Leaders recognized in Digital Workplace Leader of the Year 2022 Awards

With digital workplace leaders at the forefront of enabling the shift to hybrid for many organizations, it’s never been a better time to celebrate the dedicated professionals who are pioneering this work inside organizations.  

At DWG, we love to hear about these passionate leaders in our industry. The Digital Workplace Leader of the Year award, now in its fifth year, is our way of sharing this excitement with our community and ensuring that these people gain the acknowledgement they deserve. 

In 2022, Digital Workplace Leader of the Year was awarded to Kristy Litchford, Senior Director – Digital Workplace at The Campbell Soup Company, for driving forward the vision and strategy for the digital workplace at the company. A number of other individuals from the shortlist were also recognized in this year’s awards, for specific areas of achievement, such as having an employee-first mindset, creative communication and making change happen. 

Presenting the awards live on air, DWG’s Director of Research, Elizabeth Marsh, commented: “There is an incredible sense of passion and momentum that shines through among this year’s leaders. They have a vision for the digital workplace in which people can thrive and this seems to inform everything they do, from building strong partnerships, mentoring and coaching colleagues, to constantly innovating.” 

So, in no particular order, here are the additional 2022 Digital Workplace Leader of the Year awards: 

Kerry O’Donnell – Employee-First Mindset

This award acknowledges Kerry O’Donnell, Executive Director, Technology for Global Communications at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) for her relentless focus on putting employees first in order to deliver the thriving modern digital workplace intranet – called MyELC – at the heart of the ELC employee workplace. Known for her passion and energy as a leader, Kerry recently also led the team behind MyELC (built on the Unily platform) to a win in the prestigious Nielsen Norman Awards. Leadership roles in both communications and technology fields have given O’Donnell a unique perspective that helps her to bring together stakeholders in order to build a shared vision and deliver meaningful change. She has driven innovation in the approach to optimizing search and championed a digital experience that reflects and strengthens the culture while being inclusive for all employees. She shares her knowledge generously at DWG member and wider industry events, and is a huge proponent of coaching and mentoring her team and colleagues. Forward-thinking and creative, Kerry is a key visionary in reimagining and continually evolving the digital employee experience at The Estée Lauder Companies.   

Kerry said: “This award is a terrific honor, and I’m very appreciative. It’s an inspiring moment on my journey navigating employee needs and ever evolving ways of working.” 

Find out more about Kerry O’Donnell on LinkedIn. 

Chris Harrer – Creative Communicator

With an impressive track record as a communications leader, Chris Harrer, Associate Vice President, Internal Communications – Digital at Comcast, is acknowledged in this award for his creative approaches to engaging employees through the organization’s digital ecosystem. He has successfully led work at Comcast to refresh a digital channel ecosystem that reaches around 100,000 employees. Chris is a skilful storyteller and is adept at getting both stakeholders and his team onboard around a shared mission to design and evolve the digital employee experience. He describes his philosophy for creating a consumer-grade experience inside the company as “a weekend experience, during the week”. Chris’s team have launched multiple new communications channels within Comcast and led a lively Yammer adoption campaign around the hashtag #JoinTheBuzz, which has seen a dramatic surge in usage and been sustained as employees are weaving it into their work day. 

Chris said: “Being a part of such an amazing group of leaders and being recognized by DWG for my approach to communicating creatively further validates our direction as we work towards a more streamlined digital employee experience here at Comcast.”  

Find out more about Chris Harrer on LinkedIn. 

Emily Schunior – Change Maker

Every so often a leader comes along who can truly make deep and lasting change happen! This award acknowledges Emily Schunior, Global Director, Digital Workplace at The Coca-Cola Company, for being a real maker of change within the digital workplace industry. She is at the forefront of work to enable effective knowledge sharing across the organization in order to fuel company growth through the flow and capture of ideas, as well as constantly evolving the Connect intranet in order to make employees’ lives easier. Schunior’s team is also spearheading work to smooth the transition to modern ways of working, using insights from Microsoft’s Workplace Analytics in innovative ways to suggest adjustments and nudges that will help colleagues to be more focused and productive in how they use the digital workplace; for example, a ‘Joy of Missing Out’ campaign to help people reassess whether meetings are fulfilling their purpose. As a leader, Schunior builds strong partnerships, supports colleagues to grow and succeed, and sets the bar high in order to deliver exceptional results. 

Find out more about Emily Schunior on LinkedIn.

Laurie Workman – Empathetic Leader

As well as being forward-thinking pioneers, the best digital workplace leaders listen deeply to the people around them to truly understand their needs and inform their strategic goals. Laurie Workman, Digital Workplace Manager at 3M, is acknowledged in the 2022 awards season with an ‘Empathetic Leader’ category award. Spearheading the evolution of 3M’s digital workplace since 2016, Laurie and her team recently brought through the latest iteration of 3M Go, an intranet that balances productivity and communication in a personalized, engaging experience. She is known for getting results as a leader through her positivity, compassion and empathy. In the words of one of her team: “Always with a clear vision, Laurie defines her strategies by keeping the end-user needs first. Focused on enhancing productivity, connecting and inspiring 3M workers around the world, she has been key to delivering a world-class digital workplace at 3M. Her enthusiastic, caring and positive attitude through challenges continuously drives her team to deliver excellence.”  

Find out more about Laurie Workman on LinkedIn. 

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! 

Related resource:

Celebrating the best digital workplaces:
5-year trends from DWG’s Awards  

Download the report

Categorised in: Digital Workplace of the Year Awards