FAQ

Nomination opens on 6 March. The submission period does not start until 29 May.

Nominations close on 12 May.

It’s not because we don’t think that small companies are innovative – they indeed are! It’s due to the rigorous methodology that we use to identify the most innovative companies. It assesses elements such as having a structured innovation process, that aren’t necessarily applicable to smaller organisations. These elements have however been shown by research to be essential for mid-large sized organisations, to successfully embed innovation throughout. Therefore, smaller organisations would be at a disadvantage in this particular competition.

Yes! If you know of an organisation that is doing amazing things, then we’d love you to let us know by nominating them!

As with any competition, the entry takes time, and we are all busy people. Therefore, we offer an early bird option whereby if you pay before April 27, you will receive the employee survey on May 15, which is two weeks before other entrants. This is a significant advantage as it will mean you have more time to ensure that you meet the minimum response rates required to be eligible for the competition.

Further, if you pay before April 27 you will be sent the short-answer questions and top two innovations submission forms. This means that if you pay on 6 March when the competition opens, you will receive your questions then. This represents a massive head start of up to 3 months!!

No. Please just include full-time and part-time staff in your employee number total. Please ensure that whatever number you provide us with is verifiable by your HR department. They will be contacted once your registration is finalised to confirm this number, please ensure they are aware of this.

You won’t know unless you try! The beauty of this competition is that regardless of whether you rank or not on the list, you’ll receive an innovation survey report, which will give you a benchmark of where you sit on each of the drivers of innovation relative to other entrants. This will give you a great indication of where you need to improve to rank higher next time around.

Yes. The registration costs, inclusive of the innovation survey report and entry into all award categories are as follows:

30-99 employees and not-for-profits – $2,000+GST

100-499 employees – $2300+GST

500+ employees – $2,900+GST

Yes, you are automatically assessed for all special award categories as well as ranked for the top 50 list.

If you’ve lost your submission links don’t worry – just contact us on mic@inventium.com.au and we can resend them to you.

If you’re having trouble with your submission links, give your internal IT team a shout as there might be a security setting blocking your access. If you’re still having trouble after this, then pop us through a message at mic@inventium.com.au and we’ll see if we can get to the bottom of it.

Your employee numbers should be the total number of full-time and part-time employees working within the Australian arm of your organisation. We calculate your survey’s minimum response number based on this total because it makes sure that the data we receive from your survey is representative of your organisation. We’re more than happy to revise your employee numbers if you initially included contractors or casuals in your total, however we can’t reduce your numbers to only include certain departments or head office staff, as this would impact your survey data’s quality.

If you’d like to update your key contact details just pop us through an email to mic@inventium.com.au with the new contact’s name, phone number and email address.

Yes, you can include links to pictures and videos for context in your submission however only what is written in the boxes provided will be judged.

To be eligible for the awards, the innovation must have been implemented, through a formal launch or similar, since April 2016.

When completing your ‘Top Two Innovations’ form, you need to indicate what type of innovation yours falls under – product, service, process, internal/HR, business model, marketing or social/community/CSR. This is to make sure you’re eligible for our category awards, such as ‘Best Product Innovation’. It’s quite possible that your innovation falls into two categories, so if this is so, just select both circles. If you’re still unsure, you can also select the ‘other’ circle and detail the type of innovation you believe it is. And if all else fails, just contact us on mic@inventium.com.au and we can help you out.

Yes, you can still enter with an innovation that you’ve worked on with a partner organisation. Just make sure that you’ve sought their permission first and refer only to the parts that your company was specifically involved in.

In terms of confidentiality, all of the judges are all required to sign NDA’s prior to being sent the submissions. However, if you do make the list (i.e. are in the top 50 companies) then your information will be passed onto Fairfax. By completing your submission, as per the terms and conditions of the competition, you are giving consent to having the identity, trademarks and relevant details about your organisations innovations as included in your submission published if selected.

If you don’t make the top 50 list, no details are distributed further.

Your minimum response number is calculated by our analyst team and is derived in a way that ensures the data we collect is representative of your wider organisation. It’s based on the size of your organisation, which we take as the total number of full-time and part-time employees.

Our first tip would be to register in the early bird period. This will give you 2 additional weeks to complete the survey.
If you’re still struggling to meet your minimum response number, here’s a few more tricks you can try to boost responses:

• Ask a senior leader to promote the survey for you through meetings/presentations or internal communications. Highlight that it’s an important initiative for your organisation.
• Offer a prize for one lucky person who has filled out the survey.
• Go around to staff with an iPad or laptop and ask them to fill out the survey then and there.
• Set up a survey station in the kitchen or common area that has a number laptops and iPads ready for people to complete the survey on their break.
• Schedule 15 minutes on a Monday morning in employees’ diaries as dedicated unmovable time to complete the survey.
• Send out a text message with the survey link to employees at 8:30am or 5:00pm on a weekday so that people can complete the survey on their smartphones during their commute.
• Throw a survey launch party or morning tea to promote the survey and celebrate those who have taken the time to complete it.

You might find that your survey numbers aren’t as high as expected because some of your responses have been filtered out through data cleaning. Throughout the competition, we continually assess the quality and consistency of the data coming through to make sure that the data collected is truly representative of your organisation.

We cannot provide pdf or word copies of the survey, however if you or your manager would like to see they survey before sending it out, we suggest completing it yourselves as a true respondent.

We understand that you might have innovation more heavily embedded and driven from within one or two parts of your organisation, however the survey is designed to assess innovation across your broader organisation.

The definition of innovation that both we and the Financial Review use includes all employees within an organisation (across all divisions, teams and levels of seniority), therefore it’s important that we gather the perspectives of all employees.

We’re not able to provide on-the-spot survey response number updates, however you will get an update every few days once the survey opens. The scheduled updates will be sent out on:

All of the data collected from the survey is de-identified so we’re not able to track who has or has not done it. For the survey to be complete and included in your total, respondents have to fill out all of the questions (including the demographics at the very end). Make sure you communicate this to all employees to ensure everyone gets right to the very end (including pressing the submit button on the last page).

The competition entry for the 2017 Australian Financial Review Most Innovative Companies List Competition is non-transferrable and non-refundable as per the terms and conditions. If you do need to withdraw from the competition, we’re more than happy to still provide you with your innovation survey report if you have enough survey responses. To check if you have enough survey responses for a report, send us through an email to mic@inventium.com.au

The competition entry for the 2017 Australian Financial Review Most Innovative Companies List Competition is non-transferrable and non-refundable as per the terms and conditions.

Yes, we’re more than happy to still provide you an innovation survey report. These reports will be sent out when the list is released in September.

If you can’t complete part of your submission in time, you’re still able to enter the competition, however you will have to forfeit your points for that part. For reference, each component of the submission is worth the following:

•  Survey 40%
• Top Two Innovation 40%
• Short-answer Innovation Questions 20%

The competition is on a pretty tight timeline and as such, we can’t provide any extensions for submissions. If you feel your organisation has an extenuating circumstance, feel free to contact us on mic@inventium.com.au to discuss your options.

In 2017, the list will be published in the Financial Review on September 20.

Fairfax may contact some organisations who have made the list at random for marketing purposes, however they will not be told where they rank. We don’t formally contact everyone who has made the top 50 until after the publishing date of September 20.

The best way to find out early is to attend the Awards Night in Sydney on September 19!

No, only the ranking of the top 50 companies is released.

In terms of confidentiality, all of the judges are all required to sign NDA’s prior to being sent the submissions. However, if you do make the list (i.e. are in the top 50 companies) then your information will be passed onto Fairfax. By making your submission, as per the terms and conditions of the competition, you are giving consent to having the identity, trademarks and relevant details about your organisations innovations as included in your submission published if selected. No raw scores for any section are distributed.

If you don’t make the top 50 list, no details are distributed further.

The event will be held on the evening of Tuesday 19 September, at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney. It is a formal event with 3 course meal, beverages and entertainment.

Tickets will go on sale on Monday August 7 and be available on this website. We strongly recommend getting in early as tickets sold out very quickly last year.

No! That’s half the fun! Either way, the event will be a wonderful networking opportunity and all round enjoyable evening. All entrants are very welcome to attend.