How it works

Best Employers 2025

Every Best Employers’ journey starts with a survey. A confidential culture, values and engagement survey designed by experts to help you understand exactly how your employees feel about you.

That’s just the beginning though. When you become part of the programme you’ll also receive:

a tailored report showing your survey results
an action plan telling you what you might like to improve on
benchmarking data comparing your organisation to others in the same sector and region
a Best Employers’ kitemark to use on your website and marketing materials – and anywhere else you’d like to
a place in the Best Employers’ community, a network of like minded organisations focused on creating forward-thinking workplaces
invitations to exclusive events with inspiring speakers (you’ll need to buy tickets for these), and access to the latest thinking on the employee experience
the chance to apply for an accreditation and to win a coveted Best Employers’ award.

Five steps to better engagement

Step 1 – sign up

A big part of Best Employers is about driving positive change. That’s why it’s a non-profit programme. While we do charge an entry fee, we only use this to cover our costs (unless you’re a registered charity, in which case it’s free).

The fees are:

£500 + VAT for companies with fewer than 100 employees
£750 + VAT for companies with more than 101 employees.

Step 2 – your contacts

Once we’ve received your registration form, one of our consultants will be in touch. They’ll be your point of contact for the entirety of the programme. We’ll also pass your details on to eras – they’ll contact you to set up and customise your survey.

Step 3 – launch and run your survey

You can do this any time between March and July 2025. We’ll give you a toolkit with lots of tips and advice for a successful survey. And your consultant will be on hand to help if you need it.

We recommend you allow 4 weeks for your employees to fill in the survey. Whenever you decide to run it, bear in mind that it must close on Friday 25 July 2025.

You might also want to come along to the Best Employers’ launch conference. It takes place on Wednesday 26 March 2025 at Rowley Mile Conference Centre in Newmarket. You’ll get advice and insights from inspiring speakers on the employee experience, employee engagement and the employee value proposition. It’s a great opportunity to find out how to make the most of your survey.

Tickets will be available soon.

Step 4 – accreditations and awards

When you take part in Best Employers, we’ll automatically enter you into the awards. The winners are decided based on the results of the survey.

If your scores are in the top 25 per cent, we’ll invite you to apply for an accreditation from Friday 1 August 2025. You’ll then have until Tuesday 2 September to send us your application, as well as evidence showing us what makes you a great employer.

We’ll announce the accreditations and award winners at an awards conference on Wednesday 15 October. It’ll take place at Rowley Mile Conference Centre in Newmarket. As well as the all-important announcements, it’ll also feature speakers from well-known organisations offering exclusive advice and insights.

Step 5 – promote yourself

By joining the 2025 programme, you’ve committed to evolve your workplace culture for the better. To help you promote your organisation as one of our region’s Best Employers, we’ll send you an exclusive kitemark, plus awards and accreditation materials (if those apply).

Supporting Arthur Rank Hospice Charity

After programme costs, we give the rest of the money we make from entry fees and ticket sales to local charities. Best Employers has donated over £56,000 to deserving organisations since 2012. We also use this money to let charities take part for free.

That means that when you become part of Best Employers, you’ll be directly contributing to your local communities.

For 2025, we’ve chosen to donate to Arthur Rank Hospice Charity