In the midst of rebrands, mergers and acquisitions, changes in communications, business repositioning and increased competition, internal communications professionals across the UK have proved their value to the effectiveness of an organisation. At this year’s CIPR #InsideStory Awards, the winners had to face those challenges and more in their work over the course of the year. And they succeeded.

Now in its fifth year, the #InsideStory Awards recognises the best in internal communications and has swiftly become one of the most prominent programme in its space. Held at the ZSL London Zoo, the evening began under water – literally and figuratively – as the most recent storm to hit the south east raged outside of the zoo's aquarium’s welcoming, dry interior.

But the main event was the distribution of honours and organisations from the far reaches of the United Kingdom were represented on the shortlist and in the winners list. SGN Ltd., took home the prize for ‘Best use of a digital platform: Best app’ after its team took a risk on something new. Odeon Cinemas Group nabbed the award for ‘Most innovative approach to an internal communication challenge’ when faced with an acquisition, a rebrand and a change programme that sought to make the cinema chain feel more experiential. The internal audience was brought along on that journey with a series of engagement projects and an internal branding programme, to great success. Other winners include national leisure centre brand GLL for ‘Best use of video’ and the Northumbrian Water Group for ‘Best use of events.’ See below for the full list of winners.

"Internal communications is often the team in the background, one of those teams that only gets mentioned when something goes wrong. The chance to shout out loud about some of the amazing work we’ve seen this year and give people a chance to celebrate and let their hair down is something very important to me,” CIPR Inside chair Steven Murgatroyd says. “The feedback I received on the night from winners was that the CIPR Inside award justified all the hard work they had put in over the last year and has inspired them to push on and do more next year, which is incredibly exciting to be part of.”

The evening’s biggest winner was Community Integrated Care – a national social care charity – which took home the Judges Award, the ‘Best in-house team’ award the fiercely contended ‘Best public sector or charity campaign’ award and a highly commended in the ‘Best example of employee engagement programme (large organisation)’ category.

‘Best agency’ was won by Brighton-based employee engagement agency People Lab while the Future Leader Award went to Sarah Roberts, a communications manager for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and former comms manager for the Barkeing, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. The Clare Latham Award, presented by scarlettabbott to an IC professional at the peak of their career, was bestowed upon head of group people communications at brewer Marston’s plc, Victoria Fletcher.

Though the animals giraffes and penguins and lion and tigers slept soundly, the happy celebrants of this year’s #InsideStory Awards enjoyed the increasing importance of internal communications within businesses and their own successes at the awards.

Membership to the CIPR also includes a donation to the association’s charity iprovision, which assists CIPR members and former members in times of need.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Best internal communication campaign

Large organisation

WINNER – Bupa
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Carillion plc
Community Integrated Care
ING Bank N.V.
Small

Small organisation

WINNER – KCOM
HIGHLY COMMENDED – SGN Ltd

Best example of an employee engagement programme

Large organisation

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Community Integrated Care
Deloitte LLP
WINNER – EDF ENergy

Small organisation

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Napp Pharmaceuticals Ltd
WINNER – Virgo Health and Roche UK

Best change or transformation communication campaign

Arco and H&H
WINNER – Lloyds Banking Group
Nationwide Building Society

Best public sector or charity campaign

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Canal and River Trust
WINNER – Community Integrated Care
Cwm Taf University Health Board
FCO
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Invest Northern Ireland

Best international campaign

Bupa
FCO
WINNER – PANDORA

Most innovative approach to an internal communication challenge

Manchester Airport Group
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Nationwide
Nationwide Building Society
HIGHLY COMMENDED – SGN Ltd
WINNER – ODEON Cinemas Group

Best use of events

Genesis Housing Association
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Manchester Airport Group
mhs homes
WINNER – Northumbrian Water Group
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Top Banana

Best use of video

HIGHLY COMMENDED – Clifford Chance
WINNER – GLL
Imperial Brands
KPMG (Blackbridge)
HIGHLY COMMENDED – NBCUniversal International
Northumbrian Water Group

Best use of digital platform

Digital magazine or e-zine

Kerry Foods
WINNER – National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
HIGHLY COMMENDED – PANDORA

Employee app

ING Bank N.V.
WINNER – SGN Ltd

Intranet or microsite

WINNER – BUPA
PANDORA
White & Case LLP

Best print magazine or newsletter

AB and Hitachi Rail Europe
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Carillion plc (Services) and 44 Communications
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Community Integrated Care
WINNER – Co-op
We are Sunday

Best agency

AB
H&H
WINNER – People Lab

Best in-house team

WINNER – Community Integrated Care
Imperial Brands
Marston’s PLC
HIGHLY COMMENDED – SGN Ltd
University of Derby

Future leader award

Fiona Barker
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Danielle Chan
WINNER – Sarah Roberts
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Annique Simpson
Leanne Taylor-Flett

Clare Latham award

Asif Choudry
WINNER – Victoria Fletcher
Simon Jeffers
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Anna Russell
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Lisa Wallace

Judges award

WINNER – Community Integrated Care