As a media partner of the 2025 Culture Pioneer Awards, TrainingZone is excited to reveal this year’s winners, following last week’s announcements at the annual Culture Pioneers Leadership Forum in London.
Powered by HRZone, these awards recognise those who are shaping workplace culture to benefit both people and their organisations – and in a challenging year, these changemakers have shown what’s possible when you lead with conviction and care.
Here are the 2025 winners across five categories: Inclusion, Learning, Brand, People Leader and Business Leader.
Learning Award
Winner: St Peter’s Hospice
With 550 employees and 1,500 volunteers, St Peter’s Hospice shows what’s possible when you put learning at the heart of your strategy. They launched leadership development pathways, co-created a 12-week retail induction and saw a 12% increase in employees feeling they can learn new skills. Impressively, they now share this expertise through resilience training for NHS staff and leadership training for local partners.
Highly commended: Bright Horizons UK
Bright Horizons completely reimagined its talent strategy, moving from rigid pathways to eight bespoke routes with coaching embedded daily. The results? A 15% increase in internal progression, 10% decrease in turnover and a 75% drop in manager vacancies.
Inclusion Award
Winner: V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum)
The V&A proved that even long-established institutions can reimagine who belongs. In 2022, the museum set out to increase its ethnic minority workforce by 5% within three years through intentional recruitment, leadership development and partnerships with London boroughs. They hit their target in 2025 – and went further, with improved retention, reduced sickness rates and HR casework cut by half.
Highly commended: VizyPay
Payment technology company VizyPay threw out traditional CVs and generic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks to create its own approach based on employee feedback. As they’ve scaled, they’ve filled leadership roles internally and dramatically cut turnover by weaving inclusion into everything they do.
Brand Award
Winner: Bright Horizons UK
Early years provider Bright Horizons co-created a new employee value proposition that now lives across its 8,000-strong workforce. By introducing day-one flexible working, neurodiverse-friendly learning and multiple recognition initiatives, they’ve built a culture where 94% of colleagues are proud to work there.
Highly commended: UK Space Agency
The UK Space Agency moved from a fragmented, siloed model to a flatter, more agile structure that speeds up decision-making. With refreshed values and an Alumni community of over 425 years’ collective service, they’ve achieved a 6% rise in engagement and a 7% rise in leadership trust.
Highly commended: Benifex
Employee benefits provider Benifex truly walks the talk, with over 3,000 peer-led recognitions submitted in 2024. As a remote-first employer supporting 100+ working patterns, they’ve had their strongest financial year whilst living their values daily.
People Leader Award
Winner: Angie Lewis, Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust (WAST)
Angie Lewis transformed culture in a high-pressure environment where decisions carry life-or-death consequences. By creating safe spaces to address sexual safety – a widely unspoken risk in ambulance work – and developing the ‘Our WAST Way’ leadership framework, she’s empowered colleagues to influence policy and practice whilst moving leaders away from hierarchical approaches.
Highly commended: Janine Leightley, Bright Horizons UK
HR Director Janine Leightley (now COO) joined Bright Horizons during rising turnover and post-pandemic fatigue. By listening first, then introducing sector-first initiatives including a People’s Charter and new leadership framework, she’s created a culture compelling enough to bring 220 former employees back.
Business Leader Award
Winner: James Fleming, The Power Within Training & Development Ltd
Managing Director James Fleming’s honest growth journey caught the judges’ attention. After a colleague burned out, he recognised his own reactive leadership and made changes – hosting weekly strategic reflection time and monthly unfiltered culture check-ins. With a four-day week, mental health support and creativity days, productivity is up 30% and absenteeism down 60%.
Highly commended: Ann Ellis, Mauve Group
Founder and CEO Ann Ellis pioneered flexible working in 1996 – long before it became expected. Her three-decade commitment to inclusion means 60% of senior leaders and 70% of managers are now women, with impressive retention rates reflecting her consistent support for colleagues navigating work and family life.
Building better workplaces
Congratulations to all the 2025 Culture Pioneer Award winners. Their work proves that sustainable cultural change isn’t just possible – it drives real results. Are you working to transform your workplace culture? Subscribe to get the latest updates from the Culture Pioneers programme.
