Six reasons to apply to Fast Company’s 2022 Best Workplaces for Innovators
Fast Company’s fourth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list promises to be more comprehensive than ever, offering half a dozen brand-new categories. Here are six reasons why you should apply. 1. Brand exposure Every company selected as a finalist will be featured in the September issue of the magazine and on fastcompany.com (more than 12 million monthly unique visitors and more than 40 million page views). 2. Talent retention Public recognition as a Best Workplace for Innovators will provide powerful third-party validation and enhance your ability to recruit and retain top talent. 3. Editorial access Fast Company editors will review all applications; the application represents an opportunity to highlight individuals and projects that showcase your company’s innovative prowess. 4. Credibility Fast Company’s reputation for writing about innovation is unparalleled in business media. Inclusion on the list is a powerful stamp of approval of your company’s efforts. 5. Employee recognition The program honors an Innovation Team of the Year as wells as an Innovation Leader of the Year, along with finalists in each category. 6. Expanded opportunities for recognition In addition to previous year categories, this year’s Best Workplaces for Innovators will celebrate companies that focus on sustainability and have a track record of encouraging innovation by women and diverse workers. For more than a decade, Fast Company has been recognizing outstanding achievement in business innovation with its annual awards programs. In addition to Best Workplaces for Innovators, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, Innovation by Design, World Changing Ideas, Brands That Matter, and Next Big Thing in Tech lists have celebrated thousands of organizations transforming industries and shaping society through paradigm-shifting products, insights, or services. What differentiates Best Workplaces for Innovators from existing best-places-to-work lists is that it goes beyond benefits, competitive compensation, and collegiality—mere table stakes in today’s brutally competitive talent marketplace—to identify which companies are actively creating and sustaining the kinds of innovative cultures that many top employees value even more than money. Places where they can do the best work of their careers and improve the lives of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people around the world. “Companies recognize that they need to encourage innovation in order to attract and retain talent,” says Fast Company editor-in-chief Stephanie Mehta. “We’re looking to identify the companies that can demonstrate they have the infrastructure and culture needed to stoke innovation across all levels of their organization.” To compile this ranking, the editors of Fast Company are collaborating with Accenture, a leading professional services firm that works with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day. Every company that applies is assessed twice—once by Fast Company editors and separately by Accenture researchers—before the results are merged and finalists are presented to a panel of outside judges, all of them experts on business innovation. Best Workplaces for Innovators is the most authoritative list of companies cultivating an organization-wide commitment to innovation. We hope you’ll submit your company today. For more information on applying, see the FAQs. But don’t delay too long—the early-rate deadline is February 25.
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Fast Company’s fourth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list promises to be more comprehensive than ever, offering half a dozen brand-new categories. Here are six reasons why you should apply.
1. Brand exposure Every company selected as a finalist will be featured in the September issue of the magazine and on fastcompany.com (more than 12 million monthly unique visitors and more than 40 million page views).
2. Talent retention Public recognition as a Best Workplace for Innovators will provide powerful third-party validation and enhance your ability to recruit and retain top talent.
3. Editorial access Fast Company editors will review all applications; the application represents an opportunity to highlight individuals and projects that showcase your company’s innovative prowess.
4. Credibility Fast Company’s reputation for writing about innovation is unparalleled in business media. Inclusion on the list is a powerful stamp of approval of your company’s efforts.
5. Employee recognition The program honors an Innovation Team of the Year as wells as an Innovation Leader of the Year, along with finalists in each category.
6. Expanded opportunities for recognition In addition to previous year categories, this year’s Best Workplaces for Innovators will celebrate companies that focus on sustainability and have a track record of encouraging innovation by women and diverse workers.
For more than a decade, Fast Company has been recognizing outstanding achievement in business innovation with its annual awards programs. In addition to Best Workplaces for Innovators, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, Innovation by Design, World Changing Ideas, Brands That Matter, and Next Big Thing in Tech lists have celebrated thousands of organizations transforming industries and shaping society through paradigm-shifting products, insights, or services.
What differentiates Best Workplaces for Innovators from existing best-places-to-work lists is that it goes beyond benefits, competitive compensation, and collegiality—mere table stakes in today’s brutally competitive talent marketplace—to identify which companies are actively creating and sustaining the kinds of innovative cultures that many top employees value even more than money. Places where they can do the best work of their careers and improve the lives of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people around the world.
“Companies recognize that they need to encourage innovation in order to attract and retain talent,” says Fast Company editor-in-chief Stephanie Mehta. “We’re looking to identify the companies that can demonstrate they have the infrastructure and culture needed to stoke innovation across all levels of their organization.”
To compile this ranking, the editors of Fast Company are collaborating with Accenture, a leading professional services firm that works with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day. Every company that applies is assessed twice—once by Fast Company editors and separately by Accenture researchers—before the results are merged and finalists are presented to a panel of outside judges, all of them experts on business innovation.
Best Workplaces for Innovators is the most authoritative list of companies cultivating an organization-wide commitment to innovation. We hope you’ll submit your company today.
For more information on applying, see the FAQs. But don’t delay too long—the early-rate deadline is February 25.
