Many of the judges are invited, and are former Stevie® Award winners. Other professionals apply to judge online and, if accepted, are assigned categories by Stevie Awards staff, based on their industry, function, and experience.

All entries are first reviewed by Stevie Awards staff to ensure that eligibility requirements are met, that entries are properly formatted for judging, and that entries have been submitted in appropriate categories.

Determination of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Winners

Judging will be conducted from May 13 through July 9, 2026. Judges will be recruited worldwide, will be invited or will apply to judge on the Stevie Awards for Great Employers website, and if accepted will be assigned to juries for the main category groups by Stevie Awards staff, based on their industry, function, and experience. A judge will not be assigned categories to which their own organization has submitted entries.

Each entry will be reviewed and rated by no fewer than five (5) judges who have been approved as qualified (by Stevie Awards staff) to judge those entries. Rating will be done on a scale of 1-10.

The average scores of judges will determine the Finalists and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists in each category. (In the Employer of the Year categories, public votes will also contribute to the determination of the winners.)

All entries that receive an average score of at least 8.0 out of a possible 10, regardless of category, are automatically conferred Stevie Award status. Entries with average scores of 7.75 – 7.99 may be conferred awards status at the discretion of Stevie Awards administration, but are not guaranteed awards placement.

Every category that has at least one qualifying entry (with a final average score of at least 8.0/10) will have at least one Gold Stevie Award winner. The qualifying entry with the highest average score in a category will be awarded the Gold Stevie Award. The top 45% of other qualifying entries will be accorded Silver Stevie status. The remaining 55% of qualifying entries will be accorded Bronze Stevie Award status.

The veracity of claims made in Finalist entries may be audited. Any entry found to contain false or misleading information will be disqualified. Gold Stevie-winning entries will be published on the Stevie Awards for Great Employers website, after winners have had the opportunity to redact non-public information from them.

Note: we recommend that you apply to judge with your work email address. If you use a freemail address we'll need to put you through our identify verification process. If we accept your judging application you may then request that we communicate with your freemail address, if you prefer.