Virgin Media O2 scooped the overall winner award at the 25th Personnel Today Awards for its wide-ranging early careers programmes.

The telecoms company had won the Early Careers Award for its 60-plus recruitment initiatives for school leavers, apprentices and graduates, launched in response to a digital skills shortage.

The judging panel for this new category applauded Virgin Media O2’s impressive campaigns. The company has managed to reach out to 1,400 schools, recruit 2,000 apprentices without a qualification, and triple the number of offers to candidates with a disability.

Approaching 900 leaders in HR, recruitment and L&D attended the 2023 Personnel Today Awards – celebrating its 25th year this year – held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane.

Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors star Claudia Winkleman hosted the awards ceremony, after attendees were entertained by comedian Suzi Ruffell, a regular on shows including Live at the Apollo and Radio 4’s The News Quiz.

Personnel Today editor Rob Moss thanked everyone for their continuing support of the annual event. “What an evening to mark Personnel Today’s 25th awards ceremony,” he said. “The judges were really impressed by the high calibre of this year’s entrants – everyone who made the shortlists for their category should be very proud.”

This year, the awards welcomed a swathe of new sponsors, with EY, Oracle, LHH, Employment Hero, NatWest, Bright Horizons and Make UK joining PeopleScout, HSBC UK, XpertHR and Lloyds Banking Group as generous supporters of the event.

There were a total of 28 categories in this year’s awards, and more than 110 companies shortlisted. The coveted HR Team of the Year title, sponsored by PeopleScout, went to the Government of Jersey, where the team came up with the government’s first-ever prioritised workforce plan.

As well as the Early Careers Award, this year’s ceremony welcomed a new Hybrid Working category, sponsored by Employment Hero, designed to celebrate the efforts of companies in building healthy and equitable post-pandemic working arrangements. This was won by HSBC in recognition of its “superbly structured and sustainable approach” to hybrid working.

Another new category was the Employee Experience Award, which went to Zopa, the digital bank, for its action on attrition rates and comprehensive approach to employee engagement.

The full list of award winners is below. To find out more about each of them and the runners-up click on the category name. Photos of 2023 winners are currently being uploaded to each page.

PERSONNEL TODAY AWARDS 2023 WINNERS

Candidate Experience Award
Heathrow in partnership with PeopleScout

Change Management Award
Mitie in partnership with eArcu

Digital HR and Technology Award
Wickes Building Supplies

Early Careers Award
Virgin Media O2

Employee Experience Award
Zopa

Employment Law Firm of the Year
Burges Salmon

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Award – Smaller Employers
Browne Jacobson

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Award – Larger Employers
Entain and the McLaren F1 Team

Excellence in Public Service HR
sponsored by Oracle 
AuditOne

Family Friendly Employer of the Year
sponsored by Bright Horizons Work and Family Solutions
Bank of Ireland

Health & Wellbeing Award – Smaller Employers
sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group
MTR Elizabeth Line

Health & Wellbeing Award – Larger Employers
sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group
Bank of Ireland

Small HR Consultancy of the Year
Parent and Professional

Large HR Consultancy of the Year
Progeny

HR Director of the Year
sponsored by LHH
Jane Pateman, Biffa

HR Impact Award
sponsored by XpertHR
Burberry in partnership with The TCM Group

HR Team of the Year
presented by headline sponsor PeopleScout
Government of Jersey

HR Tech Provider of the Year
Meet & Engage

Hybrid Working Award
sponsored by Employment Hero
HSBC UK

Innovation in Recruitment Award
sponsored by EY
HCA Healthcare UK

Learning & Development Award – Smaller Employers
sponsored by NatWest 
St James’s Place

Learning & Development Award – Larger Employers
sponsored by NatWest
AstraZeneca

Learning & Development Supplier of the Year
Resilience Development Co

Reward, Recognition and Benefits Award
The AA in partnership with Benefex

Talent Acquisition Partner of the Year
HealthSectorTalent

Talent Management Award
sponsored by Make UK HR & Employment Law
Civil Service HR Casework

Workplace Culture Award – Smaller Employers
sponsored by HSBC
British Society for Rheumatology

Workplace Culture Award – Larger Employers
sponsored by HSBC
Iris Software Group

Overall winner
Virgin Media O2

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The Personnel Today Awards 2023
With thanks to all our sponsors…