Originally broadcast Tuesday 17th June 2025, 12:00

Celebrating the 20 finalists from this year’s Innovation & Transformation awards. Trailblazers who are redefining workforce planning, customer experience, and operational excellence. From AI to culture change, these organisations are proving that bold thinking drives real-world results.

Alana at The Open University led the development of a Knowledge Management System (KMS) training programme, employing a learner-centric approach to overcome the inefficiencies of existing virtual training. Innovating with modular e-learning, interactive simulations, and instructional videos, she made the learning experience more engaging and relevant for content writers. Her work significantly enhanced role relevancy and the application of knowledge, showcasing the power of targeted educational design.

Alice spearheaded a transformative quality management initiative at Hindustan Global Solutions (HGS), significantly impacting its extensive global operations. By introducing Quality Central, a system meticulously designed to refine quality management processes, Alice not only streamlined operations but also nurtured a culture of continuous improvement. This strategic move revolutionised performance tracking significantly reduced administrative burdens, and marked a substantial leap towards operational excellence and strategic focus.

Ellie’s work at Novuna Consumer Finance exemplifies the transformative effect of centring both customers and colleagues in operational strategies. Her focus on empathetic, customer-centric training has significantly boosted performance, engagement, and service quality. Ellie’s efforts in simplifying processes and enhancing colleague capabilities have led to notable improvements, including reduced response times and increased stakeholder engagement. Her work underscores the value of empathy, strategic communication, and continuous improvement in operational training and development.

HGS introduced ‘Quality Central’ to revolutionise its quality management across diverse sectors. Facing challenges from manual, siloed processes, the quality team’s deployment of this centralised platform marked a significant shift. Through strategic design, stakeholder engagement, and client-specific implementation, the initiative led to enhanced performance metrics, improved customer satisfaction, and streamlined reporting. This transformation underscores the power of technological integration and strategic planning in optimising organisational efficiency.

In an era demanding rapid and accurate information sharing for customer service excellence, Linda’s story shines as a beacon of innovation in knowledge management. Working as a Procedures Specialist, she transformed her organisation’s approach to managing, accessing, and utilising knowledge. With a focus on a user-friendly, centralised knowledge base, her journey from identifying inefficiencies to implementing strategic solutions showcases remarkable improvements in operational efficiency, engagement, and training quality, serving as an inspiring example for others.

Sue Drape-Comyn, a quality management innovator, revolutionised her team with coaching, mentoring, and empowerment. Prioritising personal development and team mobility, her approach enhanced organisational efficiency and team performance. This strategy resulted in high engagement scores, low absence rates, and outstanding compliance reviews, showcasing the power of genuine empowerment and succession planning. Sue’s leadership exemplifies how effective management can lead to significant organisational and individual growth.

The Open University, spearheaded by Liz Vosper, has advanced its knowledge management system, addressing initial challenges such as inadequate web content management skills. Their journey, characterised by innovation, collaboration, and a focus on accessibility, has significantly enhanced system efficiency. Implementing e-learning for content writers and improving accessibility standards, they’ve set a new benchmark in the field, showcasing their commitment to continuous improvement and user-centric design.

Water Plus, the largest water retailer in the UK, is enhancing customer service and employee growth. Their approach includes comprehensive training, customer engagement, and strategic quality assurance. Initiatives like structured coaching, development programmes, and technology use for self-service have significantly improved customer satisfaction and employee morale. This focus on continuous improvement and strategic quality alignment has led to notable achievements in service delivery and operational efficiency.

The implementation of the workforce management tool exemplifies Motorway’s commitment to innovation and employee empowerment. Through effective communication, strategic planning, and a flexible approach to change, the team successfully navigated through challenges, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency and fostering a work environment conducive to growth and success.

The Continuous Improvement Squad have embedded their approach to drive a culture of innovation and empowerment. Collaborating to help solve problems and prioritise improvements. Supporting colleagues with problem-solving workshops to help build their knowledge and confidence to identify new ideas and implement change. This inspiring case study demonstrates how to embed continuous improvement methodology as business as usual.

Novuna exemplified the importance of effective team integration and operational efficiency in driving organisational success. Through collaborative efforts, transparent communication, and a commitment to continuous improvement, organisations can navigate challenges and seize opportunities in today’s ever-evolving business landscape.

A cohesive and genuine partnership underpinned the introduction of an employee engagement platform. Both teams worked very closely, even before contracts were exchanged and Ocado became a design partner of Centrical.bThe vision for the launch was to reduce the complexity for leaders, it was important that this was not just another link to follow, another set of data or another system to log in to. During the design partner program, they worked closely to understand the key requirements of Ocado’s QA programme, and how Centrical could support this directly within the platform. QA was not an existing feature, but through their close partnership, this new feature was brought to life and the Centrical system rapidly became a one stop shop for all employee engagement, performance management, rewards and recognition, and quality management, allowing the platform branded internally as ‘Mint’ to become an integral tool to the business.

In a strategic collaboration, global retailer TJX and Davies revolutionised employee onboarding, focussing on decentralised training and soft skills. Incorporating digital learning and aligning with cultural values, they achieved a 300% investment return, which included a reduction in the glide path to productivity in the contact centre from 8 weeks to 6 weeks. This partnership not only enhanced employee engagement and customer service for TK Maxx and HomeSense but also established new benchmarks for training excellence, an increase in empathy and rapport with customers with a positive impact oncustomer loyalty.

A mature and established partnership between QStory and Jet2holidays delivered an extremely successful intraday automation implementation, which has been a great enabler for Jet2holidays homeworking model. Once they had a better visibility of their absence, QStory supported Jet2holidays with the establishment of a centralised absence management function SMART. The QStory policy of retaining 30% of developer time to be available to work on customer requests has been a real enabler for this change, ROI and stakeholder impact has been positive. Jet2holidays are so delighted that QStory were awarded one of their coveted supplier awards.