Schoox Customers Win Gold at 2026 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards
Schoox, the Intelligent Learning & Growth Platform for frontline enterprises, has announced that two of its customers — Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants and Westgate Resorts — each won Gold in the Learning & Development category at the 2026 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards. Both programs were recognized for connecting learning directly to measurable business outcomes.
"The HCM Excellence Awards have become the most recognized benchmark for excellence in human capital management because organizations know they are earned, not given."
— Mike Cooke, CEO, Brandon Hall GroupCooper's Hawk: Transforming Frontline Training at Scale
Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants won Gold for Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy. The company replaced a manual, paper-based training model with a centralized, automated learning system supporting more than 10,000 Team Members. Powered by Schoox and integrated with Paylocity HRIS, the blended approach created a single source of truth for training, development, compliance, and reporting.
The transformation drove training completion rates well above industry benchmarks, significantly reduced administrative workload, and built a scalable model that supports the company as it expands into new markets and restaurant concepts.
"We believe that when we invest in our people, we invest in the future of our business. When our people grow, our teams perform better, our hospitality gets stronger, and our business grows."
— Angela Brantley, VP of Learning & Development, Cooper's Hawk Winery & RestaurantsWestgate Resorts: Reinventing Leadership Development
Westgate Resorts took Gold for Best Unique or Innovative Learning and Development Program with its Impact-Driven Learning Model. At its center is LIFE (Leadership Immersion for Excellence), which replaced a lengthy, costly leadership program limited to a few departments with a flexible, competency-based model now deployed enterprise-wide on the Schoox platform.
The redesign dramatically lowered the cost and time required to develop a leader while producing a strong internal promotion rate in its initial pilot cohort — turning leadership development from a narrow, high-cost program into a scalable engine for organizational growth. As Stephanie Ketron, VP of Learning & Development at Westgate, put it, innovation isn't just about technology; it's about finding better ways to solve business challenges.
A Shared Commitment to Measurable Impact
Schoox pointed to both wins as proof points for its broader mission of connecting learning directly to business outcomes. According to the company, both customers began with a business result they were accountable for — not a training format they were attached to — and used Schoox to work backward from there. The result is learning that is not just delivered, but engineered for measurable outcomes.
Two Gold wins. Cooper's Hawk and Westgate Resorts each won Gold in the Learning & Development category at the 2026 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards.
Scale for frontline teams. Cooper's Hawk moved from paper-based training to a centralized system serving 10,000+ Team Members, integrated with Paylocity HRIS.
Leadership reimagined. Westgate's LIFE program replaced a costly, narrow leadership track with a competency-based model, cutting cost and time while lifting internal promotions.
Outcome-first design. Both organizations started with a business result and worked backward, using Schoox to engineer learning for measurable impact.
Industry recognition. Brandon Hall Group calls the HCM Excellence Awards a benchmark earned through one of the industry's most rigorous evaluation processes.