Celebrating the 2026 Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards
The Step Two Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards provide a valuable annual snapshot of the work being done to improve the digital employee experience (DEX).
This year, the awards celebrated a 20-year milestone, with ClearBox’s Sam Marshall having served on the judging panel for 10 of those years. Here, he shares his reflections on this year’s entries.
The constant challenge
The 2026 winners represent a wide range of organisations, industries and working environments. They include global businesses, universities, public-sector organisations, professional-services firms and companies with large frontline workforces. Despite their differences, the winning projects all share an ambition to identify employee pain points, simplify working life, and maintain a focus on quality and value.
What I have seen as a constant for many years of judging has been the need for well-structured and well-maintained information. Many of the entries this year showed maturity in the ‘craft’ of designing and managing intranets. Five years ago, such entries may well have won an award because we all know how challenging it can be to deliver an intranet in complex organisations, sometimes with budget headwinds and political knots to navigate.
However, to stand out enough for an award, what I also ask myself is, “Is this a story others can learn from?”, either in the design itself or in the approach.
Innovative approaches
One entry that really struck me was DTEK, a Ukrainian energy company. They rolled out a well-designed and contemporary intranet under the most demanding circumstances, at times with employees having to work in sub-zero temperatures without heating and with the stress of conflict ever-present. Many of DTEK’s workers are frontline based, having to restore power outages after attacks, for example. Despite this, the team still managed to engage with workers and gather requirements.
My comment as a judge was:
“This is a remarkable entry describing a situation more challenging than any I’ve seen in over 10 years of judging. It belies the excuse sometimes heard in other companies that there are ‘other priorities’ than the intranet, or that frontline workers are too busy to be engaged. DTEK’s approach is a very solid example of a well-executed intranet, with close attention paid to navigation and multi-language support.
Another memorable entry was Singapore Management University (SMU) for its smart approach to embedding AI. The team was diligent in identifying real use cases for AI as part of its university-wide programme, rather than rolling out a generic chat interface, for example.
I loved the ‘Lost & Found Assistant’ because it addresses a time-wasting activity that often sucked up staff time. The system uses image analysis of found items to match them with descriptions by estranged owners. It can even recognise multiple items in a single image for reports such as “lost a bag containing…”. Over 4,100 items were processed in just over a year.
You can read the full account for free in Step Two’s Awards Sampler.
A report worth learning from
It’s always hard in the DEX space to get a glimpse of what other organisations do, simply because intranets and the like are necessarily behind a firewall. I’d therefore encourage all practitioners to purchase the full report (at about US$200 / £160 it’s an absolute bargain).
Behind the scenes, I know just how much thoughtful consideration goes into who gets an award. This isn’t just an industry puff piece. The written entries are substantial, and Steve Byghall does a remarkable job of distilling some very in-depth submissions and even following up for more where details are sketchy. The criteria for entry are well structured and relevant, and the judging panel is made up of
Taken together, the 2026 awards offer both recognition and inspiration. They celebrate impressive projects, but they also provide practical ideas for any organisation looking to improve its intranet or digital workplace. The message is optimistic: thoughtful design, meaningful employee involvement and focused use of technology can make a measurable difference to how people work.
I’m grateful to the Step Two team for inviting me to judge again, and congratulations for another corker of a report.
