People & Culture IMPACT Awards 2025: Meet the winners

• Here are the 2025 winners:

  • Relinde Boerman, HR Recruiter at Polarsteps – winner in the category ‘Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding’

  • Paulette Engelen, HR Manager at New Balance – winner in the category ‘Learning & Development’

  • Danny Kuilboer, Head of People at Inpact – winner in the category ‘Benefits & Engagement’

  • Debora Gallo, Head of People & Culture Tech at Mews – winner in the category ‘AI & HR Tech’

  • Vanessa Monsequeira, Head of People & Culture at Gorilla – winner in the category ‘Leadership’

A day out traveling with Polarsteps 

Three years ago, recruitment at Polarsteps (the fast-growing scale-up behind the popular travel app) was still in its infancy. HR Recruiter Relinde Boerman built it at lightning speed into a process that is just as smart and thorough as the travel app itself: personal and focused on quality.

With her unique ‘Day-at-the-Office’ concept, candidates spend a full day in the office and get a real taste of the culture, while Polarsteps simultaneously assesses whether there is a genuine match. This results in not only better hires, but also an exceptionally high rating: a Glassdoor score of 4.9 out of 5.

For HR professionals, this is proof that recruitment is not just about filling vacancies, but is a strategic way to grow talent and engagement.

How do you ensure that learning and development doesn’t fall behind when an organisation is growing rapidly? Paulette Engelen, HR Manager at sports and lifestyle brand New Balance, found the answer in simplicity and trust. With the ‘Pay it Forward’ programme, employees themselves became learning ambassadors: colleagues training colleagues. This allows knowledge to flow directly from colleague to colleague, making learning a natural part of the culture. It led to greater participation in workshops, a stronger feedback culture, and made learning something owned by the entire organisation.

Danny Kuilboer, Head of People at Inpact, shows that culture drives more engagement than any employee benefit.

With the honest campaign ‘Heel gewoon’ (‘Very ordinary’), he gave employer branding a fresh look with a message that truly resonated with people and the region. This resulted in a stronger influx of the right candidates, even for hard-to-fill roles.

In addition, Danny built an AI-first culture. Employees experimented, attended training sessions, and organised their own AI days. In this way, learning and change became part of everyday work driven by teams, not imposed from the higher ups.

How do you ensure that AI doesn’t feel distant, but actually brings employees closer together? Debora Gallo, Head of People & Culture Tech at Mews, shows that technology is not a replacement for people, but a way to enhance them. With innovative tools and apps, she made the entire employee journey smoother and more personal. She organised AI Edge Days to inspire the entire organisation, introduced bots to support managers in difficult conversations, and deployed interactive learning tools that make learning personal and accessible. What makes her approach so distinctive is the focus on practical applicability. Technology never stands alone, but always contributes to culture, collaboration, and growth. As a result, employees don’t experience AI as something distant, but as a tool that makes their work better, faster, and more human.

At Gorilla, a fast-growing software scale-up, Vanessa (Ness) Monsequeira gave leadership a new look. As VP of People, she turned HR from a checklist of processes into a vital part of the organisation.

By giving the leadership team new frameworks, she increased engagement and retention, and built a culture in which people feel both challenged and supported. Inclusion and diversity run as a thread throughout her work.

Ness shows that real leadership is about honesty, care, and courage: holding people accountable for their growth and performance, whilst creating an environment where everyone feels safe and seen.

The People & Culture IMPACT Awards 2025 was an evening full of inspiration. The five winners showed that impact takes many forms: smarter recruitment, making technology human, and embedding engagement in culture.

The common thread that runs through them? A clear vision and an eye for people. Their stories make clear that HR is about trust and giving people space to grow. That is precisely what makes organisations stronger, today and in the future.