Yesterday, we announced the 2025 Culture Pioneer Award winners at our annual Leadership Forum in London. Following this in-person reveal, we’re ready to share the news far and wide.
Powered by HRZone, the Culture Pioneer Awards commends those who sustainably shape their workplace culture to benefit both people and the organisation. In what has been a testing year for many businesses, we’re committed to recognising the changemakers persevering to build better workplaces.
2025 Culture Pioneer Award winners revealed
Here, we unveil the champions of our five categories for 2025: Inclusion, Learning, Brand, People Leader and Business Leader. A hearty congratulations to our awardees who showed resilience, compassion and impressive results in their change journeys.
Inclusion Award Winner
V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum)
This year’s Inclusion winner has shown us that even the most established institutions can reimagine who belongs in their spaces. In 2022, the V&A began its EDI journey, with aspirations to recruit young and ethnically diverse talent. The museum launched a rigorous EDI strategy with a target to increase its ethnic minority workforce by 5% in three years.
Through an intentional focus on inclusive recruitment, leadership and development – alongside forging strong partnerships with London borough stakeholders – the V&A hit its target in 2025. And the museum’s impact does not stop there. With improved retention rates, reduced sickness rates and HR casework now halved, the V&A’s efforts have gone beyond diversity metrics and achieved genuine inclusion.
Inclusion Award Highly Commended
VizyPay
Payment technology company VizyPay demonstrates that when we throw out traditional processes and lead with our values, progressive change happens. To recruit and retain diverse talent, our highly commended organisation did away with traditional resumes and generic DEI frameworks holding back its mission. Instead, VizyPay shaped its own unique way of championing inclusion, based on employee feedback.
As the company has scaled, it has filled new leadership roles from within and dramatically cut employee turnover. What stands out is the company’s understanding that inclusion isn’t a side project – it’s woven into the DNA of how it operates, from the CEO with no office to the communities it serves with authentic care.
Inclusion Award Finalists
- Bright Horizons UK
- Comic Relief
- Tigerbond
Brand Award Winner
Bright Horizons UK
This year’s winner caught our attention by daring to challenge convention in an industry where recruitment and retention challenges are rife. Early years education provider Bright Horizons co-created and launched a new employee value proposition (EVP) to help attract talent and boost loyalty among existing colleagues. With a renewed focus on purpose, belonging and ambition, the organisation embedded values and behaviours that now show up every day across its 8,000-strong workforce.
In another bold move, Bright Horizons tackled the sector’s outdated practices by introducing day-one flexible working, offering neurodiverse-friendly learning, and launching multiple recognition initiatives. “It genuinely feels like I can bring my whole self to work,” a colleague commented. The team’s focus on creating a psychologically safe culture has paid off – 94% are now proud to work for Bright Horizons.
Brand Award Highly Commended
UK Space Agency
In a sector where risk aversion and bureaucracy can slow change, the UK Space Agency embarked on an impressive brand-led transformation journey to redefine its mission and daily operations. Through embedding refreshed values and EVP, the agency is now living its purpose: “We boost UK prosperity, understand the Universe, protect our planet and outer space.” What was once a fragmented, siloed operating model is now a flatter, more agile structure that speeds up decision-making and drives innovation.
To spread its brand mission far and wide, the UK Space Agency also created an Alumni community, which now has over 425 years of collective service. This network has become an essential resource for fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing and engagement.
With a 6% rise in employee engagement levels and a 7% rise in leadership trust, the UK Space Agency’s brand transformation work has achieved sustainable positive change.
Brand Award Highly Commended
Benifex
As an employee benefits provider, Benifex’s mission is to create remarkable experiences that workers will love – and they don’t stop at the organisations they serve. What caught our judges’ attention was how the organisation truly ‘walks the talk’, ensuring its brand mission is reflected in everyday behaviors.
Embodying the value ‘Remarkable together’, colleagues feel empowered to recognise each other’s achievements, with over 3,000 peer-led recognitions submitted in 2024. Aligning to the value ‘We show love’, Benifex offers employees a diverse range of flexible, inclusive and sustainable benefits – from menopause support to tree planting.
Flexibility at Benifex is not just about benefits choice; it’s core to how the organisation operates. As a remote-first employer, the organisation supports 100+ different working patterns and 70+ part-time employees as a commitment to inclusion.
In its strongest financial year to date, Benifex has achieved something truly remarkable.
Brand Award Finalists
- MOO Print Ltd.
- Siderise
Learning Award Winner
St Peter’s Hospice
Our Learning Award winner proves that even in the budget-constrained charity sector, a learning culture can be fostered with a little imagination and creativity. With 550 employees and 1,500 volunteers, St. Peter’s Hospice delivers end-of-life care across Bristol and its surrounding areas. To equip people with the skills to offer community support, raise awareness and have open conversations about dying, the charity has put learning at the heart of its strategy.
The hospice launched leadership development and coaching skills pathways, introduced a new inclusive L&D policy, and co-created a 12-week induction programme for retail staff. As a result, the charity has boosted engagement, reduced staff turnover and seen a 12% increase in employees agreeing that their job allows them to learn and develop new skills.
What really set the hospice apart was the extension of its L&D commitment into community partnerships. The charity now offers resilience training for NHS staff, leadership training for UWE and shares best practices with other local hospices.
Learning Award Highly Commended
Bright Horizons UK
Back in 2020, Bright Horizons struggled to cultivate a learning culture. With rigid development pathways and limited visibility of career progression, employees were looking to grow themselves elsewhere.
Tackling this with determination, Bright Horizons completely reimagined its talent and development strategy, weaving learning into the organisation’s core fabric. Bright Horizons now offers eight bespoke pathways, embeds coaching into daily practice, gives 5,000 apprentices dedicated support, and provides colleagues with a visual performance tool to track their own development.
The result? A 15% increase in internal progression, a 10% decrease in employee turnover and a 75% drop in manager vacancies.
Learning Award Finalists
- Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited
- Designer Contracts Ltd
- Tigerbond
People Leader Award Winner
Angie Lewis, Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust (WAST)
In a high-pressure context, where people’s decisions can lead to life-or-death consequences, Angie Lewis transformed the culture to increase safety, prioritise learning and build trust. By role-modelling compassionate leadership, she has empowered employees to influence policy, practice and cultural direction at WAST, with impressive results.
Angie’s pioneering approach is exemplified through her efforts to improve sexual safety – a widely unspoken risk due to the isolated nature of ambulance work. Through creating safe spaces for voices to speak on this issue, Angie challenged WAST to focus on lived experiences, embed new safeguards and increase visibility. As a result, colleagues feel safer, more supported and more confident to speak up about sexual safety issues.
Angie is also passing the baton of progressive leadership onto the wider senior team. By developing the ‘Our WAST Way’ leadership framework, she is upskilling leaders to move away from hierarchical approaches and align their behaviours with values centred on care, connection and valuing everyone.
People Leader Award Highly Commended
Janine Leightley, Bright Horizons UK
Joining Bright Horizons during a time of rising staff turnover, post-pandemic fatigue, and recruitment challenges, HR Director Janine Leightley (now COO) had a significant job on her hands. Understanding that an organisation’s culture impacts people’s everyday lives at work, Janine embarked on her change strategy by listening to employees via focus groups, surveys and forums. From there, Janine secured leadership buy-in to build a roadmap for boosting belonging, wellbeing and development.
What’s particularly impressive about Janine’s leadership is her successful introduction of several sector-first initiatives to the early years’ workforce. These included the launch of a People’s Charter to embed shared values and a leadership framework that addresses the unique demands of early years leadership.
Janine’s pioneering efforts have seen a positive impact across engagement, L&D and belonging. But the most compelling result by far is the boomerang trend among past employees. With 220 colleagues having recently returned to Bright Horizons, many cited its renewed culture as the reason.
People Leader Award Finalist
James Ferguson, Wurzak Hotel Group
Business Leader Award Winner
James Fleming, The Power Within Training & Development Ltd
This year’s Business Leader winner caught our attention with his honest account of personal growth. Managing Director James Fleming did not start out by role-modelling the ‘perfect’ leadership behaviours – he confessed to being reactive, overworking and allowing stress to impact his decisions. But when a colleague burned out, he got the wake-up call he needed. To achieve the culture he aspired for – rooted in purpose, belonging and resilience – James started to lead by example.
Setting the tone, James now leads with vulnerability, asks for feedback and embeds positive work rituals. Every week, the team now dedicates time to step away from tasks to strategically reflect and align on what matters most. And, every month, colleagues host unfiltered culture check-ins that lead to tangible change.
To support wellbeing, balance and innovation, the organisation now adopts a four-day working week, offers paid mental health days and counselling, and hosts creativity days. Understanding the importance of inclusive leadership, James also launched ‘The Power Within HER’ initiative to help support over 200 women leaders in male-dominated industries. The result? Productivity is up 30%, absenteeism is down 60% and financial turnover has soared.
Business Leader Award Highly Commended
Ann Ellis, Mauve Group
This year’s highly commended business leader has demonstrated a three-decade commitment to workplace inclusion. Ann Ellis, founder and CEO of Mauve Group, pioneered flexible working back in 1996 – long before employees expected it. Over the years, Ann has helped colleagues (especially women) manage work around family responsibilities. She has consistently supported remote setups and flexible working patterns – and has even supported global relocation when colleagues looked to move overseas.
Gender equity is central to Ann’s values. By removing common career-growth barriers and supporting internal progression, 60% of Mauve’s senior leaders are now women (and 70% are managers).
When the global expansion of the organisation led to varied expectations and cultural misunderstandings, Ann made the necessary investments to address these painpoints. By appointing a Global People and Culture Director, leading a global pay transparency framework and rolling out cultural training, Mauve has united its global workforce. The company’s impressive staff retention rate and above-average employee tenure are achievements Ann should be proud of.
Business Leader Award Finalist
Danielle Hunt, Pharmacist Support
Our 2025 Culture Pioneers
Congratulations, once again, to our 2025 Culture Pioneer Award winners!
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