Award Categories
I. Organizational Awards (Annual)
Recognizing companies embedding kindness into the fabric of how they operate.
Workplace Kindness Award — Growing Company
Under 1,000 employees. Recognizes a small or mid-size organization that has built a workplace where kindness, humanity, and respect are core to how people work together and succeed.
Workplace Kindness Award — Large Company
1,000+ employees. Celebrates a large organization that has embedded kindness into leadership practices, culture, and operations at scale. Proving that size doesn't have to mean losing the human touch.
Workplace Kindness Award — Global Enterprise
Multi-national organizations. Recognizes a multinational organization demonstrating leadership in creating human-centered cultures across regions and teams worldwide.
Emerging Kindness Leader — Start-Up
Companies under 3 years old. Recognizes an early-stage company intentionally building a culture of kindness and humanity from the very beginning of its journey.
II. Leadership Awards (Annual)
Celebrating individuals who lead with empathy, humanity, and courage. Kindness lives at every level — and these awards prove it.
Kindness in Leadership Award — CEO
Recognizes a CEO who has made kindness a defining principle of how they lead — shaping culture, decisions, and the employee experience from the very top.
Kindness in Leadership Award — Senior Executive
Honors a C-suite or senior executive championing human-centered leadership inside a complex organization. Navigating boardrooms and budgets while keeping people first.
Kindness in Leadership Award — Manager
Recognizes a people leader who has created an exceptional team culture built on empathy, support, and psychological safety. This is where kindness is felt most directly, every single day.
Kindness in Leadership Award — Individual Contributor
Celebrates a team member at any level who consistently demonstrates compassion, support, and humanity in everyday workplace interactions. You don't need a title to lead with kindness.
III. Special Recognition Awards (Rotating)
Honoring unique stories, contexts, and communities. These awards rotate — 2–3 are selected each year to keep the ceremony fresh and create anticipation.
Trailblazer Founder Kindness Award
Recognizes a founder whose lived experience and leadership are expanding what kindness in business looks like. Honors founders from historically underrepresented communities who are building organizations where equity, humanity, and belonging are foundational.
Family-Owned Business Kindness Award
Recognizes a family-owned organization that has built a culture of care, trust, and responsibility — demonstrating that values-driven leadership can sustain both people and business across generations.
Kindness in Action Award — Non-Profit / NGO
Honors a non-profit or NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that exemplifies extraordinary compassion, humanity, and care in how they serve communities and support their teams.
Rising Kindness Leader
Recognizes an emerging leader within the first 10 years of their career who is redefining leadership through empathy, inclusion, and human connection.
IV. Impact Awards (Rotating)
Recognizing specific practices, transformations, and community impact. These awards celebrate what organizations do, not just who they are.
Kindness Innovation Award
Recognizes a specific practice, policy, or program that represents a creative breakthrough in workplace kindness — giving smaller or newer organizations a way to win even if their overall assessment score isn't yet Gold or Platinum.
Kindness Turnaround Award
Honors an organization that went through a difficult period and made a genuine, measurable transformation toward kindness. The journey matters more than being perfect.
Community Impact Kindness Award
Recognizes any organization — for-profit or non-profit — whose kindness extends meaningfully beyond their walls into their community.
Nominate an organization consistently leading with kindness or known for innovations in kindness for the Inaugural Workplace Kindness Awards, taking place Wednesday, November 11, 2026 at The Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City.
Self-nominations are valid and encouraged. Once nominated, we will confirm the organization's interest and send them an application for more detail.
Workplace Kindness Award Nomination (Optional & Encouraged)
Recognize an organization or leader doing outstanding work. Self-nominations are valid and encouraged.
