Purpose Boosts Engagement

In addition to a discretionary annual staff bonus and an additional bonus once an engineer completes their Chartership, the Directors rewarded staff with a unique event to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. All UK staff were taken to the Wyboston Lakes Hotel in Bedfordshire on Thursday and the celebration started with a gala dinner on that night. The next day there were a number of team building exercises followed by a barbeque before the staff headed home for the weekend. This inevitably adds to the high level of engagement within Tony Gee and, in turn, a lower than average staff turnover rate. In a feedback survey after the event, the company received many positive comments including the example below: “Just a little note to thank you for a brilliant get together for the 40th Anniversary celebration. As well as having a lot of fun, I especially enjoyed meeting up with colleagues I deal with on a daily basis, it really has enhanced the working relationship. It's good to be a part of Tony Gee.”

In addition to a discretionary annual staff bonus and an additional bonus once an engineer completes their Chartership, the Directors rewarded staff with a unique event to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. All UK staff were taken to the Wyboston Lakes Hotel in Bedfordshire on Thursday and the celebration started with a gala dinner on that night. The next day there were a number of team building exercises followed by a barbeque before the staff headed home for the weekend. This inevitably adds to the high level of engagement within Tony Gee and, in turn, a lower than average staff turnover rate. In a feedback survey after the event, the company received many positive comments including the example below: “Just a little note to thank you for a brilliant get together for the 40th Anniversary celebration. As well as having a lot of fun, I especially enjoyed meeting up with colleagues I deal with on a daily basis, it really has enhanced the working relationship. It's good to be a part of Tony Gee.”

The company work with their Senior Associates each year who are the talent for the future and each year they decide upon and run a project within the firm which is linked to strategic objectives. It is a great way to develop their leadership and project skills whilst delivering on important employee engagement initiatives. For example in 2013/2014 they ran a campaign called your voice where they held lunch time sessions with the staff without management present and gathered feedback and ideas for improving recognition. These results were presented to the leadership team and many of those ideas have been implemented in 2014/2015.

The company don't do anything innovative but the general level the of support they provide their employees with is fairly unique for the sector.

For many years Think Money Group has been a Platinum payroll giving provider. However, this year the company decided to move away from Charities Aid Foundation to a new scheme administrator, Give All. There are three main advantages: Give All doesn't charge a fee so all donations make it to the charities; Give All operates entirely online and staff can administer their own accounts and, finally, Give All distributes money to charity with 48 hours rather than weeks. To make the move the company have to get staff to sign up to Give All. The company automatically set up their accounts with Give All - all they needed to do is to login, confirm their charities and confirm their donation amounts. 82% of staff did just that - matching the number that donated on the old system. In fact the company asked staff to increase their donations and many did - so they now give more than ever each month. After many years of supporting Seashell Trust in Manchester staff voted for a new local charity this year - Cash For Kids. Through Cash For Kids the company can support deprived children across Greater Manchester.

The company encourages employees to participate in charitable events and have a policy for matching employee donations which is well utilised. Staff initiatives have included cycle rides, coffee and cake events, marathon running, movember participation etc. The company have also developed a volunteering policy that encourages staff to take two days paid leave to volunteer in the local community. The CEO is a trustee for the Stevenage Community Trust, a voluntary organisation who raises funds and promotes charitable giving in order to enhance the quality of life of people living in the Stevenage area.

Managers hold monthly 1-2-1 meetings with their employees where learning and development is discussed. Employees are able to request financial support for training which will enhance their knowledge and skill set for their role. The company also offer in house training such as the company induction, email management and training specific to roles and divisions in which attendance is mandatory for all employees.

Location swapping between the Leeds, York and Harrogate offices is a very effective practice that the company undertake with their staff. Each month a selection of members from each sales team swap seats with a colleague in a different location for between a day and a week. This system of locations swapping has multiple benefits including; spreading best practice; increasing interaction between teams; challenging the ‘norms' that are created at each location by showing a different way to do something and creating meaningful relationships with colleagues that otherwise would only ever happen on email or at team gatherings. This practice also removes barriers of communication, because staff have worked alongside the people they are talking to, enabling a smoother flow of information. This practice also applies to managers, with members of the account management team working from each of the locations for at least one day per month. This allows the sales team to see/feel/hear what happens with the new customers that they bring on, as well as increasing the flow of feedback to and from the sales team and the account management team.

The company promote a virtual shares programme called ‘Brickies' to reward employees. Employees can invest part/all of their annual performance-related bonus into Brickies, and the company guarantee that this amount will grow in line with the agency's revenues during that period. It's a tax-efficient way for employees to feel that their savings are growing in line with the company's growth. In keeping with the agency values of 'Above & Beyond' the company also hold monthly Above & Beyond awards, where employees nominate colleagues who they believe have embodied the Above & Beyond spirit. The person with the most votes gets £50 in cash to spend on whatever they choose.

As well as walking meetings, team members are encouraged to work standing up. The company have dedicated areas where team members can take their laptops and work standing up. Stand up meetings are also commonplace and encouraged. Fresh fruit is supplied daily. This year the company is also running a Wellbeing Week, starting the day with team meditation, yoga daily. The company arrange for Nutritionist to talk to all team about nutrition and wellbeing. Mindful colouring books available at lunch and breakout areas. Counselling as part of company benefits, they offer a 'mental wellbeing' counselling service for anyone that wants to take it up.

In December 2014, Havebury was celebrating being awarded Investors in People Silver accreditation. The assessment demonstrated that Havebury met all the requirements for the Investors in People award. They achieved a silver accreditation after going beyond the required standard to meet an additional 87 indicators from the wider Investors in People framework. The assessor comments positively on the ongoing commitment to developing their employees skills and their focus on customer service. “There is a range of opportunities for everyone to develop leadership capabilities. Potential managers have access to management development activities and there are opportunities to act up in a role, lead on improvement projects and lead on a specialist area and share expertise with others, everyone is very committed and dedicated to Havebury's overall purpose and priorities and was keen to help in whatever way they could to support improvements. They are extremely proud to work here.”

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.

Enabling Your Potential -Ethics of coaching and developing so people know where their future is within the company.

They sit in an open plan office so they are with the rest of the team. They know everything there is to know about the brand. They have an "open door" policy when it comes to asking/answering questions. They are extremely approachable. They live and breathe the company. They take ownership.

Robert Woodhead Ltd allowed their local Scout Group to stay in their building overnight, using the facilities available, to enable them to complete several badges. The Scout Troop held an award presentation evening where Robert Woodhead Ltd provided them with the funds to cater for all Scouts, their families and members from the Scout movement. Robert Woodhead Ltd have also engaged with communities around their construction sites, this included the BIG Initiative Programme (Building to Inspire a Generation) which has been set up with the purpose of addressing the skills gap of both on site and office based roles across the construction industry. The purpose of the BIG Initiative was clear and focused on two areas: They wanted a robust strategy, method and brand to inspire people of all ages to join the construction industry. Secondly they wanted a vehicle to drive training and development for people who were already in the industry. The B.I.G Initiative is a companywide commitment to training and development.

The One Riverside Annual Training Plan & the launch of ‘Learning to Lead.' 100% of employees have an annual performance appraisal, containing a two-way discussion between employee and manager to evidence competencies and objectives. Training needs are identified and agreed. This forms the basis of Riverside's annual training plan. Each employee reviews development through a regular 1-2-1 meeting with their own manager. This training plan guarantees employees a range of elearning, workshop-based training, non-work related personal development opportunities, and the opportunity to apply for funded professional development – often with time off to study. All business areas have provision for learning adaptations, staff events and conferences and a continuous professional development. As part of this commitment and to provide the business with a bench strength of ‘ready talent to entry level line manager roles, the company launched a new talent programme called ‘Learning to Lead' – with applications open to those wishing to become ‘job ready.' This talentpool of 40 employees completed an assessment centre, 360 feedback, a series of skills, knowledge and behaviour workshops, heard from guest leadership speakers, and had unlimited access to a line manager elearning suite of modules. Each employee had a mentor throughout the 6-month programme. One year after the launch, 70% of employees in the programme had successfully been recruited into line manager roles, reducing our cost and time per hire and raising engagement with this talentpool and retaining their skills rather than lose them to other organisations.

Ridgeons have a range of activities throughout the year as fundraising events for charity. All branches recently took part in the Macmillan coffee morning. Branches have also organised dress down days, sponsored cycle rides, dragon boat racing etc. A number of the branches will also respond to requests from local organisations for free building materials. Each branch has a separate community budget that they control. As a company they are also members of Business in the Community and take part in their Business Class initiative where they partner a local school. Ridgeons partner North Cambridge Academy and facilitate a range of events including mentoring students to learn about the world of work, providing pre-employment skills to students, offering work experience and have just introduced an annual competition for 13 year olds to design a display stand to be used in one of their branches.

Managing Excellence is RICS' internal training programme, which is designed to encourage Managers to talk about their performance with their line manager, to identify strengths and gaps in performance, to create and own their own development plan and build capability as a people manager. The process has been designed to be flexible, so that workshops and other development solutions can be added and updated according to the company's organisational needs. This approach has also allowed RICS to package workshops into 3-4 day modules to be delivered globally, according to the needs of the management teams outside of the UK. They also have Elevate, a leadership development programme that is delivered over three, three-day modules designed for managers to take the next step from managing people to leading teams. It is based on three areas: Leading Self (self-awareness, emotional intelligence), Leading Others (transformational leadership) and Leading the Business (culture, vision and strategy).

The company are working with Form the Future ,a Cambs-wide educational charity to support various educational outreach activities. They have sent volunteers to participate in mock interviews with students at a local secondary school, run a CV writing workshop, and an interactive STEM careers workshop, and invited 20 students to visit Redgate where they'll spend time learning about four different projects. The company has just started to partner with Chesterton Community College to help their head of computing design and deliver a Computer Science curriculum for years 7 to 11. The company is partnering with Simprints, a local non-profit delivering hardware to help healthcare workers identify patients in the developing world, on a week-long project to rewrite some of their key software. The company also has a long-standing relationship with Romsey Mill, a local charity supporting young people and families, and offer them help throughout the year. The company donate their old computers to Afrinspire. There is also a volunteer day where every member of staff can spend one day a year volunteering on any charitable project they like.

A high percentage of the company's managers are home grown and the company therefore ensure they have the opportunity to receive training prior to promotion, to enable them to take on new responsibilities and tasks. The company have two training courses that are aimed at supervisors and assistant managers specifically, Ambassadors in Management (AIM) 1 & 2. They cover subjects such as, workplace communication, motivating a team to perform, induction and coaching, dealing with change, time management, problem solving skills, influencing and negotiating amongst others. Once managers, there is a range of foundation management courses they must attend, such as Health & Safety for Managers, Appraisal skills, Recruitment & Selection, and how to manage people and their performance. We call this AIM 3. For Heads of Department, senior managers and general managers there is a course called “Championing our Elite” which covers project management, managing a budget, leadership and management skills. The company has mentors for junior managers and for our graduate programme participants which helps support, nurture and challenge the managers of the future. All those on the graduate management programme have quarterly meetings with our Managing Director which is both a great development opportunity and support for individuals as they progress through their programme.

Extra Care scheme (for very elderly and vulnerable residents) was recently renovated, including the creation of sensory gardens. In addition to the south garden, which also includes a BBQ area for summer parties, a ‘wildlife walk' has been created with elevated views of Poole Harbour, and a courtyard with beautifully scented evergreen pine, rosemary and euphorbia. Residents are thrilled with the results. This has had the desired impact of encouraging elderly residents to leave their flats and enjoy the gardens and socialise with other residents; with important health benefits. There are now successful community gardens in areas that no-one believed they could work, and local youngsters are getting to understand where their food comes from, and learn about healthy eating. They support the local credit union (Coastal Community Savings and Loans) and offer the time of their staff to support the running and good governance of this organisation.

pastingThe Phoenix Car Company culture is steeped in giving something back. To the wider community, charity organisations and supporting worthy causes. £71000 last year is testament to the importance they place on this topic.

Commitment, dedication, passion and organisation are some of the values senior management possess, so as to have the required influence for others to follow and be part of the common goal for all to share in the continuous success of the Company. Their knowledge of the Industry coupled with their decisiveness creates confidence and security.

The senior management team live, breathe and assess company values regularly, they show their commitment to this through promoting the values daily at team meetings where the values are brought to life. The senior management are also measured on behaviours which encompass all of the Company values, as are all of their colleagues. The senior management team are also very visible on site, once again displaying values such as team work and recognition.

Pension Protection Fund have a Sports, Social and Charity Committee (SSCC) which is responsible for organising PPF-wide money-raising events. Staff voted for Cancer Research UK as their national charity for 2015, and the SSCC has organised a cake sale, quiz night, football tournament and raffles to raise money. There are also stations for staff to leave donations to Cancer Research UK shops. In the first five months Pension Protection Fund have donated 91 bags. The company's local charity initiative with Croydon Commitment enables them to take part in a number of 'Community Days' throughout the year. In December 2014, the company prepared and served Christmas dinner at Parchmore Community Centre for local pensioners, and they also packed Christmas hampers at Croydon Neighbourhood Care Association. In December 2014, PPF volunteers decorated apartments at a local residential complex for older people. More recently, PPF volunteers helped turn an outdoor play space into an external classroom at St Giles' School, a school for pupils with physical disabilities and complex medical needs. This involved plenty of painting and preparing surfaces. Pension Protection Fund have installed a food bank donation station in their office to support the Croydon based Save Humanity Organisation's Community Food Bank.

The company have a huge amount of initiatives aimed at supporting development, from lunchtime CPD sessions, the annual £250 budget per person for spending on (if desired non-work related) training, regular training courses and a full programme for supporting trainee architects through their Part 3 qualification. Support for the Part 3 qualification includes a £1,000 contribution towards course fees, placing them on projects which are suitable case studies for their Part 3, running an internal lecture series, formal study groups, and mentoring and examination preparation run by those Partners who are also external examiners.

The company have recently been through a rebranding exercise and brought all employees into the process. The team was invited to contribute ideas towards the vision of the practice, some of which are being implemented. The company communicate through monthly breakfast presentations, design presentations and charettes and the company intranet.

The company send HR staff to schools to prepare them for interviews. Trainee Solicitors are sent to Testwood College to speak to students who may wish to pursue a career in law. The company run a work experience scheme each year for students. The Paris Smith Choir help raise money at Christmas for charity by singing at shopping Malls. The company take part in donating Christmas presents for disadvantaged children each year.

The company has a comprehensive performance management scheme which is designed to encourage, recognise and reward high performance throughout the business. The scheme also encourages employees to put the company values into practice in their day-to-day roles. Every employee is given a copy of "A useful guide to Opus Energy's Performance Management Scheme" during their induction when they attend a training session about the scheme. Each employee is responsible for their own performance and progress with guidance and support from their manager. The performance management scheme works on a six-monthly cycle and at the end of each six-month period each employee's performance is scored out of 10, which is applied as a percentage of the salary paid to the employee during the six-month period. This is then paid as a performance-related bonus. The three areas that are measured as part of the bonus calculation are "individual objectives", "team targets" and "competencies".

The company use the Salesforce Chatter to encourage employees to communicate; there are separate groups for different teams. The company circulate a staff update each month which has an area for each department to provide information on their own area and what it has been up to over the course of the month. The Company also cover costs of one team event per quarter for all teams, on top of group-wide events that take place twice a year. They also hold management meetings every month after each directors meeting and each team then has follow on meetings thereafter to encourage regular communication between directors and the wider team.

Octink strives to work in close partnership with the local community and directors and employees alike are actively involved in our community activities. Our CEO, Will Tyler is Chairman of Spark, a charity that creates links between local schools and businesses to improve the employability of young people. While our MD, Mike Freely is a Director of Cultivate London, an innovative urban farm and social enterprise based across multiple derelict sites in West London. These partnerships with Spark and Cultivate London reflect our wider community commitment. To helping improve the employability of young people in the community by giving them opportunities to gain work experience and develop new skills. In the last 12 months the company has invested a combination of employee volunteering time, cash donations and work in kind donations to the value of over £15,000.

North Devon Homes believe that “culture” and “business objectives” require equal investment to enable them to deliver their vision. They invest a great deal of their leadership time on getting the culture right and have developed “Team ndh” as their culture. Team ndh drives the values, leadership, training and is “the way they do things ”. The company overlay this with their business objectives. They use Great Game of Business principles to help them embed this approach, Principles are based on the belief that to achieve success every employee should: understand the numbers enough to know what business success looks like, be expected and enabled to act on their knowledge to improve performance and have a direct stake in the company's success and risk of failure.

Networks First believe strongly in giving back, and they currently have a number of initiatives in place to help raise money for their local chosen charity, Birmingham's Children's Hospital. These include: Tuck Shop - a variety of items are on sale to employees via Networks First's own 'tuck shop' including items such as; chocolate, sweets, crisps, popcorn, cans of pop, flavored water etc. Suggested donations are provided, and there is an honesty box for people to make their donation for an item. All profits go to the company's chosen charity BCH. Bake-Off - Throughout the the Entertainments Committee set dates for a bake off between employees in the office. Employees then donate a cake(s) on the day, which get entered into a competition for the chance to win vouchers for the Tuck Shop and a certificate that Mary Berry would be proud of! Employees then make a donation for a slice of cake. Employees can chose to bring in shop cakes, but these are not entered in the competition.

Employee Connect Nationwide has a group of 1,000+ employees called Employee Connect. The virtual group influence business decisions by being consulted on ongoing issues including product design, service improvements, marketing and employee campaigns. The company creates bespoke employee apps to foster greater interaction. For the Annual Awards 2015, the event app had 96% of employee finalists logged in, 796 photos posted, 969 comments, 1,232 status updates, 4,274 likes and over 55,000 visits. The retail division comprises 9,000 employees across 700+ branches and sites. To connect those employees the company have created a Virtual Retail Expo, which enables people to have a better understanding of what other Retail teams do, key contacts, latest news and product information. Corporate cascade Nationwide's five year Corporate Plan is announced internally in April each year. Following a leadership conference for the top 800 leaders, the corporate plan is then cascaded through every division, department and team within the business over a 6 week period. So every one of our 17,000 employees receives a face to face presentation on our latest business strategy.

Following the appointment of their new Head of Talent, the company began with a major overhaul of the entirety of the learning and development offering. A new company-wide appraisal process and associated documentation was rolled out, in line with the commencement of the new fiscal year. This allowed their L&D team to conduct a full training needs analysis across the company. Their training partner, with Head of Talent, launched a “new starter training programme” for onboarding all new employees. Their mid-level / Senior Consultants were offered a newly designed “advanced sales training course” to enhance and develop their skills, and maximise their potential. Having previously had all management training delivered by external partners, they were able to bring this offering in house and are in the process of delivering a new “Leadership Development Programme” to the entirety of their Management team. They have also assessed and redesigned their promotional process to guarantee transparency and parity at all levels. Their existing competency documents were reviewed and redesigned to ensure complete clarity of expectations for all staff for the level they are currently operating at, but also to convey to them what needs to be done in order to achieve promotion. With this increased investment they are able to create and execute a full L&D strategy, whilst simultaneously being able to create bespoke training packages in house.

BUPA health screening is available to all Senior Managers and Directors which gives an overview of their current state of health and wellbeing. The assessment of current health and future risks includes: A medical history and lifestyle questionnaire; a physical examination; a consultation with a doctor or health adviser; the opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns. Many test results are available on the day and a personalised health report and action plan with practical advice to help minimise health risks is produced. BUPA has been extended to a wider number of colleagues (benefit grade C1 and above) and offers private medical insurance which aims to fund medical treatment required. The company offers a discount Gym Membership at one of the leading leisure clubs in the UK, David Lloyd. This is to try and encourage colleagues to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. They also have a walking club set up where colleagues get together and walk into town at lunchtime. This is encouraged internally to ensure colleagues are taking a sufficient lunch hour and interacting outside the workplace. In every regional office they have a Sports & Social Committee set up. It is the responsibility of the committee members to plan and organise a range of sport and social activities. They also have a Wellbeing Section on their Intranet – this includes workout advice, healthy recipes, tips to alleviate stress.

Medigold provide their staff with many wellbeing initiatives including wellness days, smoking cessation, flu jabs, mini medicals, on-site clinician access, a dedicated wellness website, regular health promotion (on noticeboards and walkways), stress awareness, counselling and physio.

This year Maximus launched a new campaign called MAX Living to promote health and wellbeing. Every month all staff are emailed an online magazine which provide fun facts to stay healthy and a challenge for everyone to take part in that will have a big impact on health and wellbeing (e.g. a wall chart to monitor whether you are drinking a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day; a ‘pedometer challenge' competition to see which team can walk/run the greatest number of steps). The aim of MAX Living is to raise awareness of work/health related issues, such as workspace posture and mental wellbeing. They have encouraged teams to be more active by allowing them to take an extended lunch hour once a week to take part in a wellbeing activity (anything from a walk around the park to completing a fitness DVD in the office). Following feedback that teams enjoyed a one-off ‘Fruity Friday' MAX Living challenge, every office now has an allocated weekly fruit budget.

This year Marshall's have celebrated and raised awareness of a number of different wellbeing campaigns. February: Heart Disease Awareness month May: National Walking Month June: Men's Health Week July/August: Sun Awareness September: Know your numbers, Blood pressure October: Leukaemia We have offered different initiatives to accompany these campaign such as mini health mots. This year Marshalls also offered all of its employees the opportunity to have a flu jab, this is something that had never previously been offered at Marshalls.

Local business areas are able to grant rewards, ranging from a free lunch, high street vouchers, additional leave, team meals or meals out with partners.

They provide an on-site subsidised gym, pamper room, subsidised Starbucks, subsidised canteen, with healthy food options, a prayer room and a facilities helpdesk, which arranges services with external parties, such as dry cleaning and shoe repairs. Employees also benefit from an on-site M&S shop which sells a wide variety of food items, wine, cards and gifts. They have a Sports and Social Committee, who coordinate sports clubs, trips, employee discounts and guest vendors, who are invited to sell their products on site. As well as securing priority tickets for local music arenas, they negotiate discounts and this year employees have benefited from over 1500 discounted Chester Zoo tickets, over 6000 discounted cinema tickets and will have access to 350 discounted pantomime tickets. M&S Bank is committed to ensuring their employees feel valued and respected. They have two employee- led networks (Outstanding and RESPECT) which aim to promote an inclusive, open and supportive working environment for all. Employees also have the option to tailor a range of benefits to complement their lifestyle and enhance their wellbeing. For example, employees can opt to buy or sell holidays, as well as opt for an enhanced healthcare package. The majority of benefits are tax efficient. As part of their engagement strategy, they also offer employees the opportunity to attend local events with their friends and families at a subsidised cost for example, race days at Chester Racecourse, local firework displays and polo matches. In 2015 1,220 employees, friends and family have attended these events.

The business has recently launched the My Resilience Assessment and Toolkit which has had a 65% uptake so far. The My Resilience Assessment provides an awareness of how resilient you really are. The report generate is unique for each employee and highlights the key areas they may wish to focus on to bolster their resilience.

Work closely with volunteers and community groups to develop solutions to local problems and projects that help meet community needs and aspirations. Support residents to develop the skills and confidence to organise their own community activities. Follow this link to you-tube to see how it is done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqKiYU4mnQ. Get online and get ahead in the digital inclusion project, they provide free wifi, access to computers and training, this is run with the support of community groups.

The company have an Employee Forum who represent different areas of the company and who build bridges between teams. They meet bi-monthly.

The company offer Training programmes, mentoring, shadowing and workshops.

In addition to EAP, and discounted gym membership available via the company's private medical insurance, they also offer membership to all employees of the Edenred voucher scheme. This allows employees to buy discounted vouchers for shopping and leisure activities including meals and entertainment, holidays and spa activities.

Their “Club Excel” programme has been running for some years now. Club Excel is an all-expenses paid 5* holiday, for a period of 4 days and includes excursions, a gala dinner and other special events. The top 5% of employees (32 employees in 2014) are selected from all parts of the business including sales and head office functions to recognise unique and outstanding contributions. Winners are announced as part of a gala dinner at their annual company conference that all employees attend. Winners can take their partners if they wish. Previous destinations have included Monte Carlo, Lisbon, Cape Sounio and Montreaux

The company have a 50 day per year charity bucket and they encourage staff to use these days for charity related events. Employees need to apply directly with the charity committee to use some of the 50 days from the pot. Some have used days to work with homeless charities, to do fundraising activities or to spend time in local schools listening to children read. This financial year, in the company's Manchester office, they are supporting Salford Foodbank with all funds raised going to this great cause. Currently there is people using their ‘Giving Something Back' time to undertake shopping collections and deliveries, as well as packing food parcels for Foodbank visitors. The company have a great apprenticeship programme working with a local training college. They currently have 7 apprentices who they have high hopes of keeping on when they qualify. The company very much enjoy taking raw talented young people and seeing qualified professional men and women develop over the year.

IT Lab has a strong culture of ensuring that staff look after their well-being. The company offer several well-being benefits; free fruit, drinks & breakfast, quit smoking programme, on-site gym, circuit training at lunch, table tennis tables, badminton course, mountain bikes, weekly yoga classes, weekly pilates classes, weekly five a side football, tag rugby, monthly massage days, subsidised gym membership, pool table, darts board, non-work related lifestyle course which include badminton, canoeing, gymnastics, swimming and ceramics and jewellery design.

The Isoscars are held annually to reward and recognise employees effort in bringing the values to life. Everyone has the opportunity to nominate a colleague in each category and also to nominate a ‘team of the year'. Once nominations close, a panel made up of the Chief Exec, Assistant Director (People), Chair of the Staff Forum, a manager and team leader, individually shortlist the nominations, they then meet as a group to agree the winners and runners up in each category. All of the individual winners in the values categories are then pooled together and an overall ‘employee of the year' is chosen. Everyone who receives a nomination is commended publically and receives a branded Isoscar card that is addressed personally to them. The awards were presented by the Executive Team and Assistant Directors. This year it took place at the Beacon Centre in Newcastle.

The Teleworking Scheme has enhanced work life balance and welfare of staff, giving them greater flexibility in how they organise their working lives and balance the demands of their career with their domestic responsibilities and personal wellbeing. Staff take part in the annual 'Step Challenge' each year and have to achieve 10,000 steps a day. This is a lot of walking/running to do. If you don't achieve 10,000 steps each day you forfeit £1. Total forfeits are donated towards our charity.

MGROUP has a unique and innovative appraisal system which incorporates 360 degree feedback. Staff and managers are able to appraise how the previous year has gone and put together a plan for the year ahead. They use a matrix-based system that measures each individual aspect of the role being appraised (including its skills), and ask staff if they have anything they want to improve on. This process creates a growth plan for every employee, technical or otherwise. Development needs are agreed between the employee and their line manager, and are then communicated to HR to allow them to be built into the annual resourcing plan. This allows employees to be trained to maintain excellence and also provides access for employees to any aspirational or cross-platform development that will help to further their career goals. In this way, they are able to support a wide range of career and development goals, including Microsoft certifications, shadowing, in-house and external training, membership of professional bodies and even part-time college and university courses. On average, each employee has 20 days of professional development per year logged in our timesheet system. There are also regular quarterly reviews to alter and update employee training plans where necessary, making each plan a responsive, constantly evolving document. They encourage staff to meet monthly with their professional development manager to review their ongoing activities. They have also added 'post-project feedback' where employees can give and receive feedback at the end of a project so that individual contributions can be recognised before moving on to the next project.

One of their key initiatives is “Hope for Others” which encourages colleagues to undertake two days paid volunteering for projects outside of work. Colleagues select their own charities and are welcome to generate support or invite their colleagues to attend. Their Executive team have been very active in this too, organising their own projects such as clearing environmental areas, cycling for charity & undertaking work at children hospice as examples. Fund raising is prominent feature across the business with frequent dress downs, charity bake off's, coffee mornings, sporting challenges etc. and colleagues are welcome to use the company's IT and social networking sites to generate support.

At HCSS Education each leader operates an open door policy and encourages employees to have their say through positive feedback in team meetings and performance reviews. All employees are encouraged to attend an Invention and Innovation group if they have an idea or suggestion – this enhances a culture of continual improvement and innovation. Each department head prepares a monthly report detailing any improvements suggested and implemented in their department – no matter how small. This report is submitted to the CEO and feedback is provided to reinforce this behaviour. Employees are always encouraged to ‘have a go' and are supported to take risks in their drive for excellence, there is a no blame culture - the focus is always on what lessons have been learned, what needs to change to make it better next time and what needs to continue. Information is shared openly with all employees on the company's targets and progress. The company hold quarterly team briefings for all employees detailing their progress against the strategic objectives of the business together with a detailed review of their performance against KPIs as detailed in their dynamic scorecard. Regular one to ones are held with all employees and the company values form a key part of these discussions. A quarterly award is presented based on nominations from staff for demonstration of the company values.

At HCSS Education each leader operates an open door policy and encourages employees to have their say through positive feedback in team meetings and performance reviews. All employees are encouraged to attend an Invention and Innovation group if they have an idea or suggestion – this enhances a culture of continual improvement and innovation. Each department head prepares a monthly report detailing any improvements suggested and implemented in their department – no matter how small. This report is submitted to the CEO and feedback is provided to reinforce this behaviour. Employees are always encouraged to ‘have a go' and are supported to take risks in their drive for excellence, there is a no blame culture - the focus is always on what lessons have been learned, what needs to change to make it better next time and what needs to continue. Information is shared openly with all employees on the company's targets and progress. The company hold quarterly team briefings for all employees detailing their progress against the strategic objectives of the business together with a detailed review of their performance against KPIs as detailed in their dynamic scorecard. Regular one to ones are held with all employees and the company values form a key part of these discussions. A quarterly award is presented based on nominations from staff for demonstration of the company values.

To help in the company's recruitment efforts and as an added incentive for their employee referral programme, they offered an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Ibiza for an employee and 1 guest for a successful recommendation. Each month senior management recommend their team's 'innovator of the month' to recognise their efforts to go above and beyond. In the summer the company put all the winners names year to date into a hat and drew 4 names who were sent to the Home House Summer Festival for an all-expenses paid trip. The company also offer spot bonuses to mid-level/ junior team members who they feel have made a significant contribution to the business outside of their key responsibilities e.g. as a reward for new business leads or work on projects which are so outstanding they end up being nominated for an industry award. An added perk of working on an award-winning piece of work is attendance to a glamorous awards dinner.

To help in the company's recruitment efforts and as an added incentive for their employee referral programme, they offered an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Ibiza for an employee and 1 guest for a successful recommendation. Each month senior management recommend their team's 'innovator of the month' to recognise their efforts to go above and beyond. In the summer the company put all the winners names year to date into a hat and drew 4 names who were sent to the Home House Summer Festival for an all-expenses paid trip. The company also offer spot bonuses to mid-level/ junior team members who they feel have made a significant contribution to the business outside of their key responsibilities e.g. as a reward for new business leads or work on projects which are so outstanding they end up being nominated for an industry award. An added perk of working on an award-winning piece of work is attendance to a glamorous awards dinner.

Bilfinger GVA provide support to employee's development in many different ways; in the last 12 months they have fundamentally overhauled their training principles, they have driven the training to relate to their values and beliefs and in parallel carried out a gap analysis of training requirements. There are three examples worthy of note that they have created recently and rolled out across the business: Firstly, the introduction of career pathways into the business, allowing clarity of expectations and how individuals can progress within the organisation; secondly, the release of a CMI (Chartered Management Institute) Level 5 accredited leadership programme for middle management, and lastly; a new graduate training programme for their graduate planners; as part of this programme they engaged with both past and present graduates and partnered with the RTPI to establish a training programme to be used as a standard across the industry, this training programme was recently recognised at the annual RTPI awards by being nominated and winning the governing body's Excellence Award.

Grass Roots' has a learning platform which holds sections dedicated to programs which support their manager's development. There is a curriculum of workshops; insights; webinars and various materials, as well as a toolkit of activities the managers can use to engage, develop and inspire their teams. A separate pathway supports those people who aspire to be a manager at Grass Roots'- providing them with the skills and knowledge before they are promoted into a management role.

At Global Payments there are numerous courses available to all employees, a number of which are geared towards line managers and their development, they range from 'Having Difficult Conversations' to 'Introducing Coaching'. One recent programme aimed specifically at the management team is 'The 4 L's'. This programme was designed to introduce, reinforce and embed the Living Our Culture programme that is in place at Global Payments.

At Gerald Eve LLP they have a 'staff profit share' in place which rewards employees for their contribution over each financial year, the reward is driven by firm, team and individual performance to engage employees at all levels in contributing to the wider firm. This bonus rewards the employees' efforts across a range of skills and behaviours, not purely their financial contribution.

On Friday night at The Summit (G Adventures' London office) they host regular live news shows, with all news from G Adventures, both people in the London office and G Nation around the world. It is hosted by The Monarchy, four team members who are the ambassadors of culture at The Summit. It includes news updates, sporting events for the office, upcoming global events, birthdays and shout-outs for the team. The CoC is the Circle of Chat which happens afterwards, where drinks and chit chat are shared.

Freedom Finance has a charity committee. The committee holds various activities and competitions where all proceedings go to their chosen charity, St Anne's Hospice. At the end of each month they hold a dress down day where employees have to pay £1 to participate, the event has proven to be extremely popular with employees. Employees have participated in the Manchester Midnight Walk for St Anne's Hospice and also helped and attended a Quiz Nights and Bake Sales. Other events that staff have organised for another charity called Brainwave are a sponsored 5k run, fancy dress days, and formal dress Wednesdays. Freedom Finance holds an annual event called Freedom Festival, which is run across the entire workforce for their chosen charity. The activities that were in this year's festival included mangers participating in several events across the week such as limbo, races and treasure hunting events.

All Fourfront employees are enrolled in to the Fourfront Academy and are given a career development training programme, tailored for their specific needs and job role. The company invest three times the national average on training which helps the Group retain and attract some of the best talent. The Fourfront Academy is important not only to individual development, happiness and success, but is vital in ensuring Fourfront Group remains a leading organisation in the industry and, more importantly, delivers excellence to their clients. Fourfront Group also recognises that specific groups can have specific developmental needs, so has launched a number of initiatives. NextGen creates a platform for innovation and networking and gives an opportunity for young talent to feed their expertise back into the business. Women in Fourfront supports women in their career development through a workshop-style learning environment with quarterly meetings and coaching sessions. The company has trained internal mentors support individuals throughout the business in their career development by passing on knowledge and experience. This programme enables the company to bring fresh new talent into the business and give students studying towards relevant degrees and opportunity to learn and develop. Outstanding interns are sponsored during their final year at University with a view to bringing them back as full time employees. Fourfront invests in the learning activities through which professionals develop their abilities and ensure they remain effective and increasingly capable. This is achieved through a programme of accredited seminars, supplier visits and payment for employees' annual professional body memberships.

Their Communities Team run c120 community events a year, including sports, arts, fun, recreation, guided walks and coach trips to interesting destinations. They also run a structured volunteering programme called Step Up which engages with c50 volunteers a year aged 12 to adult; these volunteers work at Fortis's events, help at community gardens and organise events in their own neighbourhoods. The team also supports a network of community gardens. In the first instance staff organise the meetings and oversee operations, but with time the gardeners are enabled to form constituted groups with bank accounts and supported by the Fortis Fund Raiser and Bid Writer to seek independent funding for their garden. One of their gardeners won a Community Cohesion Award last year as a result of her work in their Droitwich garden. In 2015 they delivered their second annual Communities Week during which colleagues tidied 28 gardens for elderly and unwell tenants, collected over half a tonne of food for local food banks, ran a sports camp for disadvantaged children, painted and repaired fencing in five neighbourhoods and ran a Pop-Up 50p Shop in a deprived neighbourhood and raised £780 for a local charity nominated by colleagues. The shop alone represented 160 colleague working hours. The Fortis Social Club Committee organises monthly charitable events like dress down days, a bake sale or themed day. The organisation corporately supports the CAB, the local children's football league and lends out its Fund Raiser and Bid Writer to local charities and community groups.

As part of their work for the Footprints Foundation they have sent 2 teams of their employees to go out to South Africa and help build an Orphanage for a period of 2 weeks. The company also did the same last year and it has been a great success.

Every member of the management team has access to the company's leadership pathway to further develop their leadership skills. They hold two Assistant Team Leader and Team Leader conferences every year to support development and offer them a forum to share experiences and ideas. This year, they have also introduced a new training session called ‘New Learning Methods'. During this one-day course, Team Leaders will learn how to better engage their teams and promote understanding by using a number of different learning styles. Management Team are also sent on external courses for job specific training. They also have an entire department dedicated to supporting the management team so they may reach their full potential. Leadership Academy hosts training sessions and one-to-one mentoring with the management team to help them develop their skills and also to support them as they create a succession pool within their team. Finally, financial assistance is offered for external professional training courses and development.

Each year, as a reward for outstanding performance, 10% of staff are chosen to attend the annual “Boat” event. The event takes place the first week of September and sees the top performing staff across categories such as most permanent vacancies taken, most new accounts bought on, best internal feedback, and best customer journey. The luxury boat is privately charted by the company from Hamble Harbour in Southampton. Employees get to spend 2 days sailing around the Solent, before docking on the Isle of Wight taking lunch in Colwell Bay with an overnight stay and dinner in Cowes. Winners of this unique reward are announced at the Annual Company Awards evening in June each year. Feedback from those that attended this year's event included comments such as “What a fantastic way to reward staff for all their hard work and “A relaxing day at sea, time to spend with colleagues and lovely food and drink – a perfect couple of days”

The company has 3 values: Expert, Dynamic, Scrupulous Expert: continuous learning via two Directors being members of two bimonthly peer support groups (Cranfield BGP Alumni group and the Property Academy Leadership Group); speaking at local events; taking part in Sunday Times National Awards as judges to keep in touch with best practice; contribution to industry trends as spokespeople to trade press and national media; proximity to planning legislation via the MD being a Steering Group member of his Neighbourhood Plan. Dynamic: constantly pushing new ideas into the organisation. Other new innovation includes their own bespoke Property Inspection iPad app to streamline arguably the most valued part of their Property Management. Sourcing of new developments and opportunities such as the 24 apartments they bought and furnished for clients in Reading. Scrupulous: honesty and integrity when dealing with clients; fair judgements during the settling of any minor or major customer complaints; walking the walk each day in their demeanour and treatment of colleagues.

The senior management team are committed to developing talent and encouraging their colleagues to be the best they can be. They demonstrate their commitment to the ‘EnviroVent Way' by leading teams by example, and following up on promises made. The company take a contextual approach to business, by making pragmatic decisions based on facts. This creates an environment of trust and mutual respect which encourages an open flow of communication across the business. The senior management team are accessible, there is an open door policy that has encouraged people to stop by for a quick chat to feeling that they are able to raise new ideas or difficult topics. The company believe that this approach to work has created closer working relationships and an overall feeling that they are all ‘in it together'. The senior team cascade and promote new initiatives through 1-1's, huddles, company and regional updates and writing articles for the monthly newsletter with aim of ‘keeping it simple' and providing ‘opportunities for all' to get involved. The company provide merit based awards and recognition for those colleagues who demonstrate and alignment with The EnviroVent Way.

They offer employees to attend free massage therapy sessions and Reflexology. These are held on a monthly basis and employees are able to attend these at the cost to the company.

N&C believe in the 4 C's – be caring, be compassionate, be competent and be committed. This is portrayed daily by the leadership team through truly believing in the 4 C's and being examples to all staff in the organisation. Every member of staff is seen as an individual and is supported in every way possible to bring out the best in themselves.

Draycott Nursing & Care seek to enhance the wellbeing of their staff by providing continuous training and they also provide a 24 hour emergency helpline for their employees.

The last Friday of every month at DMC Canotec is dress down and this promotes a relaxed working environment. They have a no tie policy which the men the organisation love! The company have a local gym that offers their staff members a corporate discount if they wish to join. DMC Canotec offers their staff corporate prices on AA car membership and also offer staff Costco membership through the company. DMC Canotec has an open door policy and anyone can speak to any senior manager or Managing Director at any time. The Director's Forum helps staff with any issues they may have and DMC Canotec feel this works very well for the company. DMC Canotec's MD walks around their office daily making sure everyone is ok and will even offer to make staff a cuppa!

The company have an incentivised lunch club where £13K worth of placements in the month sees their employees wined and dined at a top London restaurant with at least 2 directors each month, as well as helping them qualify for the company quarterly. A favourite of theirs is just being able to have fun and take the team out to the pub for an afternoon, a shopping trip, or an impromptu lunch as a reward for all the hard work. It's much easier to do this when all are doing well, and the team understands that if the company does well they will do well too. They love a reason to celebrate and have worked hard to fuel their company's culture of competition, achievement and excellence, whilst retaining its community feel and an environment where everyone feels included. Each week, the teams vote for the DG Hero - the person they feel has lived and breathed their values above & beyond - and they take a cheeky snap shot of them for the wall! Coupled with the annual Golf, Fifa, Darts, Sports day and Ping Pong tournament, there are always new champions to be found!

Digital Gurus provide industry leading external training for all team managers and directors through Elite Leaders. This great programme is a peer-led mentoring group that not only challenges their managers in their way of thinking, but also provides them the opportunity to step away from their desk and focus on what is most important. They get to listen to and interact with some great industry leaders on a bi-monthly basis. With ongoing pastoral care, they have seen individuals evolve their leadership skills. In January 2015, the company were lucky enough to secure Marcus Childs, who is - in their opinion - one of the best motivational speakers on the UK circuit. He hosted a ‘mindfulness' session with their consultants, clients, and candidates, helping them to face challenges with positivity and to remember that they have the choice in how they let things affect them.

It's well known throughout the company that if a person has recently contributed to the business or is excelling in their role, Helen and Damian reward their employees for all their recent efforts by inviting them along as guests to support and represent Danbro at awards and community events outside of work. This is the kind of reward which Danbro regularly reward their employees with, as it is a widely received initiative over monetary rewards across the business; it makes their employees feel appreciated and that their efforts are not overlooked. Some of their employees were invited to the Red Rose Awards in early 2015 after contributing to the Employer of the Year application form. To present their case and engage with all of their employees they sent a companywide email asking ‘why you think they should win.' Those who contributed were invited as guests with Helen and Damian to the award ceremony. The table were also lucky enough to collect the award and give a small speech on behalf of Helen, Damian and Danbro. Other events include the BIBA's awards (an evening awards ceremony held at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom), St Georges Day event on Lytham Green (where all those who gave up their Christmas holidays to help with the big office move were invited to an afternoon of food, drinks and dancing) and Lytham Festival Tickets, including VIP/meet and greet with headlining acts. Other non-monetary rewards include office treats and breakfast/meal vouchers in their onsite canteen/coffee shop.

Every team at Dale & Valley Homes receives a large basket of free fruit at the start of every month to encourage staff to have a healthier diet. This also increases the likelihood of staff achieving their '5 a day' and makes eating fruit a normal part of their working day. Their 'Workout Wednesdays' take place on the first Wednesday of every month to encourage employees to carry out some form of physical exercise. Employees receive a half hour credit to their flexi account when they have undertaken an exercise activity (usual walking, running or a visit to the gym) in their lunch hour. Employees can boost their annual leave entitlement by buying an additional five days leave. Alternatively, they can sell up to 5 days leave. Annual flu vaccinations and mini health checks are available to all staff to improve their health and reduce absenteeism. The mini health checks gives employees a picture of their current health and suggests changes to their lifestyle, if needed.

A new e-learning system has been made available for employees and volunteers, which is accessible from both work and home computers, reducing potential constraints around accessibility and enabling learners to engage in learning activities at a time that suits them. The system also enables the Trust to address concerns about cross infection, which prevent people with CF meeting each other, and ensure we adopt an inclusive approach to learning. The Trust recently developed an NVQ level 3 award in Volunteer Management for our employees to better understand best practice standards of volunteer management. The programme has been so successful that it is now offered to other organisations and the take-up is encouraging.

'Introduction to Management' programme provides support to new managers on becoming more comfortable in their role as managers. Recently, the Trust invested in a year long development programme for its senior managers, to facilitate better collaborative working. Peer coaching, action learning and 360 degree feedback were integral parts of the programme, which is based on NLP (Neuro- Linguistic) techniques.

One initiative the company have found to be particularly effective in enhancing the wellbeing of their people has been our Up For Fit team. They provide fresh fruit, organise sporting activities and social events. A combination of both sporting and social elements is the annual beach games which they have taken part in for the last three years. It provides people with an opportunity to exercise, socialise and develop relationships with their colleagues in a fun yet competitive atmosphere.

Annually, each year Line Manager at Compassion UK can submit nominations for team members who have contributed in an outstanding way. The formal rewards are given on an employee receiving outstanding on their appraisal. The financial gift for last year was a £250 cash bonus. The company also allow informal rewards up to the amount of £25, which is in the form of a voucher.

Each of the Columbus Senior Management team has worked at Columbus for more than 10 years. The Managing Director, 17 years, the Service Director 15 years and the Consultancy and Sales Director have both been employed by Columbus for over 10 years. They are all passionate about Columbus as a company, the employees and the customers. Throughout that time as the company has grown there has been a common goal around driving continuous improvement into all aspects of the company. The latest goal sums this up, “Employees and Customers for Life”. The management team continuously seek feedback from employees and customers, through surveys, roundtables, face to face meetings, suggestion boxes and brainstorming, and they act on the results. All of the team are extremely approachable and their door is always open. A key initiative for the team at present is a mentoring programme for other managers so that they can gain greater insight in to business and to help them with their career aspirations.

The company have spot bonuses for a job well done. . Deal Flow, cross selling reward programme, enables employees to benefit personally from any work they refer outside their own team. Personal bonus incentive plans.

Staff have been involved in: Belfast Marathon - 23 staff members took part to raise money for charities including The Welcome Organisation and one of residential homes (De La Cour House) Residents Funds - £1,632 was raised for the Welcome Organisation & £264 was raised for the Residents Fund. Over 60 staff have taken part in the Treasure House Project, a project with the Northern Ireland Museums. This project is about reducing social isolation amongst older people & promoting social inclusion, learning & development of new skills & improving social networks. The Women's Tech Project - In partnership with Women's Tech, the Association delivered a programme called “Tea and Drills” which is a taster programme for those interested in developing skills for employment within the construction industry. This has now developed into an £850,000 funded Programme called SPEC (Supporting People: Empowering Communities), funded by the European Social Fund and Department for Employment & Learning.

The company's learning motto is Be the Best I can. The Cheval Promise is: 30 minutes of learning - every colleague - every week.

As part of their on-going commitment to developing their staff, and ensuring they have the right people to take the business forward, Cestria have created the Stepping into Management Programme for staff who have high performance in their current role along with the ambition and commitment to work towards their first managerial role. The objectives are: To improve internal succession by developing a pool of high potential individuals, to provide a structured, challenging and rewarding development opportunity that will help to develop some of the core skills, knowledge and experience required to be an effective manager. To further enrich the current performance of high performing members of staff a number of their staff are involved in the HDN Mentoring Programme. The Mentoring Programme offers the opportunity for staff members to access an external Mentor for one-to-one professional development support and to attend Mentoring Workshops focused on a variety of career development topics. . As well as the HDN mentoring programme they have also launched an Internal Mentoring Program for staff who would like to mentor or be mentored by existing Cestria staff members. All staff have been given the opportunity to work alongside and gain experience of the role of another individual, and gain an insight into a particular work area through job shadowing. Cestria are keen to support staff to develop skills and/or gain qualifications which contribute to the achievement of agreed personal and career goals. Recently, with the help of funding, 10 people gained a nationally recognised qualification.

The PayBack Foundation Ceridian UK established their own registered charity, The PayBack Foundation, in 1997. Colleagues are passionate about the Charity, as they know that 100% of all donations go directly to PayBack grant recipients. They feel a connection with the charity as the company share the details of where all of the donations go to. The company help local disabled and disadvantaged children! Colleagues are always thinking of bigger, better and more unusual ways of raising funds. In 2015 the company participated in 3 Tough Mudder events, 2 10k runs, a half marathon, Adare to Survive, a 12 hour Boogie4PayBack as well as the more usual cake bakes, small change donations and more. MacMillan Coffee Morning as well as supporting PayBack, Ceridian also supports a number of nationally recognised charitable events. Each year the offices bake cakes for MacMillan coffee morning, with all donations going to this worthy cause.

CDI AndersElite is fully committed to the provision of quality training and development to enable all staff to meet the business goals and objectives. The job mapping templates is a great example of how the organisation supports employee development; they currently have this in place for recruiting / sales function and are in the process of developing for other areas of this business. This enables staff to easily identify where they fall within the job mapping with regards to experience, performance, qualifications and training and where their development areas are which may be requirements for promotion. These ‘gaps' then becomes the basis of their development plan. A huge part of the employee development is through the undertaking and achievement of professional qualifications. The company believe they offer a "Best in Class" training offering as all of their training is delivered by industry leading organisation who are deemed to be the market leaders in their respective field. Year to date over 70 members of staff have undertaken a professional qualification and it is anticipated this figure to grow over the next 12 months. Finally, the company have recently introduced an apprenticeship scheme and have targeted every office with taking on two apprentices. Apprenticeships are a tried and tested way to recruit new staff and provide the company with a future workforce. It encourages a culture of learning and provides a strong foundation to the staff base whilst demonstrating our commitment to employee development at all levels.

Details on intranet of various events - bacon butties last week, Movember etc. All details of various events are on the staff intranet, recently the company took part in Movember, had charity donations for bacon baps to raise money for a local lady for cancer treatment in America,they also took part in the NSPCC HACK in the Mourne mountains and sponsored a local primary schools 10k fun run to name a few.

Details on intranet of various events - bacon butties last week, Movember etc. All details of various events are on the staff intranet, recently the company took part in Movember, had charity donations for bacon baps to raise money for a local lady for cancer treatment in America,they also took part in the NSPCC HACK in the Mourne mountains and sponsored a local primary schools 10k fun run to name a few.

CBS Butler sponsors, attends and helps to plan TeenTech and Festival of Science both of which are aimed at exciting/encouraging school children into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math's based careers. The company partners with SATRO who are an educational charity involved in stimulating young people's interests in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics). The UK technical sector business is facing a drastic shortage of engineers over the next few years, with experts speculating that 350,000 new engineers are required by 2018 in order to remain competitive. CBS Butler has been working closely with SATRO over the last few years in order to encourage young people of school/college age into engineering careers through a large number of STEM initiatives and events. When the council slashed funding of educational charities CBS butler stepped in to provide over £10,000 so that SATRO could still run their annual Festival of Science. This has since remained an ANNUAL investment.

As a carers' charity, the organisation have made particular efforts to ensure the wellbeing of carers that they employ. They have developed, in consultation with staff, a policy that sets out how they will support the carers that they employ – including up to 5 days paid leave in any 12 month period if needed to deal with caring responsibilities. Carers Trust are also very open to requests to work flexibly / change working hours temporarily or permanently in order to help staff to cope with their caring responsibilities. These types of approaches are particularly important as carers are often under a great deal of pressure outside of work. They also have a regular feature in their monthly staff newsletter on various aspects of health and wellbeing - for example on topics such as back pain.

As a carers' charity, the organisation have made particular efforts to ensure the wellbeing of carers that they employ. They have developed, in consultation with staff, a policy that sets out how they will support the carers that they employ – including up to 5 days paid leave in any 12 month period if needed to deal with caring responsibilities. Carers Trust are also very open to requests to work flexibly / change working hours temporarily or permanently in order to help staff to cope with their caring responsibilities. These types of approaches are particularly important as carers are often under a great deal of pressure outside of work. They also have a regular feature in their monthly staff newsletter on various aspects of health and wellbeing - for example on topics such as back pain.

Last year saw the introduction of New Ways of Working which has continued to inspire a cultural change in the way the company thinks about agency workflows at an individual and collective level. Essentially, it provides teams with a new set of techniques to approach every day issues experienced. Teams are equipped with a whiteboard, known as an ‘Information Centre', designed to drive discussion at regular huddles. The huddles have continued to be a success in driving team interaction throughout this year, opening up a forum to discuss performance, share successes and highlight any concerns. They have been an integral part of improving communication and ensuring everyone is kept informed of targets and progress against these. Alongside team huddles, everyone at Carat comes together on a weekly basis to share important updates or successes, showcase campaigns, and introduce new starters. Similarly, the leadership team hold On The Horizon on a quarterly basis to communicate how Carat have been performing and what's next for them, as a business. Employees have the opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts to gain the most from these sessions.

The company have a healthy working lives group led by staff for staff. This group runs information campaigns and events throughout the year and has, for example, led to a member of staff discovering undiagnosed diabetes.

Every quarter the company aim to hold a company-wide activity, BeSocial, which is a way for employees to interact and bond outside of the work environment. The activity is chosen by employees and the company will provide funding for this. BeSocials engage employees and create a positive team spirit throughout the company. For any new employees, the company contributes £20 towards their first lunch – by doing this they are encouraging the new employee to engage with their new team and help them to feel welcome. Every Friday afternoon, the company hosts nibbles and drinks to finish off the week. It allows employees to feel relaxed after their hard work, and also a way for the directors to personally say thank you.

In circumstances where individuals contribute something exceptional that adds value to the success of the business they will be rewarded with an 'on the spot bonus'. The bonus is paid as and when performance is recognised and staff will be told of their achievement by a Director and receive written confirmation of the bonus. It is an effective way of demonstrating to staff that they are valued and that their efforts are recognised at the highest level. It is high impact because it rewards success immediately as opposed to it being recognised through an annual bonus scheme which could be up to 12 months later when with the passage of time it runs the risk of being perceived as less of an achievement. Examples of where 'on the spot' bonuses have been paid in the last 12 months are for: extremely positive client feedback on a high profile project, successful delivery of an internal IT based project within a tight time frame, for hard work and commitment in securing a new client and project when this is not typical for the job level. This type of bonus is in addition to the formal profit share and bonus schemes operated by the company where 60% of pre tax profits are distributed annually to staff through a variety of profit share and bonus schemes.

In circumstances where individuals contribute something exceptional that adds value to the success of the business they will be rewarded with an 'on the spot bonus'. The bonus is paid as and when performance is recognised and staff will be told of their achievement by a Director and receive written confirmation of the bonus. It is an effective way of demonstrating to staff that they are valued and that their efforts are recognised at the highest level. It is high impact because it rewards success immediately as opposed to it being recognised through an annual bonus scheme which could be up to 12 months later when with the passage of time it runs the risk of being perceived as less of an achievement. Examples of where 'on the spot' bonuses have been paid in the last 12 months are for: extremely positive client feedback on a high profile project, successful delivery of an internal IT based project within a tight time frame, for hard work and commitment in securing a new client and project when this is not typical for the job level. This type of bonus is in addition to the formal profit share and bonus schemes operated by the company where 60% of pre tax profits are distributed annually to staff through a variety of profit share and bonus schemes.

They hold annual Health & Wellbeing events, where colleagues can access a variety of services and information relating to their personnel health and wellbeing. These are very popular in the company, and are well attended and supported events. Amongst the things that are accessible to staff are head & neck Massages, advice on quitting smoking, advice on weight loss, taster sessions of sports and activities, advice and samples of healthy food, sight and hearing tests, help and advice on personal safety, help and advice on motoring/driver safety, blood pressure checks, access to help and advice on men's and women's health issues and many more depending on colleague requests, and relevant topics. As a result of their various activities on Wellbeing they were awarded a special recognition from Investors in People.

Many of our staff have worked as recruiters in previous roles, they believe that as a business, they have strong enough networks to recruit to internal vacancies without using agencies. In the last year they re-invigorated their 'Refer a Friend' scheme to offer a generous referral fee for successful referrals, offering £1,000, £2,000 or £3,000 gross dependent on the starting salary of the individual referred. This is payable on successful completion of 3 months service by the new joiner. Additionally, the referrer is entitled to a meal out for 2 on the company at the time the individual joins. The rationale for this is that the cost of the referral fee is outweighed by the savings on agency costs. This has proved to be their most successful means of recruitment this year, with around 17 successful referrals ranging from apprentices to general managers. Staff are clearly motivated to refer as we have a regular supply of candidates coming through this scheme.