Your portal could never: The best employee portals of 2025
Last year, ServiceNow kicked off its inaugural Best Employee Portal Contest to showcase exceptional employee experiences created by our customers. Building on that momentum, I’m excited to introduce a new wave of ServiceNow customers using Employee Center Professional to increase engagement, simplify digital choices, and boost productivity.
This year’s contest submissions exceeded our expectations in many ways. “It’s an embarrassment of riches,” says Sancho Pinto, vice president of unified experiences at ServiceNow.
For best results, we organised employee portals into four categories:
- Overall portals (unified services and modern intranets)
- Single-departmental portals
- Partner internal portals
- Special recognition portals (aka judges’ choice)
Without further ado, let’s meet the winners of the 2025 Best Employee Portal Contest.
Best overall employee portals
First place: Danone
Food and beverage company Danone involved more than 100 employees in its design phase and replaced 27 regional intranet sites, simplifying digital sprawl to make employees’ jobs easier. Dubbed “the starting point to your digital daily journey,” MyDanone has become the face of Danone’s culture. It’s the primary interface for communication, engagement, tools, and services that employees use every day.
“The MyDanone portal revolutionised Danone’s digital landscape by replacing 27 regional intranet platforms and integrating seven global function systems, including VivaEngage, SuccessFactors, Concur, Qualtrics, SAP, and more,” says Chetna Manglik, senior vice president of HR Centre of Excellence and HR global functions.
“Ultimately, MyDanone has become the cornerstone platform supporting Danone employees’ daily digital journeys, from onboarding and employee lifecycle management to accessing learning and all other employee services available,” Manglik adds.
Second place: Bane NOR
Norwegian railway network Bane NOR transformed its existing employee portal, which had been structured according to how support teams operate, into one that aligns with how employees expect to find information and services.
Bane NOR performed user testing on its prototype, gathering feedback to validate ideas and ensure alignment with employees’ needs. The company then used design-driven innovation methods to build a portal that supports communications, facilities, finance, HR, IT, and legal.
“We were fully capable of making our vision in design possible through the technology of ServiceNow,” says Magnus Karlen, design lead at Sopra Steria (Bane NOR’s partner).
Third place: Adidas
Adidas impressed our judges with its ASPEN portal, which facilitates services across IT, HR, finance, procurement, source to pay, travel and expense, facilities, and legal departments. The athletic apparel and footwear company also created a complementary mobile experience using the Now Mobile app for its deskless employees.
“We are committed to creating a more connected, efficient, and supported environment for our people, driving both individual and organisational success,” says Ivan Golenko, director of service management at Adidas.
We'd also like to acknowledge the other finalists (listed alphabetically) in this category:
- Chevron
- E. & J. Gallo Winery
- Jacobs Solutions
- Morningstar
- Sanford Health
- SMS Datatech
- Vail Resorts
Top single-departmental employee portals
First place: Mondelez
Global consumer foods company Mondelez transformed its employees’ HR experience to create what it calls “a next-generation employee center that’s intuitive, efficient, and actually enjoyable to use.” The results have been impressive:
- 14-point increase in Net Promoter Score
- 76% boost in deflection rate, thanks to self-service
- 78% reduction in laptops not being available on day 1
“Our main stakeholders are our employees,” says Janne Sleater, employee experience lead at Mondelez. “By asking them to co-create with us, we are on a path of building engagement, trust, and the knowledge that them sharing their feedback and ideas is taken on board.”
Second place: Southern Company
Southern Company built an HR portal so useful and popular that most of its employees access it once or twice a week. The utility company also integrated its portal with Oracle HCM Cloud and myriad other systems to show employees their time-off balances, latest paycheck details, and total rewards benefits in one convenient, aggregated experience.
“ServiceNow provided us a portal that allowed us to easily configure that and make it specific to the employee based on where they work, what region they are in, what company they may work for,” says Marcel Barre, director HR technology and data governance at Southern Company. “It really allowed us to get the right information in front of the right employees in a fast and efficient manner that they’ve come to expect.”
Third place: Xerox
To create a fabulous HR portal for its employees, Xerox emphasised consistency in its design patterns. “Our employee digital experiences are guided by our global branding standards, ensuring consistency across all touch points,” says Daniela Pascari, senior technology business relationship manager at the company.
“These standards encompass branding elements, tone of voice, typography, colour schemes, and imagery guidelines,” she adds. Xerox also collaborated with leaders to develop a roadmap for introducing new features to employees for faster adoption.
“At Xerox, we’re not just transforming HR—we’re shaping the future of work,” Pascari continues. “MyHRConnection is more than a platform. It’s a strategy, a vision, and a commitment to continuous innovation.”
Top partner internal portals (alphabetically)
- INRY employees use their internal portal to celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries and give one another kudos for jobs well done, earning gamification points on the leaderboard as a result. The portal also provides role-specific resources, such as time allocations for consultants and time sheet approvals.
- NewRocket uses its purple branding and aesthetic background images for all pages on its “Mission Control” portal. This reinforces the company culture at every step. In addition, the portal features extended profile pages so that employees can share their skills, certifications, and personal fun facts.
- Thirdera (Cognizant) pushes the visual boundaries on its internal employee portal, which sports a dark background accented by brightly contrasted icons. It incorporates a custom solution to enable Cognizant acquisitions and business units to access business-critical data via a standardised access point. And the portal incorporates Thirdera University, allowing employees to register for courses and track industry experience and certifications.
Special recognition portals
- CH Robinson: impressive microsites with video integration
- City of Copenhagen: outstanding local government employee experience
- Freedom Mortgage: exceptional change management for greater adoption
- Otis Elevator: excellent manufacturing employee experience
- Rate.com: phenomenal personalisation
- SailPoint Technologies: standout innovation
Want to elevate your employee portal?
These employee portals are an inspiration to us all. If you’re ready to take your employee experience to the next level, download our detailed report from last year’s contest. And see this year’s contest graphics and videos in the ServiceNow community.
Find out more about how ServiceNow can help reinvent your employee experience.