Feature
Fall means one thing around here: It’s IMPACT Awards season. Now in its fourth year, Reworked is officially accepting applications for the 2026 IMPACT Awards across nine categories. Entries are open now through November 14.
Whether this is your first time applying or you’re a returning winner, this guide breaks down what to expect from the application process, shares tips for crafting a standout submission and explores why participation is well worth your time.
Table of Contents
- What Are the IMPACT Awards?
- Winning Strategies for Completing Your Application
- What About Confidential Information?
- Who Are the Judges and What Are They Looking For?
- Benefits of the IMPACT Awards
- Not Ready to Apply? Consider Judging
- Ready to Make an Impact?
What Are the IMPACT Awards?
The IMPACT Awards honor the best in employee experience (EX) and the digital workplace: both the organizations and individuals redefining how work gets done.
Awards fall into two broad categories:
Practitioner Awards celebrate the people behind internal workplace innovation. These can recognize individuals, like Workplace Technology Leader of the Year, or teams driving transformation through initiatives such as Employee Journey Innovation.
Vendor Awards highlight companies building products and solutions that improve the digital employee experience for their clients. Submissions typically fall into two types:
- Case Study Awards spotlight successful customer implementations that deliver measurable business impact.
- Product/Solution Awards recognize vendors that evolve their offerings through client partnerships, addressing today’s challenges while anticipating tomorrow’s needs.
Winning Strategies for Completing Your Application
Decide on a Narrative
Every strong application tells a story. Set the stage: What problem were you trying to solve? What sparked the initiative? How did you overcome obstacles — and what results followed?
Involve the Right People
A compelling submission takes input from across your organization. Tap into the people who can provide data, context and the details that bring your story to life.
What About Confidential Information?
We understand that award submissions can include sensitive details. Reworked takes confidentiality seriously.
Applications are divided into two parts: demographics information and category-specific questions. Only the latter is shared with judges. Demographics are used solely for winner notifications and trophy shipping. Optional fields can be left blank without affecting your score.
For vendor applications, naming your customer is not required. If confidentiality is a concern, generalize (“a major logistics firm” or “a mid-sized healthcare organization”) — judges will not see the customer name if it’s omitted.
Who Are the Judges and What Are They Looking For?
Each submission is reviewed by at least three judges to ensure fairness and consistency. Judges include academics, consultants, founders and senior leaders, many returning year after year. For Leader of the Year applications, 90% of reviewers are C-suite level.
Avoid Jargon
Judges are experts, but not necessarily in your specific field. We intentionally assign applications outside a judge’s industry to minimize bias, so we recommend you minimize use of acronyms and insider terms for maximum clarity.
Demonstrate Needs and Define Success
When in doubt, get specific. Judges want to see that you’ve identified a need and defined what success looks like. What gap were you addressing? What outcomes did you expect for your new product, service, initiative or solution?
Include Metrics
If you have data, share it. Exact numbers are ideal, but estimates or early results are acceptable. What matters most is that you’ve measured impact and can show progress.
Benefits of the IMPACT Awards
Benefits for Everyone
All applicants — winners or not — receive a scorecard with their total score and judges’ feedback. Each judge answers two key questions:
- What impressed you most about this application?
- What suggestions do you have for improvement?
These insights offer rare, candid feedback from industry experts, which is valuable whether you’re validating your efforts or identifying next steps.
Benefits for Winners
Winners receive both a trophy and a digital badge. The trophy? That’s for the office. The digital badge is a way to share with the world your achievements. We partner with badging platform Accredible to make your badges easily accessible and sharable across all social networks without requiring you to sign up to another service.
Visibility and Credibility
Winning an IMPACT Award means recognition from a vetted panel of experts. It builds credibility and elevates your organization’s visibility across Reworked’s platform—the largest community of EX and digital workplace professionals, reaching over 2 million business leaders and senior practitioners globally.
Winners are featured in a press release, a dedicated article and highlighted on our awards website:
Practitioner winners may also share insights in an interview on Reworked’s Three Dots program. To get a sense of how that works, watch my interview with last year's Employee Experience Leader of the Year, Martin Stubbs-Partridge.
Not Ready to Apply? Consider Judging
If your project isn’t quite ready for submission, you can still get involved. Apply to serve as a judge for the 2026 IMPACT Awards. Judging is free, includes public recognition and a digital badge, and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what makes top applications stand out — knowledge you can apply to next year’s submission. Click here to sign up to judge.
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Ready to Make an Impact?
Applying to the IMPACT Awards is more than an opportunity for recognition: it’s a chance to benchmark your work, gain external validation and elevate your brand among your peers.
Applications close November 14, so don't delay. Start your entry today at awards.simplermedia.com.
