, safety and wellbeing
Remote work and flexibility
Learning and development
Sustainability and CSR
Employee value proposition (for larger firms)

A full list is available in our Certification Practice and Policy Checklist upon request.

Who evaluates and certifies the organisations?

Documents may be spot checked by the BPTW™ team.

Do I have to choose between BPTW™ Certified and the Awards?

No - they’re designed to be complementary.

What are the key differences between BPTW™ Certified and the BPTW™ Awards?

Certification is validation of high workplace standards, while the Awards are about recognising and celebrating the very best. They’re complementary, and designed to work together.

BPTW™ Certified

What it is: Confirmation of excellence in workplace culture, employee engagement, and people practices.

How it’s earned: Based on survey scores + confirmation of workplace practices and policies

Recognition: Tiered certification: Silver to Diamond

Purpose: Benchmarking, credibility, continuous improvement, talent attraction and employer brand

Eligibility: Open to any organisation meeting survey + policy confirmation

BPTW™ Awards

What it is: A programme recognising top performers across all workplace size categories and spotlight categories - Best in class

How it’s earned: Based on survey scores + award submissions + judging panel review

Recognition: Finalists and one winner per Workplace size category

Purpose: Recognition of best-in-class practices and outcomes

Eligibility: Shortlisted organisations submit for awards consideration

Am I automatically entered into the BPTW™ Awards if I achieve BPTW™ Certified?

All organisations certified to the Gold tier level or above may qualify for the BPTW™ Awards Shortlist (conditions apply).

Note: the BPTW™ Awards submission process is still a requirement for BPTW™ Awards entry, and certification does not guarantee your organisation will be an BPTW™ Awards finalist or winner.

What do we receive as part of being BPTW™ Certified?

Certified organisations receive:

An BPTW™ Annual Survey employee engagement results and benchmarking report
A summary of strengths and opportunities
Official BPTW™ Certified badge showing tier achieved
Public recognition in the EMA and BPTW™ channels - for pilot
Promotional and storytelling toolkit
At Gold tier and above - automatic advancement to the BPTW™ Awards shortlist (organisation choice to enter the BPTW™ Awards)
Discounted access to EMA and BPTW™ workplace events and masterclasses

How confidential is the process?

All information submitted is treated as confidential.

Your partner in continuous business improvement

The BPTW™ programme has been designed to support a continuous programme of improvement over three key services, to help Kiwi organisations grow, evolve, and succeed. In addition to the employee engagement survey, you may also be interested in:

Survey

Is your organisation one of New Zealand’s Best Places to Work™?

The Best Places to Work™ Annual Survey provides an assessment of your employee experience and a benchmark against other similar sized organisations. It is the ideal tool to help drive innovation and consistency across your business, as well as identify opportunities for growth and improvement.

Learn More

BPTW™ Awards

The BPTW™ Awards recognise and celebrate New Zealand’s Best Places to Work™. Organisations that nurture talent, invest in culture, build sustainable futures, and forge the way in workplace excellence. The BPTW™ Annual Survey provides the entry pathway into the BPTW™ Awards.

Learn More

Masterclasses

We have some of the world’s most brilliant minds right here in New Zealand who are nurturing talent, investing in technology, unleashing innovation, driving economic growth, and building a limitless future. BPTW™ Masterclasses are all about sharing the passion and insights into what goes into creating the Best Places to Work™, to motivate and inspire us all to go further.

Learn More