Best Places To Work Awards 2018 returns in October

The GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards will return on Friday, October 12th.

Following the success of last year's inaugural ceremony, which took place at EGX in Birmingham, this year's event will be a standalone affair, set for the Ham Yard Hotel in London.

The event is presented by recruitment specialist Amiqus, with Playground Games (one of last year's big winners) also signed on as an event partner.

Like last year, every company that scores over a certain threshold will receive the right to use our Best Places To Work badge. We'll also have special categories designed to highlight excellence in employment.

Alongside our big awards for the best small, mid-sized and large companies, we'll also reward businesses for Diversity, Learning & Development, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), Health & Wellbeing and Leadership. We'll also name the UK games industry's Best Boss, while Amiqus will present a very special G Into Gaming prize. Our full list of categories are through here.

Again, judging will be conducted via a two-step survey process. The first survey is to be filled in by the companies and will account for 25% of the final score. The second survey must be filled in by employees and is worth 75% of the final score. Both surveys were created with help from HR and recruitment experts, and have been tweaked from our 2017 event.

All responses are entirely confidential and destroyed once the judging is complete. Businesses that do not receive a high enough score will not be named, and we'll provide a brief report to these companies (upon request) featuring any areas in which they might be able to improve (all identifying material will not be shared).

To take part, email bestplacestowork@gamesindustry.biz, to receive the first survey.

"We're delighted to support the Best Places to Work awards for 2018, recognising some of the best employers in the games industry," says Amiqus business manager Liz Prince.

"The awards give companies the opportunity to demonstrate how special they are, how they strive to go the extra mile to make their business and workplace an environment that attracts, inspires and retains people. We're excited to hear about the innovations and strengths across the industry and to celebrate all the great achievements at the awards event. I hope everyone will want to take part."

Playground CEO Gavin Raeburn adds: "At Playground, our goal is to make the best games possible, and we believe that doing so should be fun. For a number of years our annual Staff Satisfaction Survey has enabled our staff to tell us what they value about working at Playground, and what we could do better. We've heard good things and bad from it but, importantly, we've made significant changes to the way we run our studio and become a better employer as a result. Winning a Best Place to Work award was a hugely satisfying recognition of the progress we've made, and it takes pride of place in our reception area."

Final deadline for submissions is Friday, August 3rd.