The Innovation Loop: What I’ve Learnt Judging New Zealand’s Best Workplaces
Over the past three years, since Best Places to Work™ New Zealand relaunched, I’ve had the privilege of serving as a judge for the Best Places to Work™ Awards, primarily evaluating the large organisation category.
Humankind’s connection to the programme goes beyond judging: we were part of the team that contributed to the evaluation framework, helping to craft the survey questions that employees answer and build the written submission process which is reviewed by an independent panel of judges.
Best Places to Work™ exists to fulfil a simple but powerful mission: inspiring the world’s Best Places to Work™. The idea of "floating all boats higher" has always been at the heart of the programme. When we were approached to become a supporting partner, it was an easy decision. We saw it as an opportunity to give back to Aotearoa by helping raise the standard of workplaces across New Zealand.
With Humankind’s 14-year history of partnering with close to 1,500 organisations, we have always looked for patterns in what makes businesses truly succeed.
Over the years of reading submissions and reviewing data, one emerging trend has stood out with remarkable clarity: the organisations leading the way in innovation and AI adoption are the very same organisations leading the way in employee experience.
The Link Between EX and Innovation
This isn't just a correlation of "nice-to-haves". When organisations apply for these awards, we don't just evaluate sentiment; we ask for concrete evidence of business performance. The data consistently shows that businesses prioritising employee experience (EX) are the ones delivering the strongest commercial results.
Why does this happen? At Humankind, our core view of the world is that Employee Experience (EX) directly impacts Customer Experience (CX) and, ultimately, financial sustainability. When team members trust their leaders and feel secure, they don't resist change, they embrace it. Advanced people experience creates the environment required to adopt disruptive technologies, like AI, and turn them into commercial advantages.
Instead of letting industry disruption slow them down, high-performing organisations double down on their people. By focusing heavily on professional growth, fair reward, and autonomy, they build highly resilient, future-ready cultures that guide the business forward.
AI is a People Change, Not a Technology Change
Through our own journey at Humankind and our work with clients, I have realised a critical truth: AI is as much a people shift as it is a technology shift. Globally and locally, many businesses treat AI adoption purely as an IT rollout and wonder why their efforts stall. In fact, a landmark study from MIT’s NANDA initiative reveals a stark divide: while up to 80% of companies are actively piloting generative AI, only about 5% are realising true, bottom-line transformational gains.
Adoption of such a disruptive technology is deeply emotional and brings up a complex range of attitudes, sentiments, and fears. Every organisation contains a spectrum of "AI personas", a concept shared with me:
- The Exceptional Tinkerer: Eager early adopters who push boundaries and bring tools in.
- The Compliant Optimist: Those who see the potential but want clear, safe guardrails.
- The Fearful Idealist: Sceptics who worry deeply about privacy, security, and the human cost of automation.
To build a high-performance culture, leaders must be clear on the type of AI culture that fits their company and deliberate about guiding the emotional complexity of their teams. Rather than trying to force a one-size-fits-all adoption style, we need to capture the innovative energy of our tinkerers while actively listening to the healthy scepticism of our idealists to build safe, ethical, and confident workflows.
Lessons from the Top: Nailing the Basics & Upskilling Over Automation
The BPTW™ evaluation criteria has been set up to reward the fundamentals over the flashy initiatives. When you design workplaces where leadership is prioritised as a core skillset and people have real opportunities to learn more, contribute, and have autonomy over their work, you unlock a level of trust and performance that no tech transition can disrupt.
A standout example from year one of the awards was House of Travel. Operating in a sector heavily hit by global disruption of COVID, they focused on these exact fundamentals. They designed a professional development pathway that allowed employees to start at entry-level, progress through the business, and eventually receive the operational and financial scaffolding to become business owners themselves.
More impressively, they paired this core people experience with a forward-looking AI strategy. Instead of letting technological disruption happen to them, they proactively invested in upskilling their people to use AI, reimagining their entire business model with their team at the center.
This is the true innovation loop in action. By securing the basics first, businesses create the confidence and security employees need to embrace disruption, rather than fear it.
Leading into the Future
Sustained organisational performance doesn’t happen by chance. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the landscape of work, the role of leadership becomes even more critical. If AI is the wave, leadership is the surfboard.
🔗 To learn more about how Humankind and Best Places to Work™ are partnering to raise workplace standards across Aotearoa, read our co-authored partnership article on the Best Places to Work™ Blog.
