Anna is an established customer experience and marketing professional with a proven track record of delivering excellent commercial performance over the 20 years of my career. I started my career in marketing, planning and driving growth for large corporate organisations across industries such as the motor trade, pharmacy and IT. Over the years my passion for marketing sparked an interest in customer behaviour and 6 years ago I moved into the Customer Experience profession. I now head up the Customer Experience function at Bupa Insurance, aiming to be the world’s most customer centric healthcare organisation. All helping to achieve our purpose of helping people live longer, healthier and happier lives and making a better world.
MEET THE 2024
FINALISTS
The Engage Awards, now in their 9th year, celebrate engagement across customer, employee, sales, and marketing, reflecting the depth of the relationship and the degree of active participation and connection. Together, these engagement efforts contribute to organisational success and sustained growth.
Organisations that prioritise and foster engagement create positive and lasting experiences, build brand loyalty, and achieve long-term success.
We're delighted to announce our 2024 finalists after a record-breaking number of entries. A huge congratulations to all of our finalists - we wish you the best of luck!
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MEET THE 2023 WINNERS
Gerry Brown
Customer Lifeguard Chief Customer Officer
Gerry Brown, aka The Customer Lifeguard, is on a mission to save the world from bad customer service. He helps businesses save customers at risk of defecting and breathes life into their customer service operations and customer experience strategy. Gerry has provided organizational leadership on people development, business transformation, customer engagement and technology enablement for some of the largest companies in the UK, Canada, and EMEA. These include National Express, Nutricia, The Royal Albert Hall, Endsleigh Insurance, O2, Screwfix, Sage, Sky, Bell Canada and TELUS. He is a frequent speaker, chairperson, panellist and facilitator at conferences, webinars, company events and other business gatherings, where his many years of business and customer service experience provide stimulating, thought-provoking engagement and audience participation. He is also a published author and his new book When a Customer Wins, Nobody Loses is available on Amazon to help business leaders to create winning and memorable customer experiences.
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Ian Naylor
Booking.com Head of Customer Strategy & PlanningA results oriented adaptable leader, with a track record of innovative and customer centric business transformation in large scale, multi-site, multi-channel, complex contact centres, and across retail operations.
Expertise in digital customer journey re-engineering & the creation of customer insight capability to eliminate failure, increase customer loyalty & significantly reduce cost.
Defined strategy & led operational delivery through periods of high growth, business start-up, multiple new initiative launch & rapid business change. Step changed end to end customer experience and significantly improved profitability by creating new operating models and deploying innovative technologies & people strategies.
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Helen Wilson
Ipsos Global Chief Experience Officer for Customer Experience and Channel PerformanceHelen is Global Chief Experience Officer for Customer Experience and Channel Performance at Ipsos. She has significant leadership, CX and research experience, and is a frequent speaker, chair and judge at industry events, including being the Chair of Judges for the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards (ECCCSA). Helen hosts Customer Perspective: Customer Perspective: An Ipsos podcast | Ipsos, a podcast aimed at listeners who are concerned with ensuring Customer Experience delivers on the Brand Promise.
Helen is passionate about unlocking potential; she is a trained business coach, with a focus on supporting future leaders. She is a member of Ipsos’ global Gender Balance Network leadership team, charged with inspiring women to reach their full potential.
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Mark Hillary
Carnaby Content Host & Presenter- CX Files PodcastMark Hillary is a British writer and blogger based in São Paulo, Brazil. His industry analysis and research focuses on forward-looking CX, technology, work, and globalisation. This year he has published two books, one focused on how C-level executives are using blogs and social media to interact with customers and one a complete re-write of all Shakespeare’s sonnets reduced to Twitter format. In the past decade he published another dozen books exploring business strategies. He is presently working on a new book focused on how content marketing with LinkedIn can dramatically improve customer relationships and lead to increased sales. An IT director in the City before writing professionally Mark has a pragmatic view on how technology is shaping executive decision-marking today and he is often asked to ghostwrite for several leading international CEOs, diplomats, and politicians. Mark has worked with the UN and several governments on outsourcing strategies in locations such as India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria and he is well-known as a live blogger of major events, including the 2010 UK general election for Reuters and 2012 London Olympic Games as an official storyteller. Today his media work can usually be found in the Huffington Post, LinkedIn, and on the Engage Customer blog.
Martin Hill-Wilson
Brainfood Consulting Founder
I'm a customer engagement and digital business strategist. Also an author and international keynote speaker. Working under my own brand, Brainfood Consulting, I design masterclasses and transformational change helping clients evolve their social and digital capabilities. Current topics include omni-channel design, proactive, low effort customer experience, social customer service and customer hubs. All themed around service innovation.
Pete Evia Rhodes
PetLab Co. Director of Lifecycle MarketingPete is a true customer champion, using insight with innovation to help successfully develop customer centric propositions. These have included BT Mobile, A.I led content recommendations at The Times, alongside award winning contact centres. He's currently Head of Customer Engagement at Simplyhealth, leading their omni-channel CRM Strategy & MarTech evolution. Additionally Pete's key noted at Engage, INMA, and CCW. He's been published in the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as well as The Harvard Business Review. Recognised by Customer Experience Magazine as one of the top 50 most influential professionals in customer experience.
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Mike Owen
Mike Owen Media Managing Director
Radio from cradle to grave. National and regional PR and event liaison at all levels for major indoor music shows and outdoor festivals. Training at the highest level and accredited training for the major examining bodies. Currently finalising entrants for event management and the creation of a pan-European course for event managers.
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Nick King
AutoTrader Insights Director
A consumer psychologist and expert in digital media and marketing, possessing the experience to analyse and interpret trends in consumer adoption of technology and develop strategies for customer acquisition and retention through digital and offline channels.
Nick joined Auto Trader in January 2007 running Business Intelligence and in 2010 built the retailer insight team running master classes and webinars. He also makes short films to evangelise about data and Insight and speaks regularly at conferences in Europe, Canada and North America.
Nick is also a visiting lecturer in consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
After graduating from Loughborough in 1986 , Nick spent years in advertising and planning at Dorlands and Lintas, was a guitarist with Great Northern Electrics, a publisher on HiFi magazines at Petersen/EMAP and a research Director at Media agency Carat/Difiniti responsible for a team of researchers advising a range of Blue-chip clients on the development of their marketing and communications strategies in the Digital arena.
Nick joined Auto Trader in January 2007 running Business Intelligence and in 2010 built the retailer insight team running master classes and webinars. He also makes short films to evangelise about data and Insight and speaks regularly at conferences in Europe, Canada and North America.
Nick is also a visiting lecturer in consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
After graduating from Loughborough in 1986 , Nick spent years in advertising and planning at Dorlands and Lintas, was a guitarist with Great Northern Electrics, a publisher on HiFi magazines at Petersen/EMAP and a research Director at Media agency Carat/Difiniti responsible for a team of researchers advising a range of Blue-chip clients on the development of their marketing and communications strategies in the Digital arena.
Brian Manusama
Actionary Executive Partner
Throughout my career, I have been at the forefront of delivering impact at scale, leveraging cutting-edge technology to resolve today’s business challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) challenges. My passion for customer engagement, digital business, artificial intelligence and customer experience focused leadership have been a consistent theme in my career.
Anna Wilcox
Bupa Head of Customer Experience
Jo Moffatt
Engage for Success Strategy DirectorJo has been a volunteer with the Engage for Success movement since its launch. As Strategy Director she sits on the Core Team and co-hosts the weekly Engage for Success radio show. EFS radio draws guests from across the engagement world with interesting stories to share. The Engage for Success agenda is absolutely aligned with Jo’s vision ‘to make workplaces better places to be’. Jo’s ‘day job’ is MD and founder of Woodreed, a specialist ad agency who use the tools, techniques, creativity and insight of the advertising world to engage employees inside organisations. Jo is passionate about brands and their power to move people. She is equally passionate about employee engagement and its vital role in delivering a high performing organisation. Put the two together and she becomes almost evangelical about the power a well-positioned and consistently delivered brand has as a catalyst for employee engagement and business success.
Cathy Brown
Handley Studios Ltd. Co-FounderCathy (she/her) works with people and organisations to create inclusive, healthy and more productive workplaces that work for everyone.
A renowned leader, speaker and communicator, Cathy blends curiosity and empathy with deep cross-sector experience. She prides herself on helping people move out of stressful situations to create human-focused workplace cultures where compassion and connectedness – and people – are encouraged and valued.
Cathy has led organisations across a range of industries including Engage for Success (the UK’s movement for Employee Engagement), and has helped to transform many more through her work as Capability Brown, and most recently at Management Geek.
Cathy carries her personal experience of neurodivergence into the solutions she co-creates with her clients, through conversations, commitment and curiosity - helping them to manage themselves and their teams in ways that work for everyone.
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Mike Gibney
NHS Director of Workforce at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation TrusthrMike is the Director of Workforce and Innovation at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust where he has worked since 2013. He is the Trust lead for HR, OD, Communications, Fundraising, Research and Innovation. The Trust is currently accredited in Investors in People as gold and holds the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing award. The organisation was rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission in 2020.
Mike’s work on innovation enables him to work very closely with consultants on spread and adoption of new technology and new ways of working. He is a Board member at the North West Innovation Agency that seeks to drive innovation across the NHS. He is engaged with the local business community through various professional bodies and is passionate about joint working with the private sector.
Mike joined the NHS in 2009 following a successful career in local government and the third sector. He has a collaborative approach to leadership based upon clear values that have enabled him to achieve transformational change.
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Frazer Rendell
E-Trinity Consultancy DirectorAfter 25 years in operational roles in hospitality, retail and healthcare at a national and international level, Frazer set up e-trinity consultancy who specialise in creating high performing teams by turning the theory of engagement into practical and measurable tools, to increase engagement and improve organistational efficiency and effectiveness.
Frazer is also a regional ambassador for Engage for Success in the South East and chairs the research group for Engage for Success, which is looking at the impact of Performance Management on Engagement, in collaboration with Cranfield. He is a regular speaker on engagement at events such as the CIPD Employee Engagement Conference and is guest lecturer at Coventry and Oxford Brookes University, as well as writing articles for People Management, The Telegraph and Thomson Reuters.
Frazer likes to also keep up to date with current trends in hospitality, retail and healthcare by working with other organisations to improve their clients service delivery and is a governor of an NHS mental health trust.
Jo Dodds
Engage for Success Co-Strategy DirectorAs co-Strategy Director of Engage for Success, Jo is focused on spreading the word about employee engagement and shining a light on good practise, inspiring people and workplaces to thrive. She also co-hosts the long running weekly Engage for Success radio podcast talking all things employee engagement with a wide range of guests from all over the world. Her corporate background is in regional and national HR and training roles within large retail and leisure organisations. She started her own business in 2005 and has since worked with people and organisations to take advantage of the digital and social media opportunities to create engagement with customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Charlotte Dahl
Woodreed Creative Planning DirectorCharlotte is a director at specialist advertising agency Woodreed. She's an accomplished speaker, writer and facilitator, with a unique view on employee engagement and internal communications, having spent equal parts of her career in consumer, then employee communications. Having worked for clients spanning every industry sector, including Marks & Spencer, The National Lottery, Volkswagen Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Guinness World Records and the NHS, she brings the rigour of consumer marketing into internal communications. She is passionate about raising the profile, standards and effectiveness of internal communication, believing employees AND customers deserve the same reverence, effort and creativity in communication. Appearing on stages at home and abroad, she's talked for senior leadership summits and in-house teams as well as for the CIPD, Institute of Internal Communications, Engage for Success and at ABTA's travel convention in Malta. She's a regular chair for Engage Business Media's events and delivers training for the IoIC.
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Victoria Silverman
Financial Markets Standards Board Head of Communications
Currently Head of Communications at the Financial Markets Standards Board, Victoria has a background in communicating for large and complex organisations, including London Stock Exchange Group, Refinitiv, Deloitte and ITV. She writes for CEOs and brings creativity and techniques from agile working into communications including crowdsourcing, market testing and fast experiments to engage audiences and encourage ‘bottom up’ comms aligned to strategy. Board member of the International Association of Business Communicators and Corporate Advisory Board advisor to the charity Urban Synergy, Victoria loves writing a good speech or feature film, watching way too much Netflix and enjoys running the streets of London.
Nicholas Brice
Soul Corporations CEO
Nicholas Brice is our Guest Editor and CEO of Soul Corporations®. He is seasoned managing consultant, speaker coach and masterclass facilitator. He has helped deliver human-centred development and culture change programmes to achieve customer and employee experience KPI outcomes for major brands including British Airways, American Express, Unipart, Toyota, Wickes, Brighton and Hove Albion FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Progress IT, Servier Pharmaceuticals. He is a triple winner of National Training Journal Gold Awards, a winner of Engage Media Award for Best Customer and Employee Engagement Programme and four times finalist.
Karine Cardona-Smits
Forrester Senior AnalystKarine Cardona-Smits coaches and mentors experience design leaders and their teams to drive impact. With over 20 years of professional experience in digital and a background in psychology, she provides guidance to leaders in Customer Experience, Digital, Design, and Product to tackle their biggest challenges and stay ahead in a constantly changing landscape. As a former Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, she conducted extensive research and authored actionable reports on customer experience, service design, UX, and experience design. She is also a sought-after keynote speaker at customer experience and design events, sharing her expertise with a wider audience.
LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinecardona/
Website https://www.karinecardona.com
Lynzi Ashworth
Aon Marketing Director
Lynzi is a marketing leader who loves is fascinated by people and technology. Lynzi leads by fostering a culture of data lead decision making overlaid with marketing magic - driving commercial growth by connecting businesses and clients through storytelling and immersive experiences. Lynzi is currently leading a global digital marketing transformation program to support the continual growth of £11bn professional services organisation, as it merges with a similar sized organisation.
Pamella Barotti
Microsoft UK Head of Customer Advocacy
Pamella is a strategic global marketing, communications and advocacy lead with 15+ years’ experience in Technology and Financial Services. She is a board member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (Greater London Chapter), the world's leading professional marketing body, and is a guest lecturer at Birkbeck University of London. Has a strong background in developing and implementing successful marketing and communications strategies and multi-channel programs across local and global markets, which increased brand awareness, improved customer and partner experience and supported multimillion-dollar revenue goals. Pamella has worked for start-ups, medium-sized and global organizations and prestigious brands including Microsoft, AWS, Mastercard, Oracle, Shell, and S&P Dow Jones.
Jennifer Shaw-Sweet
LinkedIn EMEA Lead B2B Institute
Jenny is the EMEA Lead B2B Institute. After 20 years in top 10 network agencies working across blue-chip international accounts, Jenny joined LinkedIn to work in the B2B Institute, a thinktank at LinkedIn. The B2B Institute is committed to impartial and independent thinking that gives open access to the best B2B research using data from within and outside LinkedIn Her research interests lie in business, marketing, branding, the power of creativity and ‘on the side’ - law, human rights and anthropology.
Francesco Federico
S&P Global Global CMOFrancesco is a visionary intrapreneur with over 15 years of experience in steering product development and commercialization across a spectrum of industries. His role as a transformational leader has catalyzed business acceleration for Fortune 200 brands across the globe. Francesco's expertise spans product management, marketing, and technology, underpinning his success in building and nurturing high-caliber teams across Europe, Asia, and the United States.Francesco's early work in artificial intelligence, especially its use in legal practices while he was reading law, laid the foundation for his innovative career. Presently, as the Global Chief Marketing Officer at S&P Global Ratings, he is instrumental in enhancing the company's brand presence, amplifying content and solution awareness, and stimulating demand.
Francesco's career is adorned with digital milestones that have pivoted major brands to the forefront of their industries. Noteworthy achievements include the launch of Vodafone's inaugural self-care mobile application MyVodafone and the deployment of a pioneering real-time dynamic pricing algorithm on Acer's e-commerce platform. His tenure at JLL was marked by a remarkable revenue surge—from doubling it to over $16 billion within seven years—attributable to his strategic overhaul in sales, marketing, and digital product spheres, emphasizing change management and people development.
Beyond the professional world, Francesco resides in West London, where he indulges in his passions for the culinary arts, aviation, and hiking, enriching his personal and professional life with diverse perspectives and experiences.
Harjeet Singh
Finastra Sr Director Marketing and Demand Generation Operations
Harjeet is a marketer with a technical and business background. He is data-driven and has working experience in the financial software (Fintech), Telecom and Technology verticals. Harjeet currently works as Sr Director looking after global Marketing and Demand Gen Operations. The scope includes the Martech Stack, Strategic change projects, data, reporting and Marketing best practices.
Over his career, Harjeet has worked in various global leadership roles covering B2B End2End Marketing functions like Field, ABM / Operations / Digital / Strategy & Planning across various Go to Market channels. He has also supported C-level executives and the Board on strategic projects, corporate and marketing strategy, and brand development.
Over his career, Harjeet has worked in various global leadership roles covering B2B End2End Marketing functions like Field, ABM / Operations / Digital / Strategy & Planning across various Go to Market channels. He has also supported C-level executives and the Board on strategic projects, corporate and marketing strategy, and brand development.
Tony Miller
CMO, expert in Digital Transformation, Brand-building, Consumer Experiences, and Marketing Technology
Tony is passionate about the consumer - giving them the best experience through creative storytelling - fueled by the right mix of insight, data, and technology. He's a Digital Transformation Expert at heart, with over 25 years in the business, on both agency and client side, recently being named in DataIQ100 and Marketing Week's Top 100 Most Effective Marketings in the UK, and in the Top 10 of Media, Telecoms, and Entertainment. He is currently a Board Member at Festival of Marketing, Econsultancy, and DMA UK > Previous to that he spent 3 years as the VP, Digital & Growth Marketing at WW (Weight Watchers reimagined) and 5 years at The Walt Disney Company as VP Digital Marketing & CRM, EMEA.
Ruth Oakey
Eckoh Global Marketing DirectorRuth has over 25 years’ global B2B marketing experience, working across both the public and private sectors. She has extensive experience directing global marketing operations, leading cross-functional teams, and delivering strategic marketing plans aligned to business success. She is well-versed in insight-led demand generation, account-based marketing, and global go-to-market planning to achieve business objectives.
Kate Philpot
Getty Images Vice President, Global Sales EnablementKate Philpot is Vice President of Global Sales Enablement at Getty Images. She leads a team based across three continents and is responsible for company-wide Sales and Service training, coaching and enablement programmes. She joined Getty Images in 2015, having acquired sales, sales leadership, enablement and HR experience at Mars Inc, Glaxo Smith Kline, Shell UK and as a consultant. She’s a regular speaker at industry events on the critical importance of sales enablement and coaching in under-pinning and sustaining professional development. Additionally, she’s current Co-Chair of the Getty Images Multi-Culture Network ERG and sits on the advisory board of GTA Black Women in Tech.
Phil Hobden
Know it Head of Growth & StrategyPhil has spent over 15 years in financial services & the Fintech accountancy sectors, working for some of the most innovative businesses in these industries, including Intuit, Natwest Banking Group and Wolters Kluwer. Phil is now the Head of Strategy & Growth for credit management fintech platform Know-It. Know-it is a platform that enables a business to effectively manage all their credit processes, to mitigate risk and to get a better understanding of their customers.
Phil is a business and strategy contributor for Elite Business Magazine online, a featured writer for Engage Sales, a serial podcast host including his latest project ‘The Story of’, judge for UK Business Tech awards & the Global Tech awards across 2021 to now , a public speaker (having spoken at Elite Business Live x3, Accountex x3, Accountex North, QuickBooks Get Connected, Customer Engagement Transformation Conference and more) and has guested on numerous industry podcasts and industry webinars including with the ACCA, Accounting Influencers, Humanise The Numbers, Advance Track and others.
Phil has worked with partners, practice owners, accountants and bookkeepers in the UK, South Africa and beyond, from Top 5 through to leading niche and boutique firms, helping them implement new technology, change processes and launch new service lines to better support their own practices and as well as their SMB clients.
For me of Phil connect with him on Linkedin here: www.linkedin.com/in/philhobden/
For more on Know-It visit: www.know-it.co.uk
Anthony Tripyear
StarTech.com Director, Global Sales Operations & Enablement
As Director of Global Sales Operations and Enablement, I listen to our customers and understand what their needs are, then I develop ways of adding value to them. I lead a team of senior Sales and Marketing leaders based all over the world. I love the technology industry – it is as exciting today as it was when I started my career over 20 years ago.
“The team had a fantastic night celebrating the win. Our award is now proudly displayed in our awards cabinet.”Director of Marketing, DPD Group
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Verint
Verint is “The Customer Engagement Company.” We help organisations simplify and modernise the way they engage customers through their contact centre, branch, back office and marketing departments. Our market-leading broad portfolio of cloud and hybrid solutions is designed with the latest artificial intelligence and advanced analytics technologies to deliver greater automation and shared intelligence that drives real business impact. Verint is your partner to make customer engagement a strategic advantage and a strong competitive differentiator for your organisation.
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Happiness Index
Our neuroscience based platform helps organisations measure the key employee engagement AND happiness drivers to power their people strategy.
Want to know how we can help guide your organisation to better retention, cultural alignment and performance? We have the answers… Visit us on Stand 21.
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What makes Forty1 different? We bring insight, creativity, and tech know-how to every challenge, but four things set us apart:
- An industry-leading Behavioural Science Unit, ensuring that our work makes the right impact on human thinking and behaviour.
- A specialist Employee Listening capability, using leading-edge digital tools to create safe spaces for employees to tell us what they think and need.
- Learning & Capability Development Expertise that enables us to help your leaders, managers, and employees build the knowledge and skills they need to make change happen.
- A world-class Live, Virtual, and Hybrid Events team who deliver memorable experiences that inspire change and engagement.
Forty1
The Forty1 team works with some of the world’s leading organisations to create lasting changes in behaviour, culture and engagement.
With more than 50 people across 2 continents, we bring a unique combination of people, skills and life experiences to our clients’ challenges. Our purpose is to create experiences that enrich working lives.
With more than 50 people across 2 continents, we bring a unique combination of people, skills and life experiences to our clients’ challenges. Our purpose is to create experiences that enrich working lives.
What makes Forty1 different? We bring insight, creativity, and tech know-how to every challenge, but four things set us apart:
- An industry-leading Behavioural Science Unit, ensuring that our work makes the right impact on human thinking and behaviour.
- A specialist Employee Listening capability, using leading-edge digital tools to create safe spaces for employees to tell us what they think and need.
- Learning & Capability Development Expertise that enables us to help your leaders, managers, and employees build the knowledge and skills they need to make change happen.
- A world-class Live, Virtual, and Hybrid Events team who deliver memorable experiences that inspire change and engagement.
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Freshworks
Freshworks provides innovative customer engagement software for businesses of all sizes, making it easy for teams to acquire, close, and keep their customers for life. Freshworks SaaS products provide a 360-degree view of the customer, are ready to go, easy to use and offer quick return on investment. Headquartered in San Mateo, USA, Freshworks 3,000+ team members work in offices throughout the world.
For more information visit www.freshworks.com.
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WorkBuzz
The trusted choice for employee listening.
Your organisation is unique and so are your needs.
With WorkBuzz, you get expert advise and a flexible listening platform that lets your ask the right questions at the right time, gathering the real-world insights that matter the most to your team.
