Following the winner announcements at yesterday’s Culture Pioneers Leadership Forum, we are thrilled to introduce our Culture Pioneers of 2024!
The Culture Pioneer Awards, powered by HRZone, honours the organisations and leaders dedicated to cultural advancement and remarkable achievements at work. The champions for our categories — Wellbeing, Inclusion, Learning, Brand and Leadership — are unveiled below. A massive round of applause to all our awardees; your transformative efforts showcased resilience, openness, and true impact.
So without further ado… here are the winners of 2024!
Wellbeing Award
Winner: Pharmacist Support
“Pharmacist Support demonstrated a holistic, personalised approach to wellbeing, with an added human touch. The initiative started by listening to employees first, and assessing their needs, followed by senior leaders role-modelling the right behaviours for a supportive culture.” Evelina Dzimanaviciute, Culture Pioneers Judge and CEO of Elite Mind Academy
Highly commended: Lawline
“Lawline showed a clear desire and commitment to promoting wellbeing. The company adopted an impressively diverse range of initiatives to support and develop employees, with an additional high commitment to leader development and engagement in employee wellbeing.” Dr Jo Burrell, Culture Pioneers Judge and Co-founder of Ultimate Resilience
Finalists
- Correla Ltd
- Ingeus UK
- Travel + Leisure
Inclusion Award
Winner: Cadent Gas (The Grief Awareness Community Group)
“This is a ground-breaking project within the gas industry – Claire Valentine and Cadent Gas are true pioneers within this arena. They addressed a real gap on a sensitive topic in a very personal and human way. And the impact of creating a community that enables people to share their own stories and traumas in a safe space is really significant.” Diane Lightfoot, Culture Pioneers judge and CEO of Business Disability Forum
Highly commended: Ingeus
“Ingeus is doing great work here. The challenge of inclusion with an additional employee population of ex offenders is no mean feat. They have managed to harness the good, help other organisations and use it to grow their business.” Jenny Garrett OBE, Culture Pioneers Judge, award-winning career coach, leadership trainer, speaker and author of Equality vs Equity
Finalists
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Travel + Leisure
Learning Award
Winner: Progeny
“Progeny offers a brilliant example of how to move L&D beyond just “pushing training”. The organisation demonstrated creativity and resourcefulness, while carefully considering different business needs and the end-to-end learning journey. What’s more, the team was keen to pilot, test and refine its approach in an effort to continually evolve.” Lior Locher, Culture Pioneers Judge, Award-winning Senior Learning Consultant at NIITMTS
Highly commended: Nine Feet Tall
“Nine Feet Tall demonstrated a real passion for what they are doing as a company around their learning culture. Its focus on, and investment in, individual learning has positively impacted both the organisation and the wider community.” Jackie Clifford, Culture Pioneers judge, Director of Clarity Learning and Development.
Finalists
- LV= (Liverpool Victoria Financial Services)
- Travel + Leisure
- United Trust Bank
- Wales Air Ambulance
Brand Award
Winner: Wurzak Hotel Group
“Wurzak Hotel Group took everything they did to the next level, not merely doing a tick box exercise to bring their culture to life, but doing so in an in depth and innovative way. Their brilliant results showed the true extent and impact of their great work.” Debra Corey, Culture Pioneers Judge, Founder & Chief Pay it Forward Officer, DebCo HR
Highly commended: The People Experience Hub
“The People Experience Hub has nailed the key to a great culture – listen to your people and do something about what you learn. It’s obvious that the leadership team genuinely cares about their people and practises what they preach to clients. This is the kind of place where I would love to work!” Deborah Hartung, Culture Pioneers judge and Culture Consultant
Finalists
- Jones & Palmer
- Mayden
- Planer
- Siderise
Leadership Award
Winner: Yasmine Alani, Media Zoo
“Yasmine has been honest about the challenges she faced and how much she had to learn to be effective in a tough environment. She has been brave, and patient, and brought people on the journey with her, literally changing hearts and minds.” Blaire Palmer, Culture Pioneers judge, CEO of That People Thing and author of Punks in Suits.
Highly commended: Cheryl Allen, Atos
“Cheryl Allen has pioneered change in a very disturbed and difficult environment. Allen’s efforts in helping others adopt the experimental and co-creation approach underline her collaborative spirit and the success of her methods. Being held up as a beacon for others to follow is a testament to the positive impact of your leadership.” Thom Dennis, Culture Pioneers judge and CEO of Serenity in Leadership.
Finalists
- Anu Mandapati, Magic Leap
- Rosie Hewat, Kuda Technologies
Pioneers of culture change
Congratulations, once again, to our 2024 Culture Pioneer Award winners!
Entries for our 2025 Culture Pioneer Awards will open early next year. Subscribe to get the latest updates from our Culture Pioneers programme.
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