Friska Wirya is the powerhouse behind Stevie-winner Fresh by Friska, a change management consulting, facilitation, and personal development service for executives, teams, and large businesses.

Friska guides complex organizations through the people side of change; she has helped industry-leading organizations shift tribulation into transformation.

Friska is the former Head of Change at the biggest gold miner in the Southern Hemisphere, leading digital transformation changes to achieve US$170m annual savings, skyrocket innovation and improve safety. She infiltrated a digital-first culture across four countries to create a solid foundation to drive the adoption of new and emerging technologies, achieving recognition such as the Most Innovative Hard Hat Company from Apple and various industry awards.

Before this, she was the Global Change Lead for multi-million dollar projects spanning technology, structure, process, and people, impacting +23,000 at Tier 1 engineering firm Worley. She brought the digital future of policing to life for the world’s single-largest policing jurisdiction.

Friska started her own business after leaving her corporate job in the mining, oil & gas, and engineering industries on the precipice of the global pandemic. As COVID-19 spread, restrictions came out fast, borders closed, and Friska’s pipeline was eliminated in the blink of an eye – organizations were not investing in change management, ironically when they needed it the most. Friska invested time in the online space to develop her virtual brand.

In response to the COVID curveball, Friska offered workshops to the public she’d previously only offered in-house and even welcomed big brands like Salesforce and Microsoft on board as clients. She spoke at Microsoft’s first D&I event in Asia and at conferences such as The Future of Mining, Female Influencers in Tech, and Women in Construction and Engineering.

Friska was then engaged by the #1 university in Australia, The University of Melbourne, to pivot rapidly to a fully remote campus, impacting 65,000 students and 15,000 staff while maintaining operational efficiency and blitz-scaling programs to aid student financial and mental health during the global pandemic.

With a speedy turnaround, Friska’s team created a country-first digital portal for students to remain connected to their lecturers, lesson materials, access COVID-19 safety information, financial support information, and mental health resources. This portal also connected university departments and had them working together in ways they had never done before. The results were astounding:

• Transitioned to a fully remote campus in five business days
• Built a one-of-a-kind connection portal where everyone may have been physically distanced - but in heart and mind closer than ever
• Held virtual open days—the University of Melbourne had a two-week Open Day event. The first visual open day saw more than 40,000 people registering from around the world. People could take a virtual tour, join a sample lecture, ask questions, and network with other students.
• 300+ live events over six separate days
• ~45k event registrations and ~14k platform registrations

Friska’s work made students feel supported and empowered the university to adapt and continue to operate. The scale and speed at which the COVID response was executed make it noteworthy. During this process, there was zero downtime. 

The open days, and the positive feedback from these virtual events, were phenomenal. This program was the most comprehensive of its kind and a fully immersive experience. In numbers, this initiative impacted 65,000 students, 16,000 staff, and 250 vendors/consultants. It received exceptional media coverage in major newspapers. The marketing data for the virtual open days indicated that, over two weeks, over 45,000 visitors joined events from around the world, which suggests that a virtual event opened the university to more people.

Aside from keeping current students supported and extending the university’s credibility during a pandemic, this work also gave Friska’s business a chance to demonstrate her commitment to excellence and exceptional capabilities, seeing her pull off many incredible “firsts'' under challenging circumstances.

Friska has created a blueprint for change that is relevant for large workforces with central hubs where the workplace is more than just an office. Since then, she has gone on to consult for the world’s largest family-owned business in the automotive industry headquartered in the USA and enable a large Australian engineering company to implement sustainability principles across APAC.

Friska Wirya’s Fresh by Friska won a Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year among Small Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations Organizations in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards? 

Stevie-winner Glass of Learning, Inc. is a Toronto-based leadership development and design firm focused on changing businesses. Chief Experience Officer, Nancy Priest says, “to change results you must change behavior. At Glass, we’re learning strategists and behavior-change specialists.” 

During COVID, Glass revolutionized its well-known Leadership Road™ training virtually via VirtualGlass™ and applied it to great success. This platform is now available for facilitators to access and run virtual learning. 

The VirtualGlass program earned Glass of Learning both a Silver and Gold Stevie Award in the 2022 edition of the StevieⓇ Awards for Great Employers, for Most Innovative Leadership Program and for Achievement in Leadership Development, respectively.

VirtualGlass™ Program
Approximately 95% of organizations invest in leadership training, an investment that equates to a whopping $366 billion globally. However, most leaders are still not trained on how to properly step up to the plate—leadership training rarely if ever “sticks.”

After 25 years of training Fortune 500 leaders, Priest quit in 2014 to start Glass. She wanted to customize programs (versus templates), develop programs quickly (in days instead of months), and for training to be effective in practice. Priest decided to take on the challenge of working with large manufacturers and specializing in training frontline leaders and plant management—nearly all men.

In early 2018, Priest launched her revolutionary global leadership training program, Leadership Road™ for frontline Supervisors, a groundbreaking 27-week “journey,” with the timeframe chosen as it is thought to be the required time for training to “stick” psychologically. The journey begins with in-depth “discovery” aimed at finding the “burning issue” at hand. The Program is based on the premise that adults learn through play as children do. 

In 2019 Priest launched the Manager version of Leadership Road™. Then as COVID ravaged the globe, the 27-week program went virtual and was called VirtualGlass™, fully customizable because one size never fits all.

For example, Glass had a large international manufacturer whose managers were increasingly overwhelmed and disenfranchised during COVID. The Glass team created virtual activities to teach them how to move forward in their thinking vs engaging in perceptions and paradigms that block progress; how to transition easily in challenging situations; and how to avoid assumptions that can disrupt teams.

As more and more managers and staff became ill, missing out on entire skill sets, Glass customized VirtualGlass™ to teach emotional intelligence as well. Teaching empathy increased problem-solving and professional coaching skills.

Next, complementary videos taught teams how to work and manage remotely. Glass released the “Leadership to Life” program, customized for graduates of Leadership Road™. This program took the Journey’s leadership principles and extended them to daily and family life and activities. Many participants have since reported being better partners and parents.

Finally, Glass was asked to create an innovative Supervisor Peer Mentoring program, enabling graduates now working off the floor to continue learning and growing by taking on the role of coach and mentor to new participants moving through the 27-week program. This program was designed to increase confidence in the Supervisor graduates and enable new participants to quickly take on the learning role with a mentor to help escalate the learning process.

As of mid-2021, the VirtualGlass™ became available for facilitators to purchase subscriptions and access ready-made content.

Glass of Learning won a Gold Stevie Award for Achievement in Leadership Development and a Silver Stevie for Most Innovative Leadership Program and in the 2022 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers.

Interested in entering the 2023 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers?

Founded in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Covax Australia is a Queensland-based company that provides professional staffing solutions and high-quality workplace management strategies.

Seeing the unmet needs in the community due to lockdown restrictions and nationwide delays, co-founders Mannu Kala and Dr. Anuj Gupta decided to combine their shared expertise to help innovate pandemic solutions and manage the pandemic alongside public health officials on the local, state, and federal levels.

Covax worked with leaders to support the vaccination rollout, operationalizing a major distribution hub, and offering end-to-end COVID-19-related testing services. They also provided staffing for hard-hit residential aged care facilities and partnered with community outreach clinics at schools and parks.

In response to surging infections, Covax built pop-up testing clinics on short notice and before major holidays. They implemented solutions to clear backlogs at other testing centers and coordinated with networks of pathology testing providers. 

Throughout the pandemic, as they responded to emerging community needs, Covax Australia leaders were also managing the company’s own growth. To keep up with demand for services, they recruited and trained over 800 employees. 

As lockdown restrictions impacted small businesses and commerce, Covax Australia was able to create jobs for their community. They proactively reached out to universities to give graduates real-world experience and assisted those making career changes with transferring their skills to a new industry.

Frontline Medical Hero of the Year
Of special note, Founder & Director of Covax Australia, Dr. Anuj Gupta, was honored at The 2022 International Business Awards® with a Gold Stevie Award for Frontline Medical Hero of the Year in the COVID-19 Response Categories. 

Dr. Gupta began his medical career as an international medical student in 2005 in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Finishing his medical training in 2019, Dr. Gupta has already established multiple practices and enterprises, some of which are among the most successful general practices in Queensland and Australia. He has since gone on to open a vaccine clinic, respiratory clinics, and drive-through clinics in Brisbane and Gold Coast.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Dr. Gupta served as a frontline responder in Brisbane and consistently rose to the challenge whenever the city needed him in terms of surge and pandemic response. He is also responsible for setting up the first GP Respiratory clinic in Brisbane.

In December 2020, Dr. Gupta founded Covax Australia, a staffing agency with a focus solely on pandemic management, including developing and implementing strategies to help manage aspects of the COVID-19 crisis. In coordination with the Department of Health and Queensland Health, Dr. Gupta worked tirelessly to establish frontline clinics and to organize the COVID-19 response in Australia and Queensland in particular.

Evolving for the Future
Covax Australia now provides innovative staffing solutions to diverse industry settings to suit their changing needs, in sectors including but not limited to the healthcare, hospitality, security, human resources and environmental services sectors.

They support private clients as well as state and federal governments developing and providing end-to-end solutions, supply of equipment, and surge workforce assistance. The agency endeavors to build life-long partnerships with clients, adapting and customizing their services to meet the changing needs of all businesses. 

Covax Australia won a Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year among Medium-size Health Products & Services Organizations, and a Bronze Stevie Award for Startup of the Year among Business Services Industries.

Dr. Anuj Gupta won a Gold Stevie Award for Frontline Medical Hero of the Year within the COVID-19 Response Categories in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?

Heute war es endlich soweit. Nach dem dreiwöchigen öffentlichen Voting gaben heute die Stevie® Awards die Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger der People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies bekannt. Über 2.200 Stimmen wurden bis zum 17. April für die in acht Branchengruppen nominierten Unternehmen und Organisationen abgegeben.

Die People’s Choice Stevie Awards sind der beliebte Publikumspreis der internationalen Stevie® Awards Programme und wurden in diesem Jahr zum zweiten Mal auch im Rahmen der German Stevie® Awards verliehen. Alle Organisationen und Personen, die bei den German Stevie® Awards mit einem Gold-, Silber- oder Bronze-Stevie® Award ausgezeichnet wurden, nahmen automatisch an der öffentlichen Abstimmung für die People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies teil.

Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter, Kundinnen und Kunden, Social-Media-Communities und Follower haben fleißig abgestimmt und nun stehen die Preisträgerunternehmen der People´s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies fest. Die meisten Stimmen erhielten:

• Für das Unternehmen des Jahres im Bereich B2B-Produkte und -Dienstleistungen (inkl. diversifizierter Dienstleistungen) konnte JD Krüger & Co aus Hanau nicht nur die Jury für die Innovativste Neugestaltung des Arbeitsplatzes überzeugen, sondern auch das Publikum.
• CERATIZIT aus Kempten erhielt die meisten Stimmen für den Bereich Industrie, Fertigung, Transport & Logistik. Das Unternehmen wurde in diesem Jahr mit sechs goldenen Stevies im Bereich Events
• Im Bereich Informationstechnologie: Computer & Elektronik, inkl. Computersoftware, -hardware und -dienstleistungen konnte SolarWinds das Publikum überzeugen und wird ebenfalls mit der beliebten Kristall-Trophäe ausgezeichnet. Der Berliner Softwarehersteller wurde in diesem Jahr mit einem Bronze Award im Bereich Kundenservice ausgezeichnet.
• Die Stadtwerke Neumünster (Neumünster) überzeugte als Unternehmen des Jahres für Kommunikationsservice: Medien und Telekommunikation und erhielt hier die meisten Stimmen.
• Die meisten Votings für das Unternehmen des Jahres im Bereich Konsumgüter und Dienstleistungen (inkl. Finanz- und Versicherungswesen) erhielt HUGO BOSS (Metzingen), die drei Gold Awards und einen Silber Stevie Award in verschiedenen Kategorien erhielten.
• MINTvernetzt (Hamburg) wurde für die beste Website für non-Profit-Organisationen mit Bronze geehrt und erhält den Publikumspreis für das Unternehmen des Jahres im Bereich Non-Profit.
• In Sachen Kommunikation kann dem Gold-Gewinner Berkeley Kommunikation (München) wohl niemand das Wasser reichen – das Unternehmen wurde zum Sieger im Bereich Werbung, Marketing und PR gewählt.
• Als Unternehmen des Jahres – Sonstige wurde vom Publikum JenaKultur Tourismus/Marketing gewählt. Für seine Marketingkampagne und Videos wurde das Unternehmen dreimal mit Gold geehrt.

„Wir freuen uns, dass die People´s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies bei den German Stevie® Awards in diesem Jahr ein so großer Erfolg war. Das öffentliche Voting hat gezeigt, dass hinter den nominierten Unternehmen eine großartige Community steht, die ihre Lieblingsunternehmen durch ihre zahlreichen Abstimmungen unterstützt hat. Wir gratulieren herzlich allen Gewinnerinnen und Gewinnern des beliebten Publikumsawards!“, so Maggie Miller, Präsidentin der Stevie® Awards.

Die Preisträgerunternehmen der People’s Choice Stevie® Awards werden mit einer hochwertigen Kristall-Trophäe ausgezeichnet.

Wer auch einmal zu den Preisträgerinnen und Preisträgern der German Stevie Awards zählen möchte, hat ab September wieder die Möglichkeit sich mit seinen besten Projekten und Leistungen zu bewerben. Denn dann starten der deutsch-europäische Wirtschaftspreis in seine 10. Runde. 

Bis dahin haben Sie die Möglichkeit, sich bei verschiedenen internationalen Wettbewerbsprogrammen der Stevie Awards zu bewerben. Alles über aktuelle Fristen und spannende Neuigkeiten aus der Stevie Awards Community lesen Sie in unserem monatlich erscheinenden Newsletter. 

If you're in business, you can't help but notice that it’s awards season! There are SO many business awards happening right now and loads to enter for sure – they range from broad, international programs like the Stevie® Awards offers, to smaller, more niched ones like the Australian Rural Business Awards, for example.

Why Entering Awards Programs and Showcasing Your Wins Are Important
Business leaders constantly leverage awards to get more brand awareness and build creditability—and to then (hopefully) get more sales. Awards from established organizations demonstrate credibility, and awards have a long shelf life, so your win has a long shelf life too.

One big pro tip – if applying for awards isn't in your marketing strategy, then try to make it part of your marketing strategy! Seriously, if you want due credit in your space, if you want to become the “go-to person” in your industry, or if you simply want to “up” your competitors and stand out from the crowd, then entering awards is 100% the way to go!

Not only do you get leverage, but honestly, a huge benefit you get from applying for awards can be found in the process of crafting and preparing the submission applications themselves.

By taking time to look back at what you have achieved, where you have come from, and where you are now, you'll gain a better appreciation of your achievements. In business, we rarely take time to reflect and look back at how far we have come, so if you get nothing else from applying for awards, you will 200% get that!

So how do you leverage achievement awards—whether you're a winner or only a finalist?
Below, I'll detail all the ways you can make the most of your participation in awards programs.

Note, you don't need to do all these things immediately (although many you should)—you can milk the award and its honors for months and even beyond if you frame its future use as a “remember when” mention or posting. Here is a list to get you started:

1. Use the winner logos and graphics provided by the awards organization everywhere, especially on social media.
   Award hosts typically create and provide a variety of graphics for winners to use to promote their win. This is your license to add those image everywhere, including:

• Your LinkedIn profile – in the banner, in the awards section
• On Facebook – again in the banner/cover and in the About section
• Instagram – in your bio
• Twitter – in your profile
• Pinterest – in your profile
• In your email signature or at the foot of your emails – how many do you send a day!
• Your website – in the about section, on the front page, in the footer
  

2. Update your physical and digital company information and storefronts with “Award Winning” or “Multi Award Winning” business, depending on if you won more than one award. Update your bios and website pages. If you have a place of business, put it on the front window, at reception, on your door, in your “out of office” notice – if you can manage to add those words in, do it!
   
   
3. Update all business directories, websites, and partner websites that list your business. Use the words “Award Winning” or use the graphic/tile/image mentioned above. You might need to google yourself or google your business name to find all the places that need to be updated.
   
   
4. Create a new default photo for social media that includes the words “Award Winner,” or the name of the award you won, under your bio photo. After you or your art team creates a new image, use that photo to update all professional bios across social media platforms too. You should be able to easily do this using programs like Canva, but if you need a hand, you can easily find reasonable assistance on freelance websites like Fiver or Upwork.
   
   
5. Don’t forget to tag and congratulate other winners, finalists, and people in your category on social media. Not only is it good to be humble, but it’s good for brand awareness to be tagging other businesses (Okay, it may not exactly be humble, but it’s business, and we want the most out of this win!).
   
   
6. Consider adding the win to your business cards and brochures. If these items are electronic, then do it straight away. If they are printed, do it for the next round of printing.
   
   
7. If you do presentations, webinars, or your work requires you to introduce yourself, make sure you add “award winner” to that introduction. Not only just after you’ve won the award, but at least for a few years.
   
   
8. If the award hosts don't supply you with a press release, write one yourself! Getting your win into the media is a fabulous idea and isn’t going to be that hard. If you need help with a press release, sing out, happy to share what I have (jenn@jenndonovan.com.au), but most awards will supply one. Simply sending an email to your local newspaper, local radio station, or local news station will probably result in some media attention—written or spoken (radio). Even if you feel nervous, do it anyway! The people who think you are “full of it” or “talking about it too much” are likely jealous of the honor.
   
   
9. Sit down and write a blog for your website about your win. Use parts of your award-winning application to construct a blog about your business—the ups, the downs, the highs, the lows—and share it with your community. Not only will you increase your brand and customer reach, but you will also inspire others with your own successes and practical lessons learned.
   
   
10. Write an email to your customer/client list telling them the good news and thanking them for supporting your now award-winning business!
    
    
11. Go live on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or whichever platform you perform best on or do them all! Share about your win and say thank you to your community who have helped you and your business thus far. You can spread these live streams out of over a few days and post on a different platform, different days. 
    
    

12. Use this award-winning application to gain recognition for more awards! Use the win as a fabulous excuse to pitch yourself for podcast interviews, guest blogs, articles, and so on.
    
    All this might seem a little too much self-promotion to some. But you honestly need to leave that feeling behind and permit yourself to feel proud of the fact that you won or were a finalist. You took the time to fill out the application, the judges reviewed your work and successes, and felt you deserved recognition. Your network, community, audience, and followers will ALL want to hear about it and congratulate you.
    
    And remember winning isn't everything – even being a finalist needs to have the heck leveraged out of it! Push down the imposter syndrome, get over the “what will they think” and sing loud and proud about your win and how amazing your business is. Because it is!

    About the Author:
    Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia. Jenn's an expert marketing coach and mentor from rural NSW. She is all about empowering business owners to earn what they're worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world. The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans! H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn's online community is over 370,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 365,000 members and still growing every day. She's the mayor of her own little online city! 

The Stevie® Awards has issued the call for entries for the eighth annual Stevie® Awards for Great Employers, which honor the world’s best companies to work for and the human resources teams, professionals, suppliers, and new products and services that help to create and drive great places to work.

All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit, and non-profit, large and small – may submit nominations to the Stevie Awards for Great Employers. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is April 27. The final entry deadline is May 24, but late entries will be accepted through June 27 with payment of a late fee. 

Juries composed of scores of executives around the world will determine the Stevie Award winners. Winners will be announced on August 7. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be presented with their awards at a gala event in New York City in September 2023.

The Stevie Awards for Great Employers recognize achievement in many facets of the workplace. Categories include:

• Employer of the Year Awards
• HR Achievement Awards
• HR Individual Awards
• HR Team Categories
• Solution Provider Awards
• Solutions, Implementations, and Training Programs or Media Awards
• Thought Leadership Categories
• COVID-19 Response Awards

Fourteen of the 16 HR Individual categories do not require payment of entry fees, including Human Resources Professional of the Year, Onboarding Professional of the Year, Recruiting or Talent Acquisition Professional of the Year, and others.

A multi-year sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, HiBob is a modern HR Platform designed for modern business. New for 2023, HiBob is sponsoring a set of categories for HiBob customers including Best Use of Bob for Creating a Winning Global Company Culture, Best Use of Bob for Supporting DEI&B, Best Use of Bob for Impacting the Employee Lifecycle, and Best Use of Bob for Workforce Planning.

Winners in the 31 industry-specific Employer of the Year categories will be determined by a unique blend of public votes and professional ratings. Public voting will take place from June 29 – July 27.

Stevie Award winners in the 2022 program include Ayala Land, Inc. (Philippines), Cathay United Bank (Taiwan), Enerjisa Enerji (Turkey), Evernote (USA), Halkbank (Turkey), IBM (Worldwide), King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (Saudi Arabia), LLYC (Spain), ManyPets (UK), Megaphone (Australia), Modis Bulgaria (Bulgaria), Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) (UAE), Skai (Israel), Swiss Re Group (Switzerland), Thai Union Group PCL (Thailand), Upwork (USA), and ValueLabs LLP (India).

Die Stevie® Awards rufen zur Einreichung von Bewerbungen für die achten jährlichen Stevie® Awards for Great Employers auf. Der Wirtschaftspreis zeichnet die weltweit arbeitnehmerfreundlichsten Unternehmen aus sowie HR-Teams und -Fachleute, HR-Leistungen, neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen und Zulieferer, die dazu beitragen, großartige Arbeitsplätze zu schaffen und zu fördern.

Alle Einzelpersonen und Organisationen weltweit - öffentliche und private, gewinnorientierte und gemeinnützige, große und kleine - können Nominierungen für die Stevie® Awards for Great Employers einreichen. Der Einsendeschluss für Frühbuchende mit reduzierten Teilnahmegebühren ist der 27. April. Der endgültige Einsendeschluss ist der 24. Mai, aber verspätete Einsendungen werden bis zum 27. Juni gegen Zahlung einer Verspätungsgebühr angenommen.

Jurygremien, die sich aus einer Vielzahl von Führungskräften aus der ganzen Welt zusammensetzen, werden die Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger der Stevie® Awards ermitteln. Die Gewinnerinnen und Gewinner werden am 7. August bekannt gegeben. Die Gold-, Silber- und Bronze-Gewinner der Stevie® Awards werden im <strong>September im Rahmen einer Gala New York City geehrt.

Mit den Stevie® Awards for Great Employers werden Leistungen in vielen Bereichen der Arbeitswelt ausgezeichnet. Zu den Kategorien zählen:

• Employer of the Year Awards – Arbeitgeber des Jahres
• HR Achievement Awards – Leistungen im Bereich Personalwesen
• HR Individual Awards – Auszeichnungen für einzelne Personen im Personalwesen
• HR Team Categories – Auszeichnungen für die besten HR-Teams
• Solution Provider Awards – Auszeichnungen für die besten externen Lösungsanbieter
• Solutions, Implementations, and Training Programs or Media Awards – Lösungen, Implementierungen und Schulungsprogramme oder Medienkategorien
• Thought Leadership Categories - Auszeichnungen für Vordenker
• COVID-19 Response Awards - Kategorien zur Reaktion auf COVID-19

Für 14 der 16 HR-Einzelkategorien sind keine Teilnahmegebühren zu entrichten, beispielsweise in den Kategorien Personalverantwortlicher des Jahres, Onboarding-Profi des Jahres, Rekrutierungs- oder Talentakquisitionsfachkraft des Jahres.

HiBob ist ein langjähriger Sponsor der Stevie Awards for Great Employers und ist eine moderne HR-Plattform, die für moderne Unternehmen entwickelt wurde. Neu für 2023: HiBob sponsert eine Reihe von Kategorien für HiBob-Kunden, darunter Best Use of Bob for Creating a Winning Global Company Culture, Best Use of Bob for Supporting DEI&B, Best Use of Bob for Impacting the Employee Lifecycle und Best Use of Bob for Workforce Planning.

Die Gewinner in den 31 branchenspezifischen Kategorien für den "Arbeitgeber des Jahres" werden durch eine einzigartige Mischung aus öffentlichen Abstimmungen und professionellen Bewertungen ermittelt. Die öffentliche Abstimmung findet vom 29. Juni bis 27. Juli statt.

Zu den europäischen Preisträgerinnen der Stevie Awards for Great Employer 2022 gehören unter anderem Allianz SE (Deutschland), DHL Global Forwarding Freight (Deutschland), FedEx Express Europe (Niederlande), LLYC (Spanien), Reward Gateway (Großbritannien) und Swiss Re Group (Schweiz).

Stevie-winner Hooked On Code (HOC) is a women-owned, simplicity-focused WordPress website agency, working with businesses and organizations globally. 

The HOC mission is to eliminate the convoluted and inefficient nature of building websites for B2B enterprises. Their refined “no-bull process” has been delivering results efficiently since 2014. They assert that their proven process and specific toolset helps them combat negative experiences such as missed deadlines, poor communication, and hard-to-edit websites.

In mid-2019, HOC launched the maintenance branch of their agency, offering monthly website “Care Plans” to assist with website updates and whatever changes their customers may need.

Maintaining the Customer Experience Throughout the Pandemic
In 2020, HOC saw project work almost disappear with the COVID crisis. They decided to dedicate themselves to the happiness of their current client-base, which would, if retained, support the agency through the decline in new projects. 

Next, they launched a Customer Appreciation Program, including Client Appreciation Week, when clients were publicly recognized on social media and each client was personally called by team members.

They also refreshed training for the support team, compiled a new manual for working on client tickets, and started tracking client compliments and complaints in order to address potential issues preemptively.

Over time, what began as a boot-strapped company with no marketing budget saw significant organic growth year over year, completely from referrals.

In a survey sent to clients during Client Appreciation Week, 100% of participants responded 5/5 rating our work quality, timely delivery, responsiveness, satisfaction, and willingness to refer.

Hooked On Code went from being unranked in all categories to ranking between #1 and #4 out of tens of thousands of web design agencies across multiple high-value categories on Clutch, a third-party review platform for B2B service providers.

Since Winning Their Stevie Award
The HOC team has added Elementor to their agency arsenal, which has allowed them to adopt maintenance retainers for websites built by other agencies, often for global-sized corporations that demand faster and more reliable service than their previous agency offered. 

They have also  since launched their first Shopify and Squarespace projects. The decision to venture outside of the WordPress/Divi toolset and into select closed-source platforms was made in response to the growing need for a lower cost product that could be easily managed by clients in-house. This allows their team to service clients who would otherwise be dependent on a maintenance plan that their business model doesn’t financially justify.

With many notable accolades and statistics to report, HOC notes that the statistic they are most proud of is that they have never missed a project launch date—ever.

Hooked On Code won a Silver Stevie Award for Achievement in Customer Satisfaction in both the 2022 and the 2023 editions of The American Business Awards®. 

Interested in entering The American Business Awards?

Winners have been announced in the tenth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards, the only awards program to recognize innovation in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. 

The Stevie® Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in the workplace over the past 21 years in programs such as The International Business Awards® and The American Business Awards®. The name Stevie is derived from the Greek word for “crowned.”

The 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have recognized organizations in 19 nations and territories including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. More than 800 nominations about innovative achievements in the 29-nation APAC region were considered by the judges this year in categories such as Award for Excellence in Innovation in Products & Services, Award for Innovative Management, and Award for Innovation in Corporate Websites, among many others.

Among the top overall winners in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are HP. Inc, with 13 Stevie Awards in total from their offices in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam. Cisco Systems India [Pvt] Ltd of Bangalore, India won 11 Stevie Awards in total in categories including Award for the Innovative Use of Technology in Customer Service - Telecommunications Industries and Award for Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice - Computer Industries. IBM worldwide won 10 Stevie Awards in categories including Innovative Achievement in Customer Satisfaction and Achievement in Product Innovation.

Winners of two or more Gold Stevie Awards include A.S. Watson Group (Hong Kong), Ambiq (United States), Bandai Namco Holdings China (China), Beijing Indigo Property Services Company Limited (United Kingdom), Brillio Technologies Pvt Ltd (India), Cisco Systems India [Pvt] Ltd (India), City of Sydney (Australia), Comm&Sense, Inc. (Philippines), FPT Software (Vietnam), Hectre (New Zealand), HP (Worldwide), KAYLEY MOON - HONEY DIGITAL (Australia), KT (Korea), Megaworld Corporation (Philippines), Metro Pacific Health Tech (mWell) (Philippines), Metro Pacific Water (Philippines), Ngong Ping 360 Limited (Hong Kong), Nuance Communications (Australia), PT Bank Permata, Tbk (Indonesia), PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) (Indonesia), SOOHYUN Inc. (Korea), SSS Strawberries (Australia), Street Science (Australia), Tata Consultancy Services (Hong Kong), and Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Asia Pacific (Australia).

Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 executives around the world acting as judges in February and March.

For the first time, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards features an edition of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies, a worldwide public vote for all nominees in the competition’s Company/Organization categories. Voting will be ongoing through April 28, 2023. Winners in these categories will receive a crystal People’s Choice Award.

“The submissions in the tenth edition of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards were outstanding,” said Stevie Awards President, Maggie Miller. “The judges remarked that the innovation and perseverance demonstrated in the nominations were inspiring. We applaud all the Stevie Award winners this year and look forward to celebrating them on 27 June.”

For details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the 27 June awards ceremony, and the list of Stevie Award winners, visit http://Asia.Stevieawards.com.

Founded in 2020, Stevie-winner Adapy Inc. exclusively manufactures and distributes patented technology to allow millions of disabled Americans to remotely operate all their mobility assistance devices, such as cranes, lifts, automatic doors/ramps, etc. using their cell phone or other mobile devices.

Disabled individuals who want to drive cars face challenges not typically experienced by other drivers. While most people can get into their vehicles and start driving, those with disabilities must first spend up to 15 minutes using multiple devices and remote controls to open doors, operate lifts, and raise seats. 

This process gets repeated multiple times each day and further becomes more complicated in cases where a remote control fails to operate. As one would expect, disabled drivers generally spend more time in the heat, rain, and cold than other drivers as they wait for their vehicles to be ready to use.

How Adapy Works
Adapy™ allows the user to prepare their vehicle in advance from their mobile phone with a tap of a button from a safe distance. It comes pre-programmed for each adaptive device installed in the vehicle. The user simply plugs in the universal adapter to their existing lift device and downloads the mobile app, and pairs it with the device.

What makes Adapy stand out is its patented technology that allows disabled Americans to operate their mobility assistance devices from the safety and comfort of their homes, offices, or other sheltered locations using their smartphone or other mobile devices. This technology makes it possible for people with limited mobility to remain sheltered from dangerous weather conditions such as extreme heat, cold, or rain while preparing their vehicles for transport.

What Inspired Adapy Technology
Adapy was founded by Aaron Werner who was inspired by military veteran and spinal cord injury survivor Andrew Evans. They determined to perfect the technology meant to help disabled individuals to experience greater freedom and independence.

Aaron has been a vanguard in enterprise technology development for over 20 years. He has developed several software applications in the video gaming industry, marketing, and financial spaces. Owing to his motivating encounter with Andrew, he was inspired to ease the lives of people with ambulatory issues by developing a framework to bring smarter technology to the existing adaptive space.

Adapy, Inc secured a relationship with Avenue Homecare, Inc to provide their Automotive Smart Hub to United States military veterans through the Veterans Assistance Program. Furthermore, this patented technology has recently received endorsement from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, ManaMed, Inc, and Marc Andrus RRT, MBA, a surveyor for the Joint Commission.

Adapy Inc. won a Gold Stevie Award for Tech Startup of the Year- Hardware/Peripherals in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?