Press Release

Ciphr’s CPO Claire Hawes receives Outstanding Leader in HR award

The Rewards and Incentive Awards celebrates exceptional achievements within the payroll and rewards sectors

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Claire Williams Ciphr

Claire Hawes, chief people and operations officer at HR, payroll and benefits software provider Ciphr, has been recognised as an ‘Outstanding Leader in HR’ at the 2025 Rewards and Incentive Awards.

Ciphr's Claire Hawes collecting her award at The Rewards 2025


She received the coveted award for her and her team’s work on reshaping Ciphr’s people strategy and culture, impressing the judges with her inspirational “leadership, vision, and people-first approach”. 

Claire Hawes, chief people and operations officer at Ciphr, says: “I’m delighted to win the Outstanding Leader in HR Award. I am passionate about empowering others to become great leaders, helping them to push boundaries, increase their visibility and drive meaningful change across the people profession. After spending my entire career in the HR space, it’s a real joy to have my own contribution recognised. 

“I’m incredibly proud of this award. But I’m even prouder of the brilliant people at Ciphr that I have the privilege to work with – particularly the HR team – who make leading them the best part of my job.”

Ciphr’s people team, headed up by Hawes and her director of people Karen Lough, were a finalist for The Rewards’ best ‘In-house Team’ award. Hawes was also a finalist for their ‘Woman of the Year’ award.

This isn’t the first time that her HR leadership has been recognised at a national level. Earlier this year, she was named one of the UK’s top 30 most influential and impactful HR leaders by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), as part of their first ever CIPD HR30 list. 

Hawes has worked at Ciphr for over eight years. She joined the Ciphr Group board in 2022 and was promoted from CPO to chief people and operations officer in 2024; with her responsibilities expanding to include customer operations and experience, compliance, and information governance, as well as leading Ciphr’s people function and company-wide strategic initiatives.

Ciphr is the go-to HR and payroll software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, benefits, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams, helping to inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organisations. Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard – in the boardroom and across the business.

For more information, please visit www.ciphr.com.

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Media enquiries:

Emma-Louise Jones, digital PR manager at Ciphr
e: ejones@ciphr.com

Chris Boddice, chief marketing officer at Ciphr
e: cboddice@ciphr.com
Website: www.ciphr.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ciphr

 

Notes:

Photo of Claire Hawes (Williams), Ciphr: https://www.ciphr.com/hubfs/corporate-pr-images/Claire%20Williams%20Ciphr.png

Ciphr is the go-to HR and payroll software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, benefits, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams to help inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organisations. Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard – in the boardroom and across the business.

The Ciphr Group is a privately held company backed by ECI Partners and headquartered in Reading. Over 230 employees work across the group, which includes Ciphr and Avantus, as well as its previous acquisition Marshall E-Learning (now known as Ciphr eLearning).

Ciphr spokespeople are available to provide expert media comment on a broad range of topics, including HR strategy, people management, employee experience and wellbeing, payroll, benefits and rewards, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), learning and development, the future of work, tech trends, business and leadership, marketing, and more.