dm-drogerie markt wins Grand Prix Adria in 2025

The Best Employer Brand Awards Adria continue to strengthen their position as the most relevant employer branding recognition in the region. This year’s awards once again highlighted employers who, throughout 2025, developed programs and initiatives that build trust, dignity, and meaning at work - values without which no healthy, successful, or sustainable organization can exist today.

Among the laureates, dm-drogerie markt d.o.o. stood out in particular. The company’s impressive collection of awards confirms what many employees have long recognized: dm is a company that genuinely places people at the center of everything it does. It therefore comes as no surprise that dm was named the Best Employer in the Adria region for 2025.

Nataša Odak, Head of Human Resources Development at dm, emphasized the importance of this approach for dm-drogerie markt:

“This award has deep meaning for us because it confirms that the professional community recognizes the effort we invest in creating an environment where employees feel seen, valued, and included. Employer branding is not a campaign - it is a daily responsibility, a continuous commitment to people, their development, well-being and sense of belonging. We are proud to build a culture together that is based on trust and dialogue - because dm is more than a job; dm is a community.”

At a time when companies across Europe are undergoing profound transformations, business success is no longer measured solely by revenue growth or innovation. Increasingly, it is defined by an organization’s ability to create sustainable employee experiences, develop leaders, foster psychological safety, and build organizational resilience—areas in which dm particularly excelled this year.

Vladimir Benić, Founder of the Best Employer Brand Awards Adria, highlighted the broader significance of such initiatives for the region:

“Organizations that genuinely invest in people - their development, well-being, and everyday work experiences - become stronger, more innovative, and more resilient. That is precisely why we recognize employers who create environments where people feel a true sense of belonging, meaningful contribution, and respect for their work. dm-drogerie markt demonstrated exceptional maturity and commitment this year and has rightfully earned the title of Best Employer in the region for 2025.”

This year’s most awarded company received the Grand Prix Adria, Grand Prix Croatia, Best Employer Brand in the Retail Sector, as well as awards for Best External Communication and Best Event.

A successful year for leading employers

A1 Hrvatska achieved outstanding results in the Best Digital Communication category in which it has consistently excelled in recent years. In addition, A1 Hrvatska was recognized as the Best Employer in the Telecommunications Sector and Best Large Company. Particularly noteworthy is the company’s modern and strategically well-designed employee development program, which significantly exceeds the typical level of development initiatives in the region - both in terms of methodology quality, accessibility of coaching and the clarity of the culture it supports.

Elixirr Digital was named Best Medium-Sized Company, while Decode received the award for Best Small Company. Elixirr Digital was recognized for authentically aligning its employer brand with a comprehensive company transformation, placing internal alignment and employee experience at the forefront.

Decode stood out through its strong cultural focus, stable work environment, commitment to professional development, collaboration with experienced experts and opportunities to work with major global companies.

Mojca Veselko from Lidl Slovenia was named Best Employer Brand Manager. This award represents the culmination of years of consistent, strategic employer branding efforts by Lidl Slovenia, whose projects continuously set new standards for quality and innovation in the region. Lidl Croatia and Lidl Slovenia were jointly awarded in the highly competitive category of Best Internal Communication for their project of anchoring the new values. To ensure every employee could know, understand, and experience the new values, they aimed to unite strategy and culture and to ensure values were activated and transformed into lived, everyday behaviors at the heart of their #teamlidl culture.

Petrol received the award for Best Recruitment Campaign, transforming real-life experiences of retail employees into a powerful and authentic narrative that successfully addressed labor shortages and significantly increased job applications. Built on employee insights, exit interviews, and close collaboration between marketing, HR, and retail teams, the campaign replaced traditional job advertising with authentic, local storytelling across national and regional media.

NELT Group was the winner of Best Employer in the FMCG Sector.

Triglav Group brought a refreshing perspective to the financial sector with a comprehensive project that unified culture at the Group level, redefined corporate and employer branding and fundamentally reviewed the effectiveness of HR processes. With newly defined value propositions, modernized communication, and a series of innovative initiatives, Triglav Group demonstrated maturity and ambition, earning awards for Best Employer in the Financial Sector and Grand Prix Slovenia.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla has won the Best Employer in the Technology Sector, standing out for its strong branding project, alignment of corporate and employer brands and innovative employee development initiatives. In addition to the sector award, the company also won Best Student Program, a recognition for their investment in young talent through a summer camp and work at Inventorium - an advanced laboratory for research, innovation, and artificial intelligence.

MOL Group received the Grand Prix Hungary and the award for Innovative Employer Brand Activity. INA Group also achieved notable success for its comprehensive employee development program at the Rijeka Oil Refinery. The micro-qualification program “Managing Process Operations in an Oil Refinery”, developed in cooperation with the Natural Science and Graphic School Rijeka, enables employees - and external candidates without technical backgrounds - to acquire specialized professional knowledge.

Intellias was one of the most authentic participant in our program. Guided by the company value of empathy, they decided to launch a project that would bridge the gap between families of their colleagues and their work. "Mom, Dad, I’m Engineering the New Era" brought them the award for Best Creative Employer Brand Activity.

Zagrebačka banka received awards for its Well-being Program and for the Best Employer in the Banking Sector. The ZABA Family program demonstrates how the bank translates its values of care, responsibility, and integrity into life-relevant employee support across all life stages - from family and parenthood to mental, physical, financial and psychological well-being.

The category Improvement in Development and Activation of Employer Branding once again attracted strong interest, with Infobip named the winner for its extensive work on value propositions and the development of new career pages. Infopib was the winner of Best Employer Brand IT Sector.

Hrvatski Telekom was recognized for its outstanding CSR project “No Hate Speech”, a campaign promoting a culture of respect and responsible communication while empowering Generation Alpha and Generation Z to recognize, report and actively oppose hate speech in both digital and real-world spaces. The company also received the award for Best Employer Brand Team, recognizing initiatives aimed at improving collaboration and introducing a new approach to development and operational excellence supported by a more active leadership role. Transparency, trust, and teamwork form the foundation of this transformation, shaping a culture where learning, growth, and success create new opportunities and measurable business impact.

The award for Best Employee Experience Activity was presented to L’Oréal Adria for its HR digitalization project, which simplifies, connects and empowers every stage of the employee lifecycle, enhancing employee experience by fostering autonomy, trust, and stronger collaboration between employees, managers and HR.

Fabular won the award for Best Agency Project for its collaboration with Ericsson Nikola Tesla, while Fabular’s Head of Brand Strategy, Petra Despot Domljanović, also delivered a keynote presentation on the alignment of corporate and employer branding.

This year’s expert jury consisted of Aleksandra Kregar, Jelena Jelušić, Mirna Koričan Lajtman, Jelena Mucić, and Vladimir Benić.

Thank you for another inspiring year and congratulations to all participants and winners.