The Results Are In: Celebrating the 2025 JOY Award Winners!

What a year it has been! The 4th annual Journey of the Year (JOY) Awards have officially concluded, and we are absolutely buzzing with excitement. We received a record-breaking number of submissions this year, and the quality of workflows was nothing short of mind-blowing.

The JOY Awards are our end-of-year showcase designed to recognize the incredible accomplishments of Enboarder customers—people leaders who mobilize their staff using engaging, intuitive, and powerful workflows. This year, the competition was fiercer than ever, with judges looking for workflows that excelled at engaging employees, automating complex processes, and spreading joy across the workforce.

Selecting the winners was no easy task. Our judges evaluated entries based on innovation, the “human touch” in a digital world, and measurable return on investment (ROI),. After much deliberation, we are thrilled to announce the winners who pushed the boundaries of what is possible with connection-first onboarding.

Here are your 2025 JOY Award Winners!

👑 Best Onboarding Journey: Acacium Group

Winner: Jay Wild, Rachel Chambers and the People Team at Acacium Group

Taking home the crown for Best Onboarding Journey is Acacium Group for their transformative “Your First Six Months” (YF6M) program,.

The Challenge: Before launching YF6M, Acacium Group faced a significant challenge: onboarding was inconsistent across their global brand, with low engagement and 26 fragmented workflows that no longer reflected their business culture. They needed a solution that would work globally across the UK, US, Australia, Europe, and Asia, while still allowing for local nuances.

The Solution: Jay, Rachel, and the team consolidated those 26 separate workflows into one seamless, cohesive experience. The new journey blends practical information with wellbeing checks and responsible business priorities, ensuring that every new hire feels connected to the culture from day one.

Why They Won: The results speak for themselves. This workflow didn’t just look good; it delivered massive business impact.

• Skyrocketing Engagement: Manager engagement with the workflow boosted by a staggering 123%, rising from 30% to 67%.
  
• Retention ROI: Early tenure attrition (measured within the first 12 months) dropped significantly from 22% to 16.7%.
  
• Efficiency: They saved approximately £116,500 in recruitment costs by reducing early attrition, and achieved a 100% attendance rate for first-day check-ins.

As the judges noted, taking a fragmented process and turning it into a “chef’s kiss” experience that drives such high retention is exactly what the JOY Awards are all about.

🤠 Most Innovative Journey: Babcock

Winner: Tracey Baker, Naomi Arnold, and the Team at Babcock

The award for Most Innovative Journey goes to Babcock for their delightful and creative “International Secondment” workflow,.

The Challenge: Moving countries for work is one of the most stressful experiences an employee can go through. Babcock needed a way to support international secondees moving from the UK to Australia, ensuring they understood the logistics while feeling excited rather than overwhelmed.

The Solution: Tracey Baker and her team created a bespoke journey that is the ultimate “Welcome to Australia” pack. Far from being a dry compliance checklist, this workflow injected fun and personality into the process. It included:

• Cultural Education: Fun facts about Australia, including explainers on Vegemite, Tim Tams, and local “lingo”.
  
• Local Connection: “Connection Cards” introducing Australasia senior leaders and sharing tips on local attractions and footy teams.
  
• Personalization: Specific tips based on the location the employee was moving to, such as Adelaide.

Why They Won: Innovation isn’t always about complex code; sometimes, it’s about the creative application of empathy. This workflow proved that onboarding can be both practical and fun. It reduced uncertainty for employees making a huge life change and allowed them to raise questions before they even boarded the plane. Their first international secondee rated the content 5/5, proving that a little humor and warmth go a long way in making a scary move feel like an adventure.

🎯 Best Functional Onboarding: Unispace

Winner: Laggi Diamandi, Gabrielle Campitiello, and the Unispace Team

Introducing a special recognition this year, Unispace takes home the award for Best Functional Onboarding for their “Global Sales Induction”.

The Challenge: Sales onboarding is notoriously difficult. It requires getting new hires up to speed on products, pitches, and culture simultaneously so they can start generating revenue quickly. Unispace needed a journey that inspired action and accelerated performance.

The Solution: Laggi Diamandi and the team didn’t just build a checklist; they built a performance engine. They masterfully layered functional onboarding into their broader cultural journey. Key features included:

• VOTG: Creative role-plays and pitch recordings that allowed new hires to practice in a safe environment.
  
• Active Participation: The workflow included specific action items for buddies (e.g., “Who do you think they should meet?”) and managers, ensuring the support network was active, not passive.

Why They Won: The impact on sales performance was undeniable. Comparing October 2025 to the previous year, the new induction contributed to:

• 112% increase in calls made.
  
• 67% conversion rate from calls to meetings.
  
• 36% conversion from meetings to RFPs.

This workflow sets a new standard for how functional training can be integrated into Enboarder to drive hard business metrics.

👏 The Runners-Up & Honorable Mentions

With such a high volume of quality submissions, choosing just three winners was incredibly difficult. We want to give a massive shout-out to our runners-up who are doing exceptional work.

Best Graduate Journey: EY UK

Melody Cheung and the team at EY UK deserve a special mention for their handling of over 800 graduates,. Managing engagement for cohorts with start dates up to eight months in the future is no small feat. By using Enboarder to deliver tailored content and invites to events, they maintained an 82% engagement rate and successfully reduced reneges—a critical KPI for early careers teams.

Best Mini Journeys: Motorpoint

Charlotte Wright at Motorpoint proved that great things come in small packages. Her submission highlighted how Enboarder can revolutionize specific, administrative pain points. From an automated “Long Service” celebration workflow to a streamlined “ID Upload” process that ensures compliance before Day 1, Motorpoint showed that efficiency and experience go hand in hand.

Best Mentoring Journey: Leidos

Tegan Porter at Leidos was recognized for the “Mirror Mentoring” program,. This innovative, user-led workflow empowers individuals to opt-in and drive their own professional development. It breaks down silos by facilitating peer mentoring across the organization, proving that development is a journey, not just a destination.

What’s Next?

To our winners: Keep an eye out for your JOY Award Prize Packs coming your way soon! You have officially earned your bragging rights.

For the rest of our community, if you are feeling inspired by these incredible stories, we have good news. Just like last year, these winning journeys will be anonymized and added to the Enboarder Discover Library early in the new year. This means you will be able to download these best-practice templates and adapt them for your own organization.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. Your creativity, passion, and dedication to putting people first are what make this community so special. Here is to bringing even more JOY to the workplace in 2026!