Although Rosie had been with London Youth since 2005, upon her appointment to the Chief Executive role in April 2012, she took six months to meet every employee, Trustee, a cross section of young people, members, funders and external stakeholders. Her purpose was to understand how each person viewed London Youth, what they do, their challenges and priorities for the future – what they thought they did well and what they should be developing further. With this feedback Rosie considered and re-articulated the Vision, Mission and Principles cascading these through the planning process in 2013. In this way all employees had a part of the new Vision, Mission and Principles and can connect with either a word, phrase or expressed intention of these. Rosie empowers others to lead, manage and deliver the organisational aims. She creates a shared responsibility for what London Youth is and does. Simple acknowledgements – either personally or through organisation-wide communications – can impact on individuals' sense of achievement, contribution and commitment.

The central ‘Learning and Development Bursary' Fund – a commitment of between £10 and £15k is made annually by the Trustees to support professional development and the acquisition of qualifications by employees. Application is open to all, and an independent panel sits to assess applications.

They are fortunate enough that they have two opportunities a year where the entire organisation comes together in London. Although they have increased their staff force by a large amount in the past year, the leaders still value the importance of spending time as a whole organisation. This year in April was the 4th anniversary and they held an event to celebrate. The event began in the afternoon with all staff being split into groups and rotating round a carousel of different sessions. Each session was led by a different group of staff. Each local leadership team led a fun and interactive session, such as a quiz or a treasure hunt, around how their office works and their local area. They also had a session with the senior leaders with the opportunity to ask them any questions staff wanted answered. Another enjoyable session was a ‘getting to know you' game to mix all staff together and find out some interesting things about people they didn't know before. This all lead up to the social in the evening where they all came back together for some food and drinks and opportunity to just relax. They had some entertainment provided by some of the local choirs who sang beautifully and even wrote their own Challenge Network version of a Les Miserable classic. They ended the evening with karaoke and dancing at a local bar which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Each new starter has a departmental induction which involves spending time in the various departments to understand how their role fits with the team. We ran a "Wanted Programme" where the successful candidate was awarded with our management trainee placement. As a management trainee, the team member spends a few months within each department in the hotel to have a comprehensive understanding of the hotel operationally. They receive one to one coaching sessions with the Hotel Manager and also participate in our Management Development programme. They receive reviews in each of their departments in order to track the progress they have made. The hotel is also partnered with Purple Cubed who administer the appraisal process and also conduct training sessions within the hotel. The Talent Toolbox appraisal system enables the organisation to identify and place greater focus on development needs.

In September 2013, TSL held a summer party at Kensington Roof Gardens to thank everyone for their incredible hard work. This party was fully paid for by TSL and included a sit down meal, a free bar as well as a live band and a video booth which gave people the opportunity have their 5 mins of fame! The feedback was brilliant and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Stride Treglown offers university placements for those conducting environment/sustainable research projects and continue to work closely with schools, offering work experience for pupils whilst telling them about architecture, design and environmental issues within the built environment. A number of their senior staff also lecture at local universities and all staff are given time off to undertake voluntary work and/or trustee duties.

For the last two years Story Homes has funded a sports programme which supports nine schools in Carlisle which is ran in partnership with Carlisle District Sport and Physical Activity Alliance Foundation (SPAAF). The programme funds physical education lessons for schools. It started in September 2012, aiming to keep the Olympic legacy alive amongst school pupils. Fred Story was inspired to contact SPAAF and get the scheme up and running after learning that funding for sport in schools was being cut, leaving children with even less opportunity to participate in the sport they had seen in the Olympic Games. Through Story Homes funding, SPAAF coaches spent half a day each week working with the children in their own schools, teaching new sports and encouraging them to get involved in physical activity. They promoted health, hygiene and fitness alongside confidence, self-esteem and motivation to achieve and succeed in sport. In 2010, in order to showcase and encourage interest in site based careers such as bricklaying, joinery, roofing, plumbing and groundworks, Story Homes recruited a team of apprentices, along with their subcontractors, who were challenged to build a 4-bed house at their Magellan Park development. This was filmed and shown on ITV4 in March 2011 as part of a three part series called "Rookie Builders." The majority of apprentices were recruited from the high unemployment area following a jobs fair in order for local people and the community to benefit .

The senior management team work incredibly hard to demonstrate that their staff are valued within the organisation. Examples of this include an open door management style; regular walkabouts to chat and communicate with staff; being visible to staff in all locations, by doing regular visits to satellite offices and field workers and organising an annual away-day event for all staff which is purely about meeting colleagues and having fun away from the office.

Shopzilla have a monthly charity budget, that determines the level of contributions to individuals/team who are raising money for their chosen charity partner. Currently their monthly guide is £500, but they are always willing to review this.