Published on: August 25, 2026
Mumbai, India, 25 August 2026 — House of Cheer, the workplace culture organization behind the Happiest Places to Work® Certification, held its inaugural Happiest Places to Work® Awards on 17th 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.
