Happiest Places to Work® Awards honour India’s most people-first organizations

Every winner was decided by weighing multiple sources of evidence including employee happiness dialogue results, sentiment analysis, external feedback and a detailed Culture Audit

by e4m Staff
Published: Aug 25, 2026 5:09 PM | 2 min read

Happiest Places to Work® Awards honour India’s most people-first organizations

The inaugural Happiest Places to Work® Awards, organized by House of Cheer, took place on August 17 at JW Marriott Mumbai, celebrating organizations excelling in employee happiness and workplace culture.
Winners were determined through a comprehensive evaluation process, including employee feedback, sentiment analysis, and a Culture Audit, led by a distinguished jury chaired by Harsh Goenka.
Awards were presented in various categories based on company size, with notable winners including Agarwal Estates (Nano Enterprise) and Raychem RPG (Large Enterprise), alongside four Special Jury Awards recognizing exceptional initiatives.
The event aims to establish a yearly tradition that highlights organizations committed to fostering positive workplace cultures in India, with winners receiving the Golden Penguin as a symbol of their achievements.

House of Cheer, the workplace culture organization behind the Happiest Places to Work® Certification, held its inaugural Happiest Places to Work® Awards on 17^th August at the JW Marriott Mumbai, Juhu, in a grand and elegant ceremony celebrating the country’s best performing organizations in employee happiness, culture and wellbeing.

The evening brought together organizations and leaders who are putting people and workplace culture at the heart of their organizations. The Awards go beyond a standard Certification, spotlighting the best amongst organizations that do not treat happiness as an empty value on their walls. Every winner was decided by weighing multiple sources of evidence including employee happiness dialogue results, sentiment analysis, external feedback and a detailed Culture Audit.

The distinguished jury, led by Jury Chair Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Group, and including Achal Khanna, Harit Nagpal, Sunita Rebecca Cherian, Pushp Kumar Nayar, Pavitra Singh, Nitu Bhushan and Dr. Prajjal Saha, dug into each submission looking for breadth, consistency, innovation and how well organizations showed up for employees across every stage of their journey. Culture Audit scores combined with Happiness Quotients produced the final rankings.

Winners by Category

Nano Enterprise: Agarwal Estates

Micro Enterprise: The Red Pen

Small Enterprise: Intellias India

Medium Enterprise: Midday

Large Enterprise: Raychem RPG

Very Large Enterprise: KEC International

In addition to the six size based awards, the jury named four Special Jury Awards, recognizing standout initiatives across the full shortlist regardless of company size.

Best Learning and Growth Culture: Natural Remedies

Most Innovative Initiative: Goosebumps Network

Most Inclusive Workplace: United Way of Delhi

Best Recognition Program: Sunbeam Industrial Products

In an environment where culture is too often an afterthought, these organizations chose to lead, shaping what workplace culture in India looks like rather than settling for the bare minimum.

Each winner took home the Golden Penguin, the symbol of the Happiest Places to Work® Awards, representing happiness, togetherness and camaraderie. Presented at the grand ceremony at JW Marriott Mumbai, the Golden Penguin adds a distinctive symbol of recognition to organizations that are setting a benchmark for what a truly happy workplace can look like.

The evening marked the beginning of what House of Cheer hopes will become an annual celebration of the organizations raising the bar for what a happy workplace looks like in India.