Strong HR work is often best seen in the everyday experience of employees: how connected they feel to purpose, how well they are supported through change, and whether they are given room to grow. The 2026 HR Awards celebrate organisations and leaders who are making a real difference in those areas. From engagement initiatives built around empathy and customer understanding, to leadership through transformation, practical innovation, and meaningful mentorship, this year’s awards recognise HR work that is thoughtful, grounded, and genuinely effective.

Our 2026 HR Awards Winners

Winning HR Leader of the Year, Clair Staines of POWWR stands out for leadership delivered during a period of major business change. Staines played a central role in guiding the company through refinancing, restructuring, and the divestiture of its US business entity, while maintaining trust and cultural alignment across teams. The results point to the scale of that impact clearly, with an engagement score of 91, an eNPS of 71, and full employee confidence in the transformation process. Alongside this, her contribution to recruitment, wellbeing strategy, and wider HR thought leadership shows why this recognition is about more than one successful period of change; it reflects sustained, influential leadership.

The win for DGM Growers in HR Mentor of the Year reflects mentorship that is clearly felt by the people around it. Kathryn Allen’s nomination is backed by testimonials describing a mentoring style built on transparency, trust, honest guidance, and a genuine commitment to helping others grow. The wider background also shows that this influence extends beyond individual conversations, shaping leadership development, engagement, wellbeing, and progression across the organisation. With stronger engagement scores, reduced absence, and a visible role in building a culture of belonging, this recognition reflects mentoring that has both personal impact and wider organisational value.

As winner of the HR Innovation Award, BrightHR has been recognised for innovation that is practical, scalable, and closely connected to the needs of employers. Supporting more than 120,000 businesses, BrightHR combines cloud-based HR software with 24/7 access to expert employment law and HR advice, giving users both digital tools and immediate human support. Recent enhancements across absence management, time tracking, and wellbeing tools demonstrate a clear focus on usability and real-world adoption, while the company’s continued growth has been matched by attention to service quality and internal employee engagement. This is innovation with a strong operational purpose rather than change for its own sake.

For Zepz, winner of Employee Engagement Excellence, the achievement lies in turning customer understanding into a genuine part of company culture. The business recognised that employees across product, engineering, finance, and operations needed to feel just as connected to customers as frontline teams. Through its weekly Customer Experience Corner sessions, customer shadowing, and Customer Connect sessions, Zepz created practical ways for colleagues to hear real customer stories and understand the emotional importance of the service they provide. That direct connection to purpose has helped strengthen collaboration, speed up decision-making, and embed empathy into the daily life of the organisation.

2026 HR Awards Finalists

• Barchester Health Care – Employee Engagement Excellence
• HR FOR HR – HR Leader of the Year
• Pure Data Centres – HR Mentor of the Year, HR Innovation Award

A Celebration of People-Centred Progress

The HR Awards highlight the many ways strong HR practice contributes to healthier, more effective organisations. Across the winners and finalists, we see work that improves engagement, strengthens trust, supports development, and helps people feel more connected to both their role and the wider purpose of the organisation. These are not symbolic achievements. They represent practical changes that shape culture, improve working life, and support stronger performance over time.

What stands out most this year is the combination of humanity and structure in the work being recognised. Whether through customer-centred culture-building, leadership during transformation, accessible HR technology, or meaningful mentorship, the businesses celebrated here show that good HR is never just administrative. At its best, it creates workplaces where people are supported, valued, and able to do their best work. That is exactly what the 2026 HR Awards are celebrating.