This year’s Culture Pioneer Awards is officially open for entries and we’re looking for the leading lights of exceptional working cultures to share their achievements.

The awards are absolutely free to enter and all UK-based people professionals, teams and organisations can take part in the programme. The closing deadline is 22nd April 23:59pm (BST).

We’re on a mission to galvanise organisations and business leaders into taking culture seriously

Why take part?

Entering the awards gives you, and the organisation you work for, the opportunity to be recognised as culture champions in a climate where putting people first has never been more important.

Our mission is not simply to celebrate the best of the best but to recognise the leaders, teams and organisations who are making an impact with their culture cultivation. No matter the size of your budget, resources or initiatives, if you are making progress with your culture efforts, you have a good chance of making the shortlist.

Our Culture Pioneers are not awarded one day and forgotten about the next. You will become part of our wider movement to educate and inspire others to build better cultures. Joining our cohort of pioneers, you will be invited to contribute to reports, articles, roundtable discussions and other knowledge-sharing sessions, giving you the chance to share your expertise and achievements far and wide.

Our 2022 categories

This year’s awards programme has four categories for you to choose from. Simply decide which area you and/or your team excels in and get started. You can enter as many of the categories as you like, as long as you craft each entry to suit the respective category.

Brand

The Culture Pioneer Brand Award is for organisations that are committed to nurturing a working culture that represents their brand identity.

If you’re looking to showcase your organisation’s approach to creating (or sustaining) a great place to work – where company values are lived and breathed – then this category is for you.

Wellbeing

The Culture Pioneer Wellbeing Award is for those who are consistently evolving their employee wellbeing strategy and taking a holistic approach to support the mental, emotional, financial and social needs of their workforce.

The wellbeing category gives you the opportunity to demonstrate how you are taking the responsibility of wellbeing seriously to create sustainable improvements for all employees, no matter their circumstances.

Inclusion

The Culture Pioneer Inclusion Award is for individuals, teams and businesses that are creating meaningful, sustainable improvements in workplace inclusion and belonging.

If you and your organisation can demonstrate passion and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, then this is your chance to show it.

Learning 

The Culture Pioneer Learning Award is for businesses that are cultivating a culture that proactively supports the way that their organisation learns, adapts and grows.

Entering the learning category will enable you to showcase your commitment to learning at an individual, team and organisational level, in a climate where skills development has never been more important.

Our 2022 Judges

Making up our judging panel is a talented group of industry experts tasked with selecting the finalists and winning entries for each category. Our 2022 judges include Chief Energy Officer of PTHR Perry Timms, Founder of HR Hero for Hire Shakil Butt, award-winning psychologist Gethin Nadin, and award-winning industry analyst Laura Overton.

Find out more about our full judging panel here.

Key dates

As mentioned, the closing deadline for entries is 22nd April 23:59pm (BST), which will come around quickly, so we encourage you to get started on your entry soon. (You can always save your progress and log back in to work on your entry at any time before the deadline.)

Finalists will be announced on 9th June, and our winners will be revealed towards the end of June (Date TBC).

While last year’s virtual awards show was a great success, we’re all about bringing people together. So this year we’ll be taking the event offline at an exciting London rooftop venue. We’ll be celebrating, learning and networking, all with a cocktail in hand (and hopefully some sunshine too)!

2022 will be bigger and better

It’s been an exciting journey for Culture Pioneers. What started as a story-sharing initiative in the midst of a pandemic has evolved into an inspiring awards programme, unique in its mission to both celebrate success and share key learnings on culture change.

We’re on a mission to galvanise organisations and business leaders into taking culture seriously. If this is something you and your organisation are passionate about too, we encourage you to enter the awards and join our movement.