According to 2025 data from Gallup, the cost of employee disengagement in the U.S. is now approximately $2 trillion.
The report from the advisory firm also found that “performance systems must align with clear leadership and culture to deliver the full benefits of employee engagement.”
As the link between employee engagement and strong leadership becomes a clear blueprint for company success, one company has recently come up trumps thanks to its approach to building a culture of continuous learning, leadership development, and future-ready digital capabilities.
Ness Digital Engineering (Ness), a global digital services transformation company, announced this week it had won two Silver and two Bronze Brandon Hall Group Human Capital Management (HCM) Excellence Awards 2025 for innovation in leadership and development.
The Academy Awards of Human Capital Management
Brandon Hall Group™ is the only professional development company that offers data, research, insights and certification to learning and talent executives and organizations.
Its HCM Excellence Awards® program, referred to as the “Academy Awards of Human Capital Management”, has long been recognized as the industry’s gold standard.
In the 2025 HCM Excellence Awards®, Ness received Silver in the Best Hybrid Learning Program and Best Leadership Development Program categories and Bronze in Best Certification Program and Best Development Program for Frontline Leaders.
Entries were judged by a panel of veteran independent industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts, and executives, who evaluated them on criteria including alignment to business needs, program design and delivery, innovation, and overall effectiveness with measurable impact.
Said Ranjit Tinaikar, CEO of Ness Digital Engineering, in recognition of the award, “Talent is the cornerstone of our success, and we are deeply invested in their learning and development. Through our programs, we focus on building impactful, business-aligned learning experiences that provide our people with the skills, tools, and leadership capabilities to drive innovation and deliver excellence for our clients.”
“This Brandon Hall recognition underscores our belief that empowering people through continuous learning and leadership development is the key to sustainable growth,” the executive added.
Cultivating future-ready leaders
Ness is a full-lifecycle digital engineering firm offering digital advisory through its scaled engineering services.
Headquartered in New York City, the company serves customers across 11 innovation hubs in the US, Eastern Europe, and India to manage digital transformation journeys from strategy through execution to help enterprises thrive in today’s digital economy.
Talent is at the heart of this business offering.
As Shivadarshan Deshamudre, AVP & Global Head of Learning and Development at Ness, explained, “Our programs have accelerated internal mobility, reduced external hiring costs, and cultivated future-ready leaders across the organization.”
“This recognition belongs to our passionate learners and the supervisors who champion their growth every day—their commitment is the true driver of our success.”
Benchmarks for organizational excellence and innovation
For over 30 years, Brandon Hall Group has empowered, recognized, and certified excellence in organizations worldwide, influencing the development of over 10 million employees and executives. The HCM Excellence Awards® recognize the best organizations that have successfully developed and deployed programs, strategies, modalities, processes, systems and tools that have achieved measurable results.
Rachel Cooke, Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer, explained, “This year’s Excellence Award winners exemplify the transformative power of strategic human capital management. Through their innovative approaches to talent development and employee engagement, these organizations have not only achieved remarkable business outcomes but have also redefined what it means to create truly people-centric workplaces.”
For Ness, the 2025 results reflect a longstanding track record of outstanding performance in talent management.
The company secured five Brandon Hall Group Awards in 2024 and was recognized with the 2025 BEST Award by the Association for Talent Development (ATD).
