Teams recognized in Digital Workplace Team of the Year 2023 Awards
The talent and creativity of the teams behind the best digital workplaces never fail to impress us at DWG. That’s why, in 2023, we introduced a new awards category to give these teams the kudos they deserve!
DWG’s Digital Workplace Team of the Year award recognizes the outstanding teams in our industry that pioneer the digital workplace through exceptional teamwork and leadership, innovative and engaging approaches, and standout achievements and impact.
The quality of the entries in this category did not disappoint and gave our panel of independent judges a tough job. In 2023, Digital Workplace Team of the Year was awarded to the Digital Knowledge Products team at EY for delivering at scale on an ambitious vision for digital employee experience that makes a real difference to the organization.
Now in their seventh year, the awards are produced by DWG and celebrate organizations and practitioners that have excelled in creating well-executed, high-performing digital workplace environments. Find out about previous winners in the awards Hall of Fame and our free report Celebrating the best digital workplaces: 5-year trends from DWG’s awards.
Commenting on the Digital Workplace Team of the Year category winners during the awards episode, DWG Director of Research, Elizabeth Marsh, said: “There is so much to inspire peers in the digital workplace field among this cohort of winning teams in 2023! They are strategic, well connected, extremely talented and highly creative – not to mention delivering digital employee experiences that are shifting how people work as well as tightly aligning to organizational strategy. And some of them are achieving an impressive amount with very small teams working closely with colleagues and stakeholders across the organization.”
So, in no particular order, here are the 2023 Digital Workplace Team of the Year category winners:
DBS Bank – Future-Focused Innovators
No strangers to winning, this year the DBS Future of Work team scooped its fifth award in the Digital Workplace of the Year awards programme!
Impressing the judges with its ‘innovation-as-usual’ approach to continually evolving the digital employee experience, the 20-person Future of Work team collaborates closely with stakeholders across the business to deliver its visionary and human-centric strategy. An Employee Experience Council, with participation from across all locations and units, is the vehicle for uplifting employee experience across people, technology, process and policies, and places, while its 4D Framework and relentless focus on employee listening ensure engagement with end users throughout the digital workplace lifecycle. The team holds itself to account through transparent user ratings of all digital workplace tools via the Employee Apps Cart.
As suggested by the team’s name, it is forward-thinking, testing out emerging technologies to understand how to enhance the employee experience on a continuous basis. The team is expert at cultivating crisp, appealing branding for itself as well as demonstrating the high impact that its work is having on the employee experience in support of DBS Bank’s strategic goals, not least a 10% improvement in enabling productivity over the last three years.
Linda Lee, Head of Future of Work at DBS Bank, commented on what it means for the DBS team to win the award: “We are honoured to be recognized as a Digital Workplace of the Year for the fifth time. This award is a testament to our commitment to creating a workplace that empowers our employees to perform their best work, and bring their best selves to work. Our strategic focus on creating a holistic One Employee Experience (OneEX) is inspired ‘By the People, FOR the People’, and guides us in our quest to stay ahead of the curve, so that we may continually create a truly world-class digital workplace for each and every employee within the bank.”
PwC Canada – Mighty Micro Digital Workplace team
From left to right: Erin McDonald, Sandra Pacitti, Angela Kwok, Samantha Condello.
PwC Canada’s Marketing, Sales & Comms (MC&S) Solutions team made a real impression on the judging panel for achieving an impressive impact on the digital employee experience with a team of just two people, Angela Kwok and Samantha Condello, hence the ‘Mighty Micro’ category award!
With many digital workplace teams facing economic headwinds, this team is a shining example of what can be achieved by a small but passionate, committed and talented team, working closely with a supportive vendor.
The judges praised the MC&S Solutions team for its clear sense of purpose and good alignment to business strategy, its strong engagement with both stakeholders and users, and its robust decentralized governance model – all underpinning its successful relaunch of the intranet using the Igloo platform. The team contains a diverse mix of competencies, including librarian skills, and engages with employees through an array of methods all guided by its design thinking approach. As well as its impressive delivery record, the team is good at leveraging external insight and innovating with employees internally, seeing 41% higher engagement and user interaction than similar organizations in Igloo’s customer rankings. Overall, the panel considered this to be a knowledgeable, high-achieving and progressive team.
Erin McDonald, Senior Manager of MC&S Solutions at PwC Canada, commented on what it means for the PwC team to win the award: “I am so proud of the incredible work of the team and this award from the Digital Workplace Group is a fantastic reminder of what Angela and Sam have been able to accomplish. With the support of our vendor Igloo, along with the close collaboration of our internal communications team, this tiny but highly skilled team has built a successful digital workplace that keeps improving every day.”
EBSCO – Connected Digital Workplace team
Top row: Phil Ozek, Jason Bennett, Chris Ferraro; Bottom row: Christine Green, Jessica Holmes (Corporate Intranet Owner/Communications Director)
In the words of one of our judges: “This team is well connected in a number of ways: to organizational strategy, to internal stakeholders, and to external good practice; it is really good at bringing the outside in.” This highly connected approach influences everything the EBSCO Information Services (EIS) team does, from the close partnerships it has formed with other key teams, through to the ways it engages with users, including an annual digital workplace satisfaction survey. Recent deliveries have included a corporate intranet, EIS Galaxy, and a cloud-based voice solution based on Microsoft Teams.
With a core team of just four people, the judges were again impressed at the scale of the team’s accomplishments. As a team it aims to ensure that everyone is connected and included in the digital workplace through a big focus on digital skills, a test-and-learn champion programme, and by weaving a DEI focus throughout all of the team’s practices. Similarly to the other winning teams this year, the EIS team finds time to nurture creativity internally via its Innovation Hub, with around 15 tools and technologies currently under examination, as well as looking to external forums to help keep pace with new developments. With satisfaction with the intranet running at 4.37 (out of 5) and an overall digital workplace Net Promoter Score of 70.5, this team’s work is clearly having a positive impact for employees as it continues to enhance the digital employee experience and rationalize the digital workplace estate across both tools and devices.
Jason Bennett, Director of Digital Workplace Program from EBSCO Information Services, commented on what it means for the EBSCO team to win the award: “It is very exciting to be recognized by DWG as a Digital Workplace Team of the year! We have a long-running relationship with DWG and have found tremendous value in learning from the DWG experts, as well as from peer organizations (other DWG members), on what it takes to offer our employees an excellent digital workplace environment.”
The Digital Workplace of the Year Awards, produced by DWG, celebrate those organizations and practitioners who have excelled at creating well-executed, high-performing digital workplace environments.
The awards provide the perfect opportunity for you and your organization to share your digital workplace achievements with peers and to gain global, industry recognition!
The entry and judgement criteria for these awards are underpinned by the collective knowledge and experience of DWG research, benchmarking and expertise plus extensive industry insights. Nominations for the 2024 awards will open early 2024 – watch out on our website for more details.
Find out more about the Digital Workplace Team of the Year award category:
Categorised in: Digital Workplace of the Year Awards
