Brandon Hall Group Opens 2026 Excellence in Action Awards — Recognising Organisations That Turn Employee Voice into Measurable Impact
HR Technology / Employee Engagement | 5 min read
Brandon Hall Group™, the leading independent HCM research and analyst firm and home of the HCM Excellence Awards® — widely known as the "Academy Awards of Human Capital Management" — has officially opened submissions for its 2026 Excellence in Action Awards. The programme is a new and distinct addition to Brandon Hall Group's award portfolio, purpose-built to recognise something the group's established awards have not previously spotlighted: not the design of innovative HCM programmes or the deployment of breakthrough technology, but the specific organisational discipline of listening to employees and converting that feedback into outcomes that are measurable in business terms. Submissions are open now, with a deadline of September 25, 2026, and winners to be announced on November 12, 2026.
Why a New Award Category for Employee Voice
The HR and HCM awards landscape has traditionally evaluated organisations on programme innovation, technology deployment, and learning and development outcomes. What has been less systematically recognised is the foundational organisational behaviour that underpins all of those outcomes: whether organisations actually create the conditions for employees to be heard — and whether, having heard them, they act on what the feedback reveals. The Excellence in Action Awards are designed to close this recognition gap by placing employee voice and its measurable impact at the centre of evaluation rather than treating it as a component of broader people strategy categories.
The programme specifically targets organisations that are building inclusive, people-centric cultures by actively listening to their workforce and driving positive change — a criterion that encompasses a wide range of organisational approaches, from structured employee feedback programmes and engagement survey action planning to voice-led culture transformation initiatives and continuous listening frameworks that feed directly into operational and people decisions. The evaluation standard is deliberately high: submissions are assessed on programme design, execution, and measurable results, with strong emphasis on how the organisation has used employee feedback to drive change that is tangible and evidenced rather than anecdotal and aspirational.
"The Excellence in Action Awards represent a fundamental shift in how organisations define success — by listening to and acting on the voices of their employees. The companies we recognise are not only building high-performing cultures, they are proving that when people are heard, business results follow. For more than three decades, Brandon Hall Group has recognised excellence in human capital management. The Excellence in Action Awards extend that legacy by spotlighting organisations that turn employee feedback into measurable impact, driving engagement, productivity, and long-term business success."
— Rachel Cooke, Chief Operating Officer and HCM Excellence Awards Program Leader, Brandon Hall Group™
What the Award Recognises — and Who Should Enter
The Excellence in Action Awards recognise organisations of all sizes and industries — from global enterprises to mid-market and smaller firms — that have demonstrated a genuine commitment to enhancing employee engagement and productivity through employee feedback. The programme is not limited to organisations with sophisticated technology platforms or dedicated listening infrastructure: it is open to any organisation that can demonstrate that it has systematically gathered employee voice, acted on what it heard, and produced outcomes that are measurable in the metrics that matter to business leadership. The categories are designed to cover the full spectrum of how employee feedback manifests in organisational practice — from formal engagement surveys and pulse listening tools to culture transformation programmes, inclusion and belonging initiatives, and the specific mechanisms through which employee insight is translated into management decision-making and operational change.
Brandon Hall Group's evaluation process is rigorously independent. Each submission is reviewed by an international panel of veteran industry experts and senior analysts — the same standard applied across the group's broader HCM Excellence Awards portfolio. Award recipients receive Gold, Silver, or Bronze distinctions, with recognition delivered through a global press campaign, digital awards assets, and opportunities to share success stories with the broader HCM community. Winners of the Excellence in Action Awards will also be celebrated onstage at the HCM Excellence Conference and Gala in February 2027 — an event that brings together award-winning organisations to share leading practices, case studies, and the measurement frameworks that translate employee voice programmes into demonstrable business value.
The Broader Context: The Evolving Brandon Hall Awards Portfolio in 2026
The Excellence in Action Awards are part of a deliberate expansion of Brandon Hall Group's recognition portfolio to comprehensively cover the HCM landscape in its current state. The 2026 portfolio now comprises three complementary programmes: the HCM Excellence Awards® — the flagship programme covering Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, DEI, Human Resources, Sales Performance, and Technology, with winners to be announced on August 13, 2026; the Excellence in Technology and Education Technology Awards — recognising innovation and measurable impact across HCM technology platforms, AI, workforce analytics, and digital learning for K-12, higher education, and professional development, with entries opened on April 20, 2026; and now the Excellence in Action Awards, which complete the portfolio by recognising the human behaviour that makes technology and strategy actually work.
The timing of this award expansion is not coincidental. Multiple pieces of current workforce research — including the Firstup State of Employee Engagement data, the WalkMe State of Digital Adoption findings, and the X-Team AI Talent Readiness Report — have independently identified the same failure mode: organisations investing heavily in people strategies and technology without the feedback loops, measurement frameworks, and accountability structures that determine whether those investments produce the workforce outcomes they were designed to generate. The Excellence in Action Awards create a formal recognition mechanism for the organisations that have solved this problem — and in doing so, provide the industry with the case study evidence base that tells everyone else what solving it actually looks like in practice.
Key Takeaways
- • Brandon Hall Group™ has opened submissions for the 2026 Excellence in Action Awards — a programme dedicated to recognising organisations that systematically gather employee feedback and translate it into measurable business outcomes, with a September 25 deadline and winners announced November 12, 2026.
- • The award fills a recognition gap in the existing HCM awards landscape — evaluating not programme innovation or technology deployment, but the specific discipline of listening to employees and converting that feedback into change that is evidenced and measurable in business terms.
- • Submissions are assessed on programme design, execution, and measurable results — with strong emphasis on how feedback was used to drive meaningful organisational change. Organisations of all sizes are eligible; Gold, Silver, and Bronze distinctions are awarded by an independent international panel of industry experts.
- • Winners receive a global press campaign, digital awards assets, opportunities to share success stories with the broader HCM community, and recognition onstage at the HCM Excellence Conference and Gala in February 2027.
- • The Excellence in Action Awards complete Brandon Hall Group's 2026 three-programme portfolio alongside the HCM Excellence Awards® (winners: August 13) and Excellence in Technology and EdTech Awards — together providing comprehensive recognition across the full HCM landscape from programme innovation to technology impact to the employee voice outcomes that make both work.