When they sat me at the front and centre table at the AFR Best Places to Work awards ceremony. I thought, wow I never get to sit in the front.
As the night progressed, it became increasingly more shocking.
As it turned out, SixPivot was named:
🏆 Number 1 Technology Company
🏆 Number 1 Small Organisation
🏆 Number 1 Overall Winner Best Place to Work in Australia
Here's some snippet videos of the night 👇
In the first speech I mention the calibre of these awards. We're big fans of organisational psychologists at the Pivots. The folks at Inventium are no exception, they do a great job. You can tell by the nature of the survey sent to the team (weighs 50% of your scoring) as well as the thoroughness in the submission itself (the other 50%). In our submission we talked about our Public Employee Handbook.
What's given to you after the awards is a robust Benchmarking Report. Reportedly over 600 Australian companies are involved with this process.
The Benchmarking Report alone is reason enough to go through the process.
I haven’t seen anyone else share theirs before? Not sure if it’s supposed to be a secret, but it’s on brand for us to be transparent - so here's ours 👇
You also get published in the Australian Financial Review itself. We're mentioned in three articles:
Exposure and employer branding wise, the AFR has excellent options and opportunities.
Admittedly, the articles are slightly a pay-to-play for extra coverage (which we did not uptake). We didn't know we were winning, so when pitching for us to purchase (very expensive) articles - we declined. In one breath it was a bit disappointing that coverage was limited. It's quite a neat story - a female founded, boutique tech company, sweeping prestigious awards.
The party and dinner is very fun.
The night is a real blast. Admittedly this may be biased because we won a lot, and I made many new friends and connections. This room is filled with organisations in Australia who are the cream of the crop. The ones pushing the envelope, challenging the status quo, the thought leaders. It's a privlege to meet these people and exchange ideas - and dance. The dancing is fun. I met some wonderful folks who stuffed confetti in their pockets and were throwing it around the dance floor.
The final verdict
I rate these awards and the process. Mainly because of the organisational psychologists and the benchmarking report. Top tier stuff.
Employer branding is great. Just know you gotta pay the big bucks for the featured articles.
The night is fun and networking is excellent. You'll make friends.
Yeah yeah, of course I rate these awards - we won them all. Sure. That's fair criticism. But this is the fourth year we've gone through the process. We go through it every year because they're reputable and you get great feedback.
What's even better, because we've been doing it year-on-year. I compare the results and see trends. Regardless of winning/not winning - it's a worthy exercise.
And who knows, you might just win one time and have no idea.
About me: I'm Sammy Herbert, Head of Developer Experience at SixPivot. I work toward best people practices for software developers and advocate to build diverse teams. I care about community and share at conferences, events and panels. I'm also an organiser for Muses Code JS, free coding events for women, non-binary and trans folk.
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