Last summer, the Payzone social committee decided to organise an Olympic themed BBQ. The BBQ was designed as a fun and completely free event for all. Emails were sent to the business prior to the BBQ to create a buzz, whilst keeping some aspects a surprise for the evening. An outside catering company was hired to provide the food and the Social Committee was in charge of everything else buying in drinks, games, prizes and decorations. The outside of the office was decorated with Olympic banners, bunting, flags and balloons and games were set up around the area. Games were set up for all to play and carried prizes and got everyone interacting with others from around the business. A highlight of the night was the managers' triathlon with 14 of the management team battling it out to be crowned champion, whilst being cheered on by their teams. The evening was a definite success with the majority of the business in attendance.

The "What If…" employee led engagement initiative at Payzone UK Ltd has included the redecoration of a meeting room, in order to create a calm work free zone as well as a creative "think tank". The room has been themed to promote positive thinking and well-being. Decorated as a greenhouse, it includes artificial grass as the carpet, a blue sky with fluffy clouds, party bunting hung around the walls and flower stencilling. Funky chairs are provided and a welcome mat on entering. When the room was unveiled, it created a buzz of fun and laughter within the business and indeed continues to do so to this day. Employees have said that spending time in the room helps them to unlock their creative potential and eases the stresses and strains of working life.

Party Delights Ltd believe that by giving the employees a clean and pleasant working environment, along with a sensible working day (37.5 hours per week), work/live balance is maintained.

One thing the senior management team have done this year is give employees a real chance to give their personal view about what sort of place they want to work in over the next five years. Employee responses are really shaping what the charity will look and feel like in the future. They are creating new Mission, Vision and Values for the charity; they wanted them to be real world, and not marketing jargon. So the people with the best views were the staff and customers. The first stage of engagement was to ask staff what they thought of their current Vision and Values. This was done by a brand consultancy. This feedback was taken to their staff conferences, where they created a memorable, interactive process asking staff to share their opinions on potential new Values. Everyone from the charity had their say about the sort of organisation they wanted to work for in the future. The session concluded with each employee voting for the ten words or phrases that best described the Trust. 500 votes later and the exercise in employee engagement resulted in new Values for Papworth Trust. The result was an honest picture of what employees thought.

The senior management team at Panasonic UK are committed to action and listening to employee's feedback. For example, the company introduced flexible benefits in the organisation and has rolled out a performance based bonus scheme for all staff below manager level.

A key element of the staff induction process is a meeting with Roy Williams, the Chief Executive of One Vision Housing. Every new starters meets with Roy and this helps to establish the culture within One Vision Housing which is open and aimed at making people feel valued from day one. Another distinctive thing about Roy is how front-facing he is. He holds regular staff briefings in which he will address all staff and update them on key information from across the business. Roy is extremely personable and approachable and there is no feeling of elitism. Roy is also careful to ensure that there is no feeling of hierarchy when it comes to him and his senior management team. He chairs the Staff Group where employees are trusted to make decisions which have an impact on the rest of the organisation. More than anything, Roy is extremely passionate about what he does. When he says that he has some of the most talented staff in the sector, staff believe it. Staff feed off his enthuiasm, trust him for his guidance and admire his candidness.

NRG is very charity focused, they have selected Maggie's Cancer Care Charity for the past four years as their charity of choice. They do not just limit their fundraising activities to Maggie's but continue throughout the year to hold dress down days supporting various charities – Children in Need, Comic Relief, Jeans for Genes etc. NRG's Chief Executive is Chair of the fundraising Board for Maggie's North East and gives her time free of charge and their staff are hugely supportive of her and have raised over £25,000 in the last four years. One of the main challenges the staff undertake is the Monster Bike and Hike which takes place annually in Fort William, Scotland. A gruelling 72 miles made up of 31 miles on a mountain bike followed by a 41 mile hike – all in 24 hours! Teams have also participated in the Three Peaks Challenge climbing the three tallest peaks in Great Britain again within 24 hours. Prior to taking part in these challenges, the teams have raised money by organising various events including: quizzes for staff and client companies raffles coffee mornings gents having various parts of their bodies waxed! NRG no longer send Christmas Cards to clients but make a donation to charity each year. Their Managing Director is also an active committee member of the Theatre Development Committee - created to develop funds for Newcastle's flagship Theatre, The Theatre Royal, to ensure community engagement activities including workshops, dance, creative groups, within the community. She is also a member of Sunderland Business Group - which is a group of private sector organisations working with the public and third sector to support children in schools through work experience.

Their senior team have revised their communications strategy over the last 12 months and this has had a significant impact on employee engagement. Firstly they have reformatted the way they run team meetings. These do not operate on status bases principles but are a a lively and interactive session between all team members. Team meetings take place each month and each senior team member gives an operational update on their area of the business. Meetings are held at each of their sites and at different times of the day to enable maximum attendance. Meetings have also been recorded and made available on television screens in our breakout rooms and on the intranet for team members who have not been able to attend sessions. The senior team also introduced daily operational updates for the business throughout their peak period. These business updates have been made available via email and on the intranet and have opened up communication channels across the business.

Nissan's management team always use feedback employees provide them with to review the organisation and identify opportunities to make Nissan GB a better place to work. Bespoke actions plans are then developed and the management team work closer with HR and functional Directors to implement these in the business.

ng homes have developed a ground-breaking plan to improve how waste is dealt with in North Glasgow. This programme won the award for the Best Partnership Initiative at the Scottish Waste & Resources Awards. The idea for the project came from ng homes who partnered with Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) who help deliver a range of measures to help people and organisations on the journey to Zero Waste. ZWS agreed to fund the initiative and are now working together with ng homes, Glasgow City Council, LRS Consultancy and the North Glasgow community on innovative ways to recycle and re-use waste materials in the north of the city. In recent months around 300 local people have attended ng homes community events promoting recycling and reuse.