The New Zealand Rainbow Excellence Awards

Join us on 25 November 2021, 3 pm - ONLINE (free, pelase register)

Join us for New Zealand Rainbow Excellence Awards at The Hilton in Auckland to celebrate:

Workplace leadership,
Innovation,
Best practice
Collaboration

Our annual awards programme brings together all organisations that aspire to improve workplaces for "rainbow" people to showcase best practice and celebrate outstanding progress as we continue to strive towards a more inclusive community of workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Award Categories

Awards are open to all organisations and companies in New Zealand.

The awards are designed to recognise organisations that understand, value and welcome sexual and gender diversity.
The awards seek to celebrate:

Strong leadership across organisations, from the executive through to that remarkable employee who rises to the occasion
Initiatives that address ongoing challenges and make a measurable difference
Dynamic, aspirational and brave shifts in practice
Purposeful and confident public visibility
Breadth and depth of organisational commitment and impact

2020 Winners

See the 2019 Awards Winners

2019 Winners

See the 2019 Awards Winners

Westpac Supreme Award

(Award open to Rainbow Tick Certified organisations only)
The Westpac Supreme Award recognises organisations that have demonstrated wide-ranging programs, policy, and practices across the organisation, both top down and bottom up that are making a measurable impact across the organisation and set a new standard and example for others to follow with rainbow inclusion. Organisations at this level are actively sharing with and leading other organisations.

Finalists and winners in each category are considered for the Westpac Supreme Award.

The Newmarket Business Association Executive Leadership Award

The Newmarket Business Association Executive Leadership Award recognises genuine ownership, accountability, and drive from the top level(s) within the organisation.

SKYCITY Community and Advocacy Award

The SKYCITY Community and Advocacy Award recognises outward public commitment to community group(s).

Chorus Ambassadorship Award

The Chorus Ambassadorship Award recognises internal heroes and role models in formal or informal leadership roles who are actively driving improvements with rainbow inclusion

Simpson Grierson Impact Award (Program, Policy, Practice)

The Simpson Grierson Impact Award (Program, Policy, Practice) recognises an organisation or initiative that has tackled a particular issue or opportunity and can demonstrate measurable improvement in rainbow inclusion and wellbeing on a sustained basis

The Rainbow Tick Training and Development Award

The Rainbow Tick Training and Development Award recognises training and development initiatives within organisations to improve rainbow inclusion

Grant Thornton Innovation Award

The Grant Thornton Innovation Award recognises a program, policy, or practice that shows the willingness to try something new and bold, adapted to the unique organisational context, with measures for monitoring progress.

Partners Life Emerging Award

The Partners Life Emerging Award recognises organisations who are early in their diversity and inclusion journey, but have taken steps to clearly signal their commitment to rainbow inclusion in one or more facets of their organisation

The Rainbow Tick Non-Commercial Sector Award

The Rainbow Tick Non-Commercial Sector Award recognises and celebrates organisations within the non-commercial sector who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the area of rainbow diversity and inclusion within and / or across their sector.

Non-commercial may include state sector, not-for profit, social enterprises, NGOs, public sector, and profit for social purpose organisations.

The Purple Sherbet Representation in Marketing Award

The Purple Sherbet Representation in Marketing Award recognises organisations which have purposefully and clearly shown rainbow inclusion in mainstream external marketing and branding campaigns in an authentic and integrated way.

The Westpac SME Rainbow Inclusivity Award

The Westpac SME Rainbow Inclusivity Award recognises small to medium organisations on their journey towards improving Rainbow Inclusion, evidenced through one or more areas of program, policy, or practice that sets an example for others to follow

How to enter

Entries for 2021 are not yet open! Sign up to the newsletter on the bottom of the page so that we can keep you updated.

The process for entering the awards is designed to be simple and to allow for diverse applications from organisations of any size.

Applications must be completed online
Applications costs $250 plus GST per organisation or company entry (an organisation can enter multiple categories per application) (Charities and not-for-profits are free)
Organisations self-nominate/apply and craft their award entry for the specific category(s) of that best showcase their organisation’s progress (see below for all categories)
Awards for individuals must be entered by an organisation who nominate an individual employee and provide supporting evidence
If, for COVID reasons, you are not in a position to pay, please contact Martin King and I am sure we can help sort you out so that you can still enter.

Entries are required to provide a high-level summary of their application, plus supporting material and should include details on (but not exclusive to):

An identified organisational "Rainbow" challenge
A clear strategy or plan related to the challenge
Measurable achievements and impact report/assessment
Clarification of and evidence for sustainable implementation

Core entry benchmarks

The core benchmarks to be considered for an award align with the Rainbow Tick Certification Framework, which assesses whether a workplace understands, values and welcomes sexual and gender diversity.

Rainbow inclusion competencies which are relevant to being considered in most categories are:

• Policy
• Staff training
• Staff engagement and organisational support
• External engagement
• Client / customer engagement
• Monitoring
• Other