Sodexo’s Lived Experience programme wins Best Learning Initiative at Business Culture Awards

Sodexo’s Government and Energy & Resources business in partnership with The Happy Consultancy Group won Best Learning Initiative at the 2025 Business Culture Awards for its ‘Lived Experience: it’s all about you’ programme which was developed and rolled out across Defence sites managed by Sodexo.

The initiative, launched in 2024, was led by Samantha Hockey, Head of HR (Defence) and Duncan Limbert, learning and development business partner for Sodexo’s Government business.

In 2022, Sodexo introduced ‘The Lived Experience’ – a programme designed to address the need for attractive offers and environments that focus on enhancing wellbeing and delivering a consistent, high-quality experience for its diners on military sites.

The programme was part of a number of operational changes within Sodexo’s food service offers and to bring this to life for its employees, a people-led behavioural change programme was needed.

Samantha and Duncan worked with The Happy Consultancy Group to devise a series of vibrant, fun, and engaging sessions, which blended Sodexo’s core values (Service Spirit, Spirit of Progress and Team Spirit) with its employee value proposition (Belong, Act, Thrive) with storytelling that truly empowered employees to become heroes of their own stories.

Designed to boost engagement, confidence, well-being and pride across Sodexo’s teams delivering services at military sites across the UK, the programme was developed in line with Sodexo’s commitment to address the evolving needs and challenges of the UK Armed Forces.

To date over 2,500 employees, from frontline to senior leaders, have participated in the campaign and engagement events, also incorporating photoshoots, video footage, and printed materials. Team sessions achieved an impressive 92% overall satisfaction among all participants.