Thank you for your commitment to judge the HRD Awards New Zealand 2025. We value your contribution and assistance to ensure the integrity and rigour of these important awards.

The awards research process began in May with a 4-week nomination period, which saw a new record number of nominations received from across the profession. This was followed by further industry research to ensure our 2025 awards nominees are of the highest calibre.

All nominees have completed submissions that respond to the category criteria. They may have also included supporting documentation.

Your role as a judge is to score each Excellence Awardee. The nominee with the highest score in each category will be the overall Winner.

The Excellence Awardees were announced on 15 September 2025.

Overall winners will be announced on Wednesday, 19 November 2025 at the HRD Awards New Zealand being held at The Cloud, Auckland in conjunction with the National HR Summit New Zealand.

Please note that the information contained within these submissions, including the list of Excellence Awardees, is strictly confidential.

If you feel there is a conflict of interest, we ask that you do not judge those categories and inform us ASAP. We appreciate your discretion.

Judging Instructions

All scoring will be completed online through our judging portal.

You have received a link to the above portal via email. You will only have access to those categories in which you have been allocated.

Please submit your completed scores via the portal by Friday 17 October. We kindly ask that you adhere to this date.

How to score

1. Login using the link provided in your email
2. Once you are logged in, you will be taken to the home page. Please click “My Judging Assignments” on the side menu and you should then be able to see a list of all the categories that have been allocated to you for review.

You can either “View All Categories” or view a specific category by clicking “Open” next to each category/award name under the Action column.

Once you have clicked through your chosen category, you can now access each submission by clicking “View Nomination” where you will then be invited to place your score.

On the left hand side of the screen, you can go through each element of the submission by clicking through the Nominee Information, Additional Information and Nomination Submission tabs.

On the right hand side of the screen is where you will place your score.

Individual and Company Awards

Please score each submission out of 10 where 1 is the lowest score and 10 is the highest score. The excellence awardee that receives the highest aggregate score will win that category.

You will also be asked to provide a one sentence reason for the score you have given.

Please ensure to save your scores once finalised.

Individual Categories

NZ HR Director of the Year

• Recognises the HR leader who has demonstrated excellence at the executive level over the past 12 months
• Eligible Excellence Awardees will be senior level leaders who report to the CEO and manage an HR team
• Judged on leadership, communication, strategy, drive and results

NZ HR Manager of the Year

• Recognises the individual who has demonstrated excellence at the management level over the past 12 months
• Eligible Excellence Awardees will be mid-level leaders
• Judged on leadership, communication, strategy, drive and results

NZ HR Rising Star of the Year

• Recognises the individual who has demonstrated excellence in their first 5 years of work in an HR role
• Judged on leadership, communication, strategy, drive and results

Company and Team Categories

Employer of Choice < 200 staff

• Recognises the best organisation to work for in New Zealand with less than 200 employees
• Judged on leadership, engagement, communication and employee benefits

Employer of Choice > 200 staff

• Recognises the best organisation to work for in New Zealand with 200 or more employees
• Judged on leadership, engagement, communication and employee benefits

HR Team of the Year

Recognises the HR team in an organisation in New Zealand that has demonstrated excellence over the past 12 months Judged on overall team performance including leadership, communication, strategy, drive and results.

Thank you again for your support of the HRD Awards New Zealand 2025. We hope you enjoy reading the submissions.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you require further information.

Contact:

W: https://keymediaawards.com/hrawardsnz/

E: [email protected]