The organisation has an exceptional achievement award programme. Employees who are nominated for this receive a personal letter from the Chief Executive, and awarded either a bonus, vouchers or a weekend away. There is no limit how many times an individual can be nominated.

Over the past three years the company has successfully worked towards the Better Health at Work Gold Accreditation and are now focusing on Continuing Excellence. During this time have introduced advice on healthy eating, alcohol intake, cancer awareness, exercise and introduced free fruit Fridays. Have in-house Yoga and keep-fit sessions heavily subsidised by the company as well as a walking and running group. This year they upped their game and offered free Indian head massages to all staff. 57 took up the offer and we received overwhelming feedback: - 'It was lovely, it cleared my head for the afternoon and helped me to concentrate'. Staff are encouraged to take part in events and in March supported the Homes for Britain campaign taking a lead role in the north east section. Around thirty members of staff took part in covering the route from Alnmouth in Northumberland to the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle either by cycling, running or walking all or part of the route. During Stoptober hypnotherapy was offered to members of staff who wanted to stop smoking. Offer annual health checks that cover; weight, blood pressure, body composition, spirometer, oximeter, blood glucose and cholesterol with 95 members of staff taking part. On receiving Better Health at Work Gold Award, they were complimented on the innovative approach to improving workplace health.

As a mission driven company, the wider social issues of literacy improvement, digital inclusion and accessibility are key drivers for the company's overall activities, and they promote and champion these ‘causes' as part of their daily business. In terms of charitable fundraising, Texthelp have supported several charities including Camara, Northern Ireland Children's Hospice and Mencap. There have also been collections organised for local food banks and both the Calais and Kos appeal's. Fundraisers include Pub Quizzes to raffles and Bake Off's/Cakes Sales to Car Boot Sales. There was also a Valentine's Day party, silent auction, secret santa, scary face competition and Christmas dress up. Staff have taken part in zip lines, abseiling, marathons and various fun runs including Race for Life and Colour Run which support local charities.

The ‘Project Compass' initiative was presented and explained to all employees when it was launched. An infographic displaying all the key points of the initiative is displayed in the kitchen area for people to refer to at any time. Each new starter meets the CEO who gives them an overview of the Company's mission, core values and vision. The company's performance management platform has been set up to mirror the Company mission by measuring the company goals of Customer Experience and Operational Excellence. The competencies measured against each employee match the core values and behaviours. Each person within the company has at least one KPI that directly impacts the main goals. This is known as the golden thread. The platform allows us to track the golden thread more effectively and embed it in the culture of the organisation so that everyone feels a collective responsibility to achieve the Company mission, values and vision and knows how their contribution affects the overall business objectives.

The company is happy to try new work patterns to accommodate people's requests, which helps enormously with the stresses of the work/life balance. The company ensures employees have the necessary IT infrastructure and support to allow them to work remotely. They are as flexible as they possibly can be without compromising the quality of their service or work. To encourage people to choose healthier alternatives to the cakes and sweets which usually feature in the kitchen several times throughout the week, Tectrade has a weekly fruit delivery which everyone is invited to enjoy as well as jars of nuts as an alternative to the sweet options.

Technetix host work experience pupils from schools in the local area. Pupils spend a week within a department of their choice, learning about careers in the industry and gaining insight into real-world environments.

At Teach First they have a community of past participants who have been on the Teach First Leadership programme. They organise and stay constantly in touch with the past participants who become ambassadors for Teach First in the community raising awareness of the company's mission and values. Many ambassadors go on to start entrepreneurial charities and initiatives which outreach in to local communities and across the Teach First network.

Vision and values are vital at Skyscanner and they communicate them in multiple ways. When someone joins Skyscanner they will have an induction session with senior members of the team to explain their vision and values and how these are practically applied within the organisation. The values are reinforced throughout the offices and Skyscanner are extremely proud of them. They are displayed to visitors and their employees by being integrated into their office design. Company communications also continue to reinforce their values, they have quarterly company updates which allow the entire company to be updated on their progress towards their vision, CEO lunches and COO question time where employees are invited to lunch with the CEO and ask anything they'd like. The vision statement and what is being doing to achieve this is central to these discussions. Skyscanner store a lot of information on their knowledge management system and intranet but find that the most effective way of communicating the vision and values is through their employees, they have become advocates for their values, using them to guide behaviours but also communicating them others around the business.

The company has identified a group of high potential managers in the business that are seen as the next generation in leadership: the Simply Business Leadership Network (SBLN). They develop a broader leadership network in the organisation that will help everyone be more effective and work closer together towards their goals; To invest in top performers in the organisation and their development; To encourage peer support and learning; To ensure that the person they report to on the Management Team is getting the support they need; To improve the business as a whole – encouraging the next layer of management to think and work cross functionally in the same way that the Management Team do; To identify and support succession planning.

The Sentinel Housing trades team (around 30 people) take part in an incentive scheme which is paid out quarterly. It looks at a number of different areas but is linked to the company values and also what is important to their customers. It is important to Sentinel Housing that they put the customer at the heart of what they do and as their trades team are working with our customer's day in and day out. Feedback and compliments are taken very seriously and the team are rewarded for receiving compliments. This also is linked to the ACE customer service model which looks at an Awesome Customer Experience. Sentinel Housing boast a competitive salary, excellent annual leave entitlement, flexible working opportunities, childcare vouchers, a personal development allowance for staff, free car parking on site, an employee assistance programme giving access to professional advice and counselling, free eye tests and a contribution towards glasses, life insurance for employees and reduced health insurance rates for family members, amongst other benefits.