HR Tech Awards: In Partnership with UNLEASH and Now Open for 2025 Submissions
One of the most exciting programs that our team runs every year is the HR Tech Awards. Over the last five years we’ve awarded dozens of companies for their work across talent acquisition, benefits, compensation, talent management, learning, and other key areas. The heart behind this program is to create a way for HR and talent leaders to more easily review, select, and buy the technologies they need. We’ve had tens of thousands of organizations visit the HR Tech Awards since its inception, and our mission is to make it simple for them to find the systems and technologies they need to support their operations.
If you work for an employer, did you know that you can nominate a provider that you use or have used in the past? It’s easy on our nomination form.
Big news: This year, we’re doubly excited for our new partnership with UNLEASH, a global leader in building HR communities, content, and events that push the frontiers of innovation in our industry. Stay tuned for updates on how we’re going to highlight award winners at UNLEASH America in May. Our entire team will be in Vegas for UNLEASH America and we can’t wait to congratulate some of the winners there personally on site.
How to Enter the Program
The entry process is fairly straightforward. Download the entry form, submit it in the portal, and that’s it.
Now, it’s true that the entry form will require some legwork to put together, but it forces our friends in the vendor space to:
- Focus on their differentiators
- Highlight their key case studies and measurable impacts
- And put forth their best product demo that tells a compelling story.
As of today’s publication date, there are just over 50 days left to get an entry pulled together. Learn more about the process.
How Entries are Judged
One of the biggest questions we get is how entries into the program are judged. We use the insights, input, and advice of a panel of HR practitioners, academics, and industry experts to review each entry. The judges are looking at several key criteria:
- Differentiators–does the technology really stand out, or is it a “me too” solution?
- Case study–what does it look like to be implemented in an organization? How does it land? What are the impacts? (note: this is a crucial part and can make or break any entry!)
- Demo–don’t just tell us you’re great; show us you’re great. Let us see how intuitive, flexible, and valuable your technology is with our own eyes.
- The company behind the technology–increasingly we find that the people, leadership, and culture behind the technology impacts the success of the company. Tell us why yours is a contributor, not a detractor.
Benefits of Winning
Every company that wins in the program gets a unique, specific set of comments from our analyst team that can be used for PR, marketing, and sales activities. In addition, winners are:
- Featured on the Awards site for the tens of thousands of buyers who visit our site over time
- Mentioned in the livestream event that accompanies the session
- Social cards with a digital badge and analyst commentary
- Highlighted in a published case study here on our blog (see the case study archive)
- And new this year–an UNLEASH-related promotion to make the program better than ever
If you have other questions, feel free to reach out to our Awards team via email at awards AT LHRA.io
Ben Eubanks is the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. He is an author, speaker, and researcher with a passion for telling stories and making complex topics easy to understand.
His latest book Talent Scarcity answers the question every business leader has asked in recent years: “Where are all the people, and how do we get them back to work?” It shares practical and strategic recruiting and retention ideas and case studies for every employer.
His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource on AI applications for hiring, development, and employee experience.
Ben has more than 10 years of experience both as an HR/recruiting executive as well as a researcher on workplace topics. His work is practical, relevant, and valued by practitioners from F100 firms to SMB organizations across the globe.
He has spoken to tens of thousands of HR professionals across the globe and enjoys sharing about technology, talent practices, and more. His speaking credits include the SHRM Annual Conference, Seminarium International, PeopleMatters Dubai and India, and over 100 other notable events.